 Ophelia's character within Hamlet is characterized on the one hand as very beautiful and innocent. However, she is depicted as being excessively reliant on the men around her. Indeed, it is Polonius, her father, and Laertes, her brother, who appear to really control her actions. And even if she loves Hamlet, not only does she have a very difficult to mulcherous relationship with him, especially when he starts feigning madness, but whilst she loves him, she still decides to follow her father's instructions, as well as her brother's instructions to deny herself to him. And ultimately, when her father dies, it's this lack of being able to rely on anybody that really propels her to descend into madness. However, when she does descend into madness, whilst her madness is actually real, okay? With Hamlet, it's not entirely clear whether he does descend fully into madness, whether it's completely feigned and made up. Ophelia, it's very raw. Nonetheless, when she actually descends into madness, it's her madness that gives her voice to really speak up for herself, but also to criticise what is a very male-dominated patriarchal society, which really excessively restricts women like her, and gives the power to men to exploit women like her. Indeed, her songs, especially when she sings about St. Valentine, when she sings about all of these different relationships, they feature men taking advantage of women, taking under advantage of these women, luring them with false promises, taking the virginity, and then completely walking away, okay? So it's actually in her madness that she actually is able to have a voice and she criticises society before, unfortunately, she commits suicide, okay? So Ophelia is used as a really good example of how excessively restricted Elizabethan women's lives were, especially young women, okay? So their sexuality was restricted, but even a lot of their choices, they really did not have much to think aside from what they were told to think, and this is shown especially when Ophelia Polonius tells her exactly what to think, and she even sometimes confesses that she doesn't really have an opinion. So with Ophelia's character, you do need to bear in mind a few key quotations which I've selected, as you can see behind me, as well as the word-level analysis. So let's have a look at these quotations as well as the word-level analysis you can do and what this illustrates to us about Ophelia's character. The first quote is illustrating how the men around her and in her life really control her and primarily her sexuality. And here she hints at the double standards, okay? So here, this is before her madness, so she's a little bit more coy, she's a bit more shy. However, Laertes, before he leaves for Paris, we get the sense that he's very bawdy, he's probably gonna go to Paris, sleep around or whatever he wants to do. However, before he leaves to Paris, he wags his finger and tells her, be chased, be a virgin, I want you to stay a virgin. And she is a little bit coy, she tells him, my brother, do not, as some ungracious pastors, show me the steep and thorny way to heaven whilst ellipsis, path of dalliance threads. In other words, what she's basically saying is, okay, thanks for the tips, brother. Thank you for telling me how to be a virgin and how to be sexually pure. But don't be like those religious leaders who tell the congregation and the followers how to be really pure whilst they are busy being very sinful, okay? So she's being really coy here because she knows that when Laertes goes off, he's gonna be sleeping around and doing the exact opposite of what he's telling her to do, okay? So whilst you're telling her, make sure you don't sleep around, make sure you remain chaste, he's gonna do the opposite. And so she's being coy. And here we can see that she is criticising very subtly, but she's criticising the double standards that society holds men and women too, especially at the time. Women were expected to be virgins, to be very virginal. And if they weren't virgins by the time they married, that would basically really prevent them from even getting a marriage proposal whilst men could do whatever they wanted and they would still be seen as valiant, heroic and their lives would still stay the same, okay? Now the word that you want to focus on here is firstly, the adjective on gracious, okay? So here of course she's being coy, but she's also being critical, okay? Of the double standards that women and men are held up to. Also, the sibilance of essence, show and steep. So basically she's saying, oh, Laertes, don't tell me how to be a good person and how to be this good Christian whilst you're not really, you're not practicing what you preach. Also, the metaphor thorny way to heaven, which is obviously a metaphor for her maintaining and protecting her virginity. She's basically saying, okay, don't show me how to maintain and protect my virginity whilst you're going around sleeping around. The next quotation, which illustrates how Ophelia is very controlled by the men around her. This is when she's speaking to her dad, Polonius. She states, I do not know, my lord, what I should think. So here we can see that Ophelia, this is her innocence really coming through. This is her basically illustrating that she is so excessively controlled even when it comes to her own thoughts. She doesn't even have her own thoughts, okay? So this obviously illustrates how women at the time were seen as a property of men. They were seen almost as being these empty vessels and it was up to the men to tell them what to think, what to do, okay? And this obviously clearly highlights that she's so used to be told what to do and what to think that she doesn't even have her own opinions. Now this in terms of the word of analysis, what you can talk about is firstly the repetition of the first person pronoun I and of course the verb think which obviously emphasizes that Ophelia is not used to thinking for herself. She's used to being told what to do. Moreover, when she's talking to her father, she states very obediently, I shall obey my lord, which is a declarative sentence. Remember declarative sentence is a sentence that states a fact, feeling a mood. Here she's just basically saying, okay dad, I'm gonna listen to you, okay? And of course you want to focus on the verb obey. Again, what this is illustrating is the excessive control that male characters, male family members, husbands and so on had over the minds of their daughters, the minds of their wives, okay? So Ophelia is portrayed here as being incredibly passive and she's basically just being told what to do. She doesn't really have her own opinions. Moreover, she states now, this is when we find out that Hamlet has gone crazy and she, at one point Hamlet, when he's feigning this madness, he basically tells Ophelia, I never really loved you. And here we can see that she is devastated to learn this, okay? So she's devastated and she states, I was the more deceived. And here we've got the assonance of E in the more indeceived. And we can see here that Ophelia is really, really horrified and really saddened by the idea that Hamlet was misguiding her, basically exploiting her feelings and he never really was gonna take her seriously, okay? So she really feels like she was deceived. Moreover, the other quotation, which you can bear in mind, which obviously illustrates that even if Ophelia really loved Hamlet, she decided to follow her father and her brother's commands, she tells Polonius, as he did command, I did repel his fetters and denied his access to me, okay? So here she's basically saying, okay, dad, even if I love Hamlet, I've decided I'm not gonna let him close to me because you asked me not to, okay? Now here again, we can see that fathers and obviously male family relatives really had excessive control over Ophelia, much like how contextually in society, the men in women's lives really controlled what they did. Now the word love analysis you want to focus on for here is firstly the verb command, moreover, the repetition of the pronoun his, okay? So the third person pronoun his, again, what this is illustrating is Ophelia, even if she loved Hamlet, decided to go against her own feelings in order to satisfy her father Polonius. The next quotation relating to the character of Ophelia is when she's horrified to realize that Hamlet has gone crazy or she is misguided because he's feigning madness because she states, oh, what a noble mind is hair overthrown and this is what we call an exclamatory sentence. Remember an exclamatory sentence is a sentence that shows a strong feeling and it ends with an exclamation mark. Here she's saying, oh, I can't believe Hamlet is crazy, I can't believe it, okay? And obviously this foreshadows her own eventual madness. Now the word love analysis you want to focus on here is the adjective noble. Again, here we can see that she actually really loved and valued Hamlet and was hoping at the back of her mind that he might marry her. The next quotation which illustrates the character of Ophelia is when she eventually goes crazy, okay? And it's in her craziness and in her actual madness that she's able to critique and criticize society's double standards towards women and how men are allowed to just exploit women that give them all of these promises, take the virginity and then now these women are cast aside, okay? As used women. Now this is shown in her St. Valentine's song, okay? So she states, our hero is ellipsis, let in the maid that out the maid never departed more. So here she's basically singing about a guy who let in a young virgin woman, okay? And the repetition of maid emphasizes this, okay? Maid during this time was an unmarried woman who is supposed to be a virgin. And it's basically saying a man basically let this woman in basically misguided her, exploited her, had sex with her and then she left his room and she was no longer a virgin and of course society probably cast her aside. The other quotation which illustrates how Ophelia and her madness is able to criticize how society basically controls women's sexuality but also how society has double standards towards women is when she states, quote she before you tumbled me. You promised me to wed. So here this is another song she sings of a woman who is really sad because she's been deceived by a guy who basically said, hey, if you have sex with me, I'll marry you, okay? And here the euphemism is used tumbled me which means if you sleep with me, okay? And the woman is really sad because she sleeps with this guy, believes him and then he basically refuses to marry her once he has taken her virginity. And this quotation obviously is illustrating that she's singing about a woman who can't believe she's been deceived by men who are exploiting her. Again, this man has all the power in society, she's criticizing and this one has no power and her only power which is a virginity was taken away from her. Her chastity was taken away from her. Now the word love and justice you want to focus on here is firstly the repetition of the pronoun eu which is obviously accusatory of the man that is exploiting her. And of course, maybe also this could symbolize how Ophelia maybe felt a little bit exploited and used by Hamlet. But also the verb promised, okay? And also as I mentioned, tumbled me is a euphemism. Remember euphemism is a polite way of referring to something that's socially inappropriate and of course in this case, it's to do with sex. The final quotation relating to Ophelia, actually it's not what Ophelia says, it's what Queen Gertrude reports when she's telling the Aertes and other people how Ophelia has died by killing herself and drowning. So Gertrude poetically describes her death and she states that the water, okay? So this is when she falls into the water, the water pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death, okay? So this water pulls her down to her final muddy death. And of course, this is Ophelia's suicide that's being described. Now the word love and justice you want to focus on is basically the literation of pee and pulled poor and finally the adjective muddy which obviously talks about how horrible Ophelia's suicide was. So that's really it when it comes to the key quotations that you should consider if you're writing about the character of Ophelia either for your course book or exams. Thanks so much for listening.