Presentation of Ophelia

English Lit: OCR A Level - Hamlet, topic 7.3.3

Feminist Readings of the Presentation of Ophelia

Ophelia’s role in the play has been the focus of much scrutiny.

In The Woman in Hamlet (1978), David Leverenz described Ophelia’s dramatic function as that “everyone has used her: Polonius, to gain favour; Laertes, to belittle Hamlet; Claudius, to spy on Hamlet; Hamlet, to express rage at Gertrude and Hamlet again, to express his feigned madness with her as decoy”.
Ophelia’s descent into madness is made inevitable by the extent to which she is exploited.

Carol Rutter, Professor of Shakespeare and Performance Studies at the University of Warwick, told BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time (2018) that “Ophelia… is bullied [and] betrayed by every person in this play”.
Rutter also notes how Ophelia’s journey mirrors that of Hamlet: Ophelia “performs… the psychic journey of Prince Hamlet and the big themes of the play. Hamlet is thinking about madness; Ophelia plays it for real…. Hamlet toys with the idea of suicide; …Ophelia commits suicide”.

Carol Camden (1964) also points out how “Hamlet’s pretended madness is contrasted with the reality of Ophelia’s madness”.
Camden points out that despite the reality of Ophelia’s madness, she is a marginal figure, whereas Hamlet’s feigned madness dominates the play.
Camden puts this down to gender roles - the assumption that masculinity is dominant and femininity is subordinate.

Katherine Goodland (2005) explores how Hamlet imposes stereotypical gender roles on Ophelia in the nunnery scene, illustrating how he portrays her as “a saint at the beginning of the scene to a painted whore by the end”.

Some feminist critics see Ophelia’s descent into madness as a form of empowerment, with Ophelia at last finding her own authentic voice.
Maurice Charney and Hanna Charney (1977) argue that “her madness… enables her to assert her being; she is no longer enforced to keep silent and play the dutiful daughter”.