Essay from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1, Technical University of Braunschweig (Englisches Seminar), course: Introduction to Literature, language: English, abstract: Introduction
My term paper is about the young girl Ophelia, who is, among Gertrude, the only female character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. When we take a closer look on Ophelia's character, we can easily see that she undergoes a change of behaviour in the play. In the first scenes she appears as a normal young girl of her period, but the process of becoming insane goes its way, which can be seen when she is singing her dialogue songs and finally when she commits suicide. During this process there are questions that come up: What is the reason for Ophelia's insanity? Why is she such an obedient girl? Is Hamlet's love to her real or just fake? The last two questions may help with the answering of the leading question about Ophelia's insanity. In the following I use some feminist approaches to analyse Ophelia's madness.