sunnyp
Junior Member
Posts: 92 
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Post by sunnyp on Mar 14, 2016 1:37:35 GMT
We did discuss this enough but I wanted to bring up an interesting thing I found online.
First of all, I think Ophelia killed herself, because she had no other choice.
Ophelia never had do think for herself in her life because she was always dependant on her father or Hamlet, then suddenly Hamlet rejects her and father dies.
In tragedy, she speaks for herself for the first time, keenly criticising the authority. However no one listens to her because young women like her are only objectified.
Then she kills herself. What else could she do? Everyone is gone and no one would listen to her.
However, some argue that Ophelia didn't kill herself. Some say Gertrude murdered her.
The reason being, during Ophelia's mad monologue, she criticised the authority, for example criticising Gertrude and Claudius for adultery with flowers, and criticising society for corruption. So Gertrude learned that Ophelia knew too much, so she killed her.
An evidence that supports this is that Gertrude was the one who told the audience about Ophelia's death and her description of Ophelia's death was in so much detail.
What do you guys think
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Post by mayurika98 on Mar 17, 2016 11:37:10 GMT
I agree with you that it was the first time that Ophelia was able to speak her mind. In a way she used her madness as an excuse to be able to say anything offensive. In my opinion, Ophelia killed herself because she was overwhelmed by the freedom that was left at her hands by the loss of her loved ones. Unlike the girl from "The Story of an Hour", Ophelia was not entirely happy by her new-found freedom. Instead she became more weak and conflicted with her self and her emotions.
It's quite ironic how Ophelia lived her life being pushed around by men and when she was left with the freedom of no men in her life, she killed herself. I don't think Gertrude would kill Ophelia because in the first place, she was scared of Ophelia's madness and she must have felt pity when Ophelia was ranting on about the death of her father.
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Post by juliaj on Mar 19, 2016 3:52:25 GMT
I think Ophelia's death was a suicide. Maybe it wasn't 100% intentionally suicide because she was clearly a bit insane by the time she died, but it was death caused by her own self. It seems like throughout the whole essay, her life had been controlled by other people around her, and not her own self. Once there was no one to tell her what to do, she was confused and lost and angry. I feel like her suicide shows how she was driven insane by everything that had been happening in the play (Claudius trying to cover up his murder and Hamlet trying to get revenge) and how everyone was using her but not telling her what was happening just because she was a girl. Her death was the death of innocence, in a way. It's almost ironic that once she had the freedom, she killed herself, and I feel like it would be less significant to the play, as everything else is, to have her killed by someone else.
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Post by maysamyounis on Mar 19, 2016 11:43:09 GMT
I think Ophelia, suicide herself but then she was insane, what she doing and so Ophelia was able to speak her mind. And also, this normal happen because she lost everything in here life love, father. and let her to became like this situation.And I do not think Gertrude kill Ophelia because not thinking in story support this idea. It might be some people thought who they analyze that. I will ask question why will Gertrude kill Ophelia after she get insane.
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Post by Jooyoung on Mar 19, 2016 13:11:06 GMT
I believe Ophelia' death was neither murder nor suicide, it was an accident. Firstly, Gertrude states that Ophelia fell into the water when a tree branch broke. Secondly, Ophelia was MAD. She wasn't capable of making decision or had the ability to realize the danger she was in.
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Post by jonah21 on Mar 20, 2016 0:30:19 GMT
We can't really tell whether or not Ophelia's death was a suicide, accident, or even murder. There's just not enough evidence leading towards any cause. I mean, sure we have the evidence because it was told by Gertrude. But how are we able to trust her and what she says? It's only one perspective and, to me, it just seems strange how she was the one that saw the death take place.
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Post by sangjoon on Mar 20, 2016 2:37:20 GMT
In my personal opinion, ophelia killed herself which is suicide. The reason why I think this way is that Ophelia experienced too much overwhelming things is short term and she even spoke her mind for the forst time which is also part of overwhemling thing. There was no any clue and doubt that Ophelia got killed by someoner else but it is interesting that you open the possibility in this way. However, there was enough reason for ophelia to suicide thus, I think she suicided.
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Post by andrewcho77 on Mar 20, 2016 4:47:32 GMT
Ophelia killed herself and here are the evidence . She was rejected by her father and Hamlet which made her depressed. Also in Act 5, Hamlet sees Ophelia dead and said " Fordo it own life" which means the corpse took their own life which means Ophelia suicide. You could understand Ophelia suicide because she didn't have anyone to depend on which makes Ophelia depressed.
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Post by jin794 on Mar 20, 2016 5:38:13 GMT
I think Ophelia killed herself. It was her insanity that led her to kill herself. According to the story of tragedy of hamlet, people around Ophelia controlled her life and disposition. Laertes and Polonius favored and gave an advice to Ophelia how to act upon. However, when there was no one to tell her what to do, Ophelia was lost and anxious. She was used and tricked by other characters such as Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius. Interestingly, Ophelia's death was told by Gertrude's perspective. So, it may be hard to figure out whether Ophelia's death was truly by herself or by someone else.
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Post by Tharu on Mar 20, 2016 8:01:05 GMT
Well that was something that I never expected.... But the thing is everybody knew that She married Claudius which is incest. But then i I don't consider Gertrude doing adultery. Because adultery is having sexual intercourse with somebody who is not your husband or wife, but Claudius is Gertrude's husband, which made think it is not a bad thing. But Gertrude killing Ophelia can be proven. WOOWWW i was not thinking about that...
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Post by Emily on Mar 20, 2016 9:08:35 GMT
I don't think that Ophelia intentionally killed herself, but as she was doing it she just let herself finish the task, instead of trying to stop her death. When she fell into the river, that was on accident because the tree branch she was on broke, which wasn't her fault. But then, when she was floating on the water, she didn't try to swim back to shore, which could have saved her life, so in the end she committed suicide.
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Post by heesu on Mar 20, 2016 10:35:28 GMT
I think she suicide because there is no one who will murder her. There was no scene that who has negative feeling toward her. Hamlet was little mad at her because of her father, but he was not there when Ophelia committed suicide. The author's purpose of showing this scene is to tell audience that women were committed suicide a lot.
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Post by timmy on Mar 20, 2016 12:09:21 GMT
Suicide- every one has of their own in life. The difference comes on how we deal with them. Ophelia, well, she was a weak human being if you put it in harsh terms. She was raised soft under her father, doing everything he says. She has never experienced poverty, no abuse, or anything. The only thing that she has ever received was love in her own little world. When that world was no more, she did, well, what she did.
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Post by lucia on Mar 20, 2016 12:38:34 GMT
I think that Ophelia committed suicide due to societal pressure. Ophelia is one of the female characters who comply with the societal rules and receive comfort and protection in exchange. She was submissive, doing whatever her dad told her to do. Also, she wasn't allowed to express herself and her true feelings. But when her father died, she was lost. She didn't know how to deal with her emotions and she couldnt find anyone else to depend on.
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Post by Jonathan on Mar 20, 2016 12:45:51 GMT
I think that Ophelia did commit suicide. When she fell into the river, she had a choice of swimming to shore or letting herself drown. Even if she did not know how to swim, should could have just screamed and call out for help and someone would have helped her, instead of just floating down and singing until she drowned. She probably wanted to escape the harsh life she lived under the men of the household, and also was probably mad due to Hamlet acting all crazy towards her and potentially breaking her heart.
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