Essay on Frail Ophelia of Hamlet -- Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

Frail Ophelia of Hamlet      Ã‚   Throughout Hamlet, Shakespeare makes it evident that Ophelia is very unstable. She continuously changes her mind about the way she feels. Laertes and Polonius command her to do things that she does not agree with, but she does them with no argument. Afraid to stand up for herself, she stands back and watches everyone else control her life. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia is treated as a marionette with her strings in the hands of the people around her; however, Kenneth Branagh portrays her as independent and innocent, ignoring Shakespeare's representation of her as feeble-minded through complete male dominance in her thoughts and actions, her indecisiveness, and digression into madness.    It is obvious throughout the play Ophelia is ordered around by Laertes and Polonius, and obeys them without a moment's thought. They act like she has no mind of her own, but she listens and does as they wish, so it seems she cannot think for herself. Polonius and Laertes treat her as though she is worthless. Laertes urges Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet ...