The Relationship Between Hamlet And Ophelia

In the Hamlet play, Shakespeare starts with the story of Hamlet whose is mourning his father. As usual, when individuals lose their beloved ones, they have to grieve. It is painful to lose a parent that one has for many years loved. In essence, the point being driven here is that it was a bitter experience to Prince Hamlet to lose his male parent. To make it worse, when Prince got home where his parent had died, he learns that his widowed mother had remarried just after a short period of his dad’s death (Mullaney and Steven 139). His mother’s decision to settle down with another man, instead of being supportive of the family and perhaps take care of the home left behind by her husband, seems to have angered Hamlet most. After learning that his daddy was murdered, Prince became mad and vengeful and in the process of revenging against those who killed his dad he ended killing more people. With his spirit of lunacy, Prince murdered Claudius who had remarried his mother and took off to Denmark. Unfortunately, Ophelia also lost her dad and became mad and confused like Hamlet. Consequently, she also committed suicide.

First and foremost, what must be going between Hamlet and Ophelia is love. Hamlet and Ophelia are feel affection for each other. As indicated in the play, Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and Hamlet adores Ophelia. Based on the admiration Hamlet has for Ophelia, what is clear is that the relationship between the two is romantic. It is well expressed in the play that Hamlet likes Ophelia. Naturally, if someone loves the other person intimately the relationship is romantic. Unfortunately, Hamlet was out of his mind, because of his father’s death. It is justifiable in this play for an individual to be mad, especially if the demise of their beloved one was not natural.

The spirit in this play claims that prince’s father was killed. Hence this was a murder. The people who murdered, Prince Hamlet’s father are within his circle. As a result, he did not care about Ophelia, even though he openly cherished her. Also, it is believed by Claudius that the craziness of Hamlet to some point was complicated and unbelievable. However, Hamlet wanted to prove to everyone that indeed he was mad (Mullaney and Steven 139). In such a situation, he never wanted anyone to see him as mentally stable. The consequence of his behavior precipitated to some cruelty. Ophelia, despite being the one cherished by Hamlet, she was mistreated by the same man she believed her. From the play, it is common knowledge that Ophelia feels let down and disillusioned and this made her also depressed. Hence, depression that Ophelia faced in her life depicted was because of her relationship with Hamlet going sour. Ideally, no woman can be at peace when her relationship is taking the wrong direction. Therefore, Ophelia was just natural and her depression was something ordinary especially for someone in a romantic relationship that has become frosty. 

In the above, what is apparent is that Hamlet and Ophelia were in love. However, their relationship became terrible, when Hamlet’s behaviors went out of control. For that reason, the relationship between the duo was rocky and entirely out of balance. But that is not to say that Hamlet’s love for Ophelia had weakened or disappeared. The romance between the two could have been intense, but because of the situation of Hamlet, it was impossible for it to be strong.

The relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet can be defined to have ended due to the passing away of their parents. If Hamlet’s dad died a natural death, it is evident that Hamlet would have moved on, but because it was murder he had to get to the bottom of it to unravel the killers and destroy them. Unfortunately, he killed his girlfriend’s father as he tried to spy on him over his madness (Cantor and Paul 8). Hence, this made Ophelia a victim of circumstance, who ended up killing herself. Ideally, the point is that the one tragedy bore another tragedy. Had Ophelia not killed herself, she may have reunited with Hamlet who was equally stressed after learning that his girlfriend had committed suicide.

Nevertheless, the death of Ophelia’s father could have redefined their relationship. It is frank in the play that Polonius was killed, not just by a stranger but by Hamlet. It was Hamlet who killed his girlfriend’s father. The killing of Ophelia’s father resulted in a double tragedy to Ophelia. Hamlet stabbed, his father-in-law to death, and this forced Claudia, his mother to exile him to England (Mullaney and Steven 139). He left for England and leaving behind his girlfriend, Ophelia mourning his dad. In essence, the loss of Polonius redefined this relationship in the sense that, the person who caused his demise was in love with Ophelia. Ophelia similarly is further depressed by the killing of his father, not by any other character by the man; she was in love with. As a consequence, Ophelia was as stressed and disturbed mentally as her boyfriend, Hamlet (Cantor and Paul, p.6). There was no way that Ophelia would have just observed her relationship as peaceful because her dad was dead and to add injury to the wound, her boyfriend had left her. Ophelia was not in the right state of mind, and if she must have got her love back, perhaps he would have consoled her. This would have preempted the suicide and Hamlet would have ended up rebuilding his relationship with this lady. However, this is an assumption, but still, the relationship would have ended, assuming that Ophelia was alive but learnt that her boyfriend killed her father.

What may not have happened between the Ophelia and Hamlet could be a reunion. At some point, it would be difficult to believe that Hamlet would have quickly reunited with Hamlet had she not died. Considering that Hamlet mistreated Ophelia, it would have been difficult for her to think marrying or settling down with the same villain who orphaned her by killing her father (Mullaney and Steven 139). Probabilistically, it was hard for the duo to reunite and possibly Hamlet would have killed his girlfriend too because he was openly retaliatory. Any person that around him, Hamlet thought was dangerous and perhaps could be orchestrating to do something terrible to him. In fact, what aggravated the situation was the murder of his girlfriend. It is not easy for an individual to sit down with the very person they think does not mean the right to them. Ophelia, assuming she was alive she would have equally revenged on the death of his father and may she would have ended up killing her boyfriend.

            Nevertheless, the point on Ophelia revenging against Hamlet is just probabilistic. But on the assumption of Hamlet avenging against his perceived enemies, it could be true that his girlfriend would have equally retaliated against the death of her father. Nonetheless, it is not clear if Hamlet was responsible for the pregnancy of Ophelia. At some point, Hamlet likened Ophelia who was expectant to his mother’s treacherous behaviour. In such, kind of a situation, it is likely to be true that the two would not have reunited, even if Hamlet found her alive.

             In conclusion, drawing from the above, explanations, the death of Ophelia can be considered as suicide. However, this is based on the standpoint from which one looks into her demise. This is suicide because it is Ophelia herself was wholly depressed and also the love songs she was singing were indeed sad. These were sad love songs, and in that situations, she must have wondered why life or the heavens were angry at her that much. Her boyfriend, Hamlet, was utterly cruel and mad, and on the other hand, she died who she loved had been killed. Due to that, she must have seen her life as worthless, and the only best thing to do was to risk her life. If for instance, she was happy and free of stress, she would have been keen enough not to drown. But in this play, it is apparent that she took herself to a water body, where she could drown. Had she not intended to commit suicide she would have gone to a safe place to sing her sad love songs. In a nutshell, Ophelia must have committed suicide, because of the double tragedy that befell her.

Works Cited

Cantor, Paul A. Shakespeare, Hamlet. Cambridge, United Kingdom. 2004. Print

Mullaney, Steven. "Mourning and Misogyny: Hamlet, the revenger's tragedy, and the final progress of Elizabeth I, 1600-1607."Shakespeare Quarterly 45.2 (1994): 139-162.