Melancholy, grief, and madness have enlarged the works of a great many playwrights,
and Shakespeare is not an exception. The mechanical regularities of such emotional
maladies as they are presented within Hamlet, not only allow his audience to sympathize
with the tragic prince Hamlet, but to provide the very complexities necessary in
understanding the tragedy of his, ironically similar, lady Ophelia as well. It is the poor
Ophelia who suffers at her lover's discretion because of decisions she was obligated to
make. Hamlet provides his own self-torture and does fall victim to depression and grief,
however, his madness is fictitious.
They each share a common
connection: the loss of a parental figure. Hamlet loses his father as a result of a horrible
murder, as does Ophelia. Her situation is more severe because it is her lover who
murders her father and all of her hopes for her future as well. Ultimately, it is also more
harmful to her character and causes her......
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