Ophelia is Polonius’ daughter and Hamlet’s love interest. She embodies the archetypal Elizabethan womanly values of chastity, obedience, and silence by being submissive to her father and brother’s demands. The sweet, innocent girl gets caught up in Polonius’ deceitful plans of spying on Hamlet. She heavily relies on her father’s direction, but once he is murdered by Hamlet, she spirals into insanity. Her façade of compliance falls when she begins to expose the sexually exploitative nature of the men in her life who had controlled her actions. Her madness actually parallels that of Hamlet, both of whom are drawn into psychological turmoil by their grief. In her final moments, Ophelia sings and uses flowers as symbols to condemn Claudius and Gertrude’s actions. Mentally and emotionally drained, she ultimately drowns and dies in Act IV Scene VII. It is possible that she committed suicide because of her father’s recent murder and her rejection from Hamlet, as her naïve nature may not have allowed her to deal with solitude effectively. However, it is also possible that she was insane to the point that she did not understand the danger that she was in; reality was no longer clear for her.
