Gertrude and Ophelia share a common frailty (I.2.146) which prevent them from joining forces with Hamlet and supporting him in his quest for justice and for revenge. Gertrude is stung by Hamlets accusations, but beyond expressing her horror, remains too weak to resist, let alone to aim the usurper who has killed her first Hyperion-like husband. Ophelia is another weak character, lacking the pleasing insightfulness of a Cordelia and the hard-nosed independence of the ugly sisters. It is convenient to go over her as the Pre-Raphaelites did, a pale, ethereal being, endowed with a easy and yielding temperament. But she allows herself to be manipulationd and in so doing is disloyal to her brother, to Hamlet and ultimately to herself. When Laertes warns her to beware of Hamlet, she says Tis in my keeping locked,/ And you yourself shall keep the key of it (I.3.85), yet straightway she repeats all his confidences to her father. What authority your lordship? sums it up; and I do not know, my lord, what I should think.
Hamlets preoccupations are beyond her comprehension - and since he cannot unburden himself to her, he has no use for her; she becomes no more than a symbol of potential unfaithfulness (in parallel to his mother). In her meek conformity, she lives in a meaningless human race until her madness relieves her of the responsibility of language and she can ignore the wrangle of everyone else and herself speak whatever gibberish comes into her mind (Zulfikar Ghose, Hamlet, Prufrock and Language, London: Macmillan, 1978, pp. 22 f., jolly unkindly). Hamlets crude insults to her in III.2 can be interpreted multifariously (distractors while the play is being prepared, reflections of his mothers...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com
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