Ophelia as Victim or Tragic

Ophelia as Victim or Tragic Heroine While the character of Ophelia in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet has often been regarded as a classic victim, she has less frequently been accorded the status of a tragic heroine, at least along the lines of Aristotle's famous consideration of the concept. This is most likely due to the fact that Ophelia lacks a relatively easily recognized tragic flaw and that she is not accorded the same instance of realization or emotional growth commonly seen with tragic heroes and heroines.

However, upon further investigation, it becomes clear that Ophelia may in fact be considered a tragic heroine according to Aristotle's definition. Put simply, her tragic flaw is an unwarranted devotion to family and paternal respect, and her likely suicide may be seen as the only reasonable course of action for her following her realization regarding this flaw in her character. In order to see why this is the case, one must examine two important scenes in the play which reveal Ophelia's tragic flaw and subsequent realization of this flaw.

Before examining the Ophelia's tragic flaw and moment of clarity in more detail, it will be useful to briefly note the ways in which Ophelia fulfills the other requirements of Aristotle's tragic hero or heroine. Firstly, Ophelia may be considered noble, both literally and in terms of her character.

Literally, as evidenced by her position as Polonius' daughter and Hamlet's ostensible love interest (the fact that her noble status is largely accomplished due to her relationship with men reveals something of her tragic flaw, a detail that will be discussed later), and in terms of her character as evidenced by the way in which nearly all the other characters treat her (except, notably, Hamlet).

As the rest of the requirements for tragic heroism revolve almost entirely around the tragic flaw, it is now possible to move on to a consideration of Ophelia's biggest flaw and the way in which it is revealed through her interactions with others. As mentioned before, Ophelia's flaw is that she gives familial devotion, and devotion to her father in particular, far more of her time and energy than is warranted by anything seen in the play.

Although many may be tempted to suggest that this is simply a result of the time periods in which the play was written and it purports to represent, the same argument may just as easily be applied to any of the male heroes commonly classified as tragic due to their hubris (of course kings and lords would be prideful, arrogant, and vicious), and at any rate, subservience to power is almost always tragic, especially when, as will be seen with Ophelia, there are hints of resistance.

This flaw is seen most obviously during Ophelia's first appearance in the play, when she gently rebuffs her brother's inquiries into her sex life but sits placidly while her father diminishes her intelligence and laughs at the idea that she might be able to manage her own relationships. When Ophelia tells Polonius that Hamlet has "of late made many tenders / Of his affection" to her, Polonius responds with "Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl" (1.3.99-101).

Of course, Ophelia is clearly not the ignorant, budding girl that Polonius suggests, as evidenced by her mocking rebuttal to Laertes' earlier on, when she tells him to "Do not, as some ungracious pastors do, / Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, / Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine, / Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads, / And recks not his own rede" (1.3.47-51).

While Ophelia clearly is intelligent enough to take care of herself as well as offer her own rebuttals against the male characters' altogether creepy insistence on controlling her sexual life, she suppresses this intelligence and ability out of deference for her father.

Thus, her eventual fall is inevitable and largely her own fault, because by allowing her relationship to her father to overshadow everything else, including her own thoughts and desires (revealed explicitly when she says "I do not know, my lord, what to think"), she sets herself up to be utterly devastated following her father's death (and abandonment by Hamlet) (1.3.104). The circumstances surrounding Ophelia's death are somewhat murky, as they are only related second-hand via the Queen, and the reasons for Ophelia's madness are only ever truly "explained" by the king.

Although Ophelia does state that she "cannot choose but weep" at the thought that her father will be buried, one may easily read this as Ophelia simply stating that the only socially acceptable action for her to take following her father's death is mourning, when in fact, based on the somewhat ribald nature of the songs she sings, she seems to be enjoying herself (4.5.69).

The suggestion that her uncharacteristic behavior is due to mourning comes from the king, who of course would find the most patronizing explanation to reinforce the primacy and importance of men in order to explain Ophelia's behavior (4.5. 45, 75-76).

Instead, if one considers Ophelia to be a tragic heroine in the traditional sense, one may read Polonius' death as both Ophelia's peripeteia and anagnorisis in one, because it is the moment in which Ophelia's tragic flaw renders her life somewhat worthless (at least in the context of the play, as she has placed all of her worth in her father's hands) and the same moment in which she realizes the folly of this flaw.

Her punishment, then, is to go mad and die, but even her death may ultimately be read as an act of defiance against the ruling powers of the play, because it does.