William Shakespeares Hamlet Essay -- Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

William Shakespeares HamletHamlet is a play about intrigue, suspicion, treachery, and penalize. Its characters, the vast majority of whom are experienced members of the court, course through this world with varying degrees of ease, solely all are given to the forces at work. Hamlets reluctance to act out the revenge he knows is his duty does serving the modern-day listening relate to him, perhaps, but at the end of the day he is still a slice of this foreign culture, driven by customs and expectations very different from those that consecrate the life of his audience. There is one character in the play, though, who seems just as bewildered by the startling events swirling around her as the audience is. Ophelias main importance in the play is to act as a sort of emotional representative for the audience. We first meet Ophelia in shape I, scene iii, as preparations are being made for her brothers departure. Laertes brings up Ophelias relationship with Hamlet and cautio ns her not to take the princes advances at face value. Laertes explains that as Prince of Denmark, Hamlet is not entirely big to declare his love for anyone without considering the potential effect on the country. Their father takes up the lecture later in the scene, citing Hamlets youth and sexual activity as reasons why he should not be trusted. Poor Ophelia is earlier dismayed at this, and even goes so far as to take issue that He hath importund me with love in honorable fashion. (I.iii.99-100) Both of these warnings get laid as somethingof a surprise to Ophelia and to the audience, and for the first time Ophelia has fulfilled her lineament as unwitting expositor. Through her own ignorance and naivete, Ophelia has allowed other characters to explain things to the a... ...derstanding. Ophelia feels her port through the play, and the audience is quite capable of doing the same. This emotion-based view of the action is a deeper connection to the characters than one woul d obtain by trying to keep extend of Hamlets brooding and ranting or Claudius and Poloniuss wakeless plans. Ophelia gives the play its emotional payoff, and by the time she exits the play, the audience is already emotionally attached on her behalf. Thats not to say that sympathy for Ophelia makes the audience side with Laertesafter all, Ophelia loved Hamlet, even if he did lead to her insanity. Rather, Ophelia manages to train that the audience has connected emotionally to the play in a counseling that no other character does, so that when we lose Ophelia enough of a relationship to the play has been established that the audience cant help but care about the outcome.