Women in Hamlet

Ophelia

• 'Her tragedy is subordinated in the play; unlike Hamlet, she does not struggle with moral choices or alternatives” - C. Neely.
• To Laertes, she is “a slice of female ‘perfection’ whose chastity he can legislate and in whose memory he can prove his manhood” while to Polonius she represents “a perpetual ‘baby’ he must continue to ‘teach’” - Dane
• 'Ophelia is deprived of thought sexuality and language..she represents the strong emotions that the Elizabethans thought womanish'. - Showalter.
• "Trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste and is able to use her as a piece of bait for spying" - Rebecca Smith.
• "Ophelia is a player trying to respond to several imperious directors at once. Everyone has used her...She is valued only for the roles that further other people's plots" - Leverenze. 
• 'We can imagine Hamlet's story without Ophelia, but Ophelia has no story without Hamlet' - Lee Edwards. 
• Ophelia - Polonius: 'I shall obey, my lord.'
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