Friday, October 1, 2010

Broken Family:Ophelia's Story

The theme Ophelia most relates to is "Broken Family."
One of the reasons she is in this category is because her father (Polonius) doesn't like her dating Prince Hamlet. Polonius doesn't want Ophelia to have babies with Hamlet.
Also, Ophelia's father works for the new King, Cladius, as his council and considering that Hamlet is her boyfriend, and that Hamlet has "problems" (to say the least) with King Cladius, makes for not only a "Broken Family," but a chaotic one at that.
"No, my good lord, but as you did command
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me." (Ophelia 2.2 120-122)
From this quote you can tell that Ophelia is mad and a little sad over a certain event that occured, but what you didn't know is the event that occured was her boyfriend, Prince Hamlet, walked in on her sewing in her private room acting quite strange, he had a tight unfastened jacket, dirty stockings, and looked as if he just came from hell and back. Hamlet then grabbed Ophelia's wrist and held her hard, but not hurting her. Ophelia feels sad, mad, and confused about what just happened, not knowing that Hamlet had just talked to the ghost of his father, and that the ghost told him King Cladius had murdered his father just to take the title of King.
"For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good kissing carrion-Have you a daughter?" (Hamlet 2.2 197-199)
Although in this quote Hamlet is refering to Ophelia, Hamlet is being sarcastic when he says this. Hamlet is talking to Polonius (Ophelia's father) and Hamlet doesn't like Polonius so he tries to get under his skin even if the words he says offends and disrespects the one he loves.