Characterization of Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet

In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the character of Ophelia is perhaps the most tragic, as her wishes and desires are constantly sublimated in favor of the scheming characters around her. Essentially she is used as bait for Hamlet, and when her father dies, she is left to her own madness and death (a death whose circumstances leave open the possibilities of accident or suicide). By examining the characterization of Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet, it will be possible to see how the play uses her conversations to heighten the tragedy of her death and subsequently implicate the other characters, and especially Polonius and Gertrude, more fully in her breakdown and death, thus revealing the destructive nature of gender stereotypes and the social roles they reinforce.

Before examining the character of Ophelia in more detail, it will be useful to briefly examine previous critical work on...
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