Harshness and Judging is NOT the Answer (Assignment 5)

I feel for Ophelia.  Some may say she was crazy, Peter J. Seng might say she is deranged, and some might not even know what to think.  I am not going to let people pass by her and allow them to think that she is some psycho girl, because she’s not.  She might be a little off, but she has reason for this and is for sure not crazy.  There “seems to have divined the memories that may underlie it in Ophelia’s deranged mind” (Seng 218).  She is not deranged and deserves more credit than that.  The way she is really feeling is backed up by some intense events that occurred, “The distraught girl could hardly turn to King Claudius, and the ‘beauteous Majesty of Denmark,’ Gertrude, has apparently been avoiding her.  For Ophelia, as for Hamlet, Denmark has become a prison, and she is all alone at Elsinore.  It is the realization of the fact, coming on top of all the earlier horrors, that destroy her sanity” (Seng 218-219).  Not only is she not thinking completely straight, but I am also having trouble in many situations.  A lot of events have happened in which Ophelia and I will struggle to move on, full force, with our lives. 

                I now that Ophelia is struggling to come to terms with everything that has happened but she knows that she must cope with it; she says, “We must be patient, but I cannot choose but weep to think they would lay him i’ th’ cold ground” (4.5.68-70).  She does not want to seem crazy, she is just very sad to see her father die.  I feel very sorry for her and know that she doesn’t want to portray to people the wrong message; and here, she is clearly saying that she is just sad and not deranged.

                Another place that Seng used the word deranged was when he said that “The last the audience has seen of Ophelia before she enters deranged, singing and playing on a lute…” (Seng 218).  This is a sign to everyone that even before this tragic event happened she was a little ‘weird’, singing and playing instruments is not completely normal; but I loved her anyway.  Outsiders just started noticing Ophelia’s ‘strangeness’ after her father’s death just because it escalated a little, which makes total sense, because of the circumstances.  In Ophelia’s defense, I was even a little crazy sometimes.  I asked, “Are you honest?”(3.1.103)  I tried to clarify, and asked Ophelia, “Are you fair?”(3.1.105).  She responded with, “What means your lordship?”(3.1.106).  I clearly wasn’t making sense to her, so she has not been the only one that is not making complete sense.  She is not only being asked questions that are confusing, but she also is being a little misled, “I was the more deceived.” (3.1.120). This poor girl feels that she is being misled and doesn’t think she is being treated fairly.  I feel so sorry for her and would love to take the blame that not only Seng is outing on her, but also the blame of everyone else.

Please readjust your feeling toward what you’ve previously thought of my dear Ophelia.  She is not crazy; only sad, misled, and trying to cope with the harsh conditions life is throwing at her.

__Hamlet__