Feminist Reading of Ophelia in Hamlet

The character of Ophelia in Hamlet is very complex as she is one of the only two female characters in the play. Ophelia's role in Hamlet is to be Hamlet's love interest so her role is completely dependent upon him. As long as Hamlet still expresses interest in Ophelia then she is still in the play. However, once Hamlet expresses disinterest than Ophelia is immediately killed off as her role in the play is no longer necessary. This emphasizes Ophelia's oppression within Hamlet as she is defined by her male counterparts. At the beginning of the play, Ophelia does not do anything without the direction of Polonius or Laertes. Suspicious of Hamlet's strange behavior, Polonius concludes that Hamlet must be madly in love with Ophelia and he uses her as bait to get Hamlet to spill his secrets. At the same time, Laertes is telling Ophelia that she must stay away from Hamlet because she is not good enough for the prince and that she must protect her chastity. Ophelia is receiving two very different signals as she is used by both Polonius, who only needs her to reach his true desires which is the prince, and Laertes, who wants her to remain chaste as that is the way women of her status should be. Ophelia is used as a means to an end by both her father and brother. She has no way out of her situation because she is a lady of the court and cannot rise or fall in status without a male's assistance. Ophelia becomes useless to Polonius once Hamlet rejects his love for her and she is accused of going mad. Whether Ophelia actually is mad or not remains unknown, however, she does drown herself in the brook. She may have fled the oppression she always felt, knowing she would never rise in the court, or she may have went mad because she lost direction from her father and brother once they deemed her useless and she killed herself not knowing what else to do. Ophelia is a character that can either be viewed as having a tragic end, as she kills herself, or a liberating end of being freed from oppression.