In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia starts as an innocent young girl who tragically loses her life to her insanity and grief over the loss of her father and Hamlet. During the period of Hamlet, Ophelia’s age, gender, and mental illness lead to her death being seen as an unavoidable tragedy that is for the best and a humane option to end her suffering. Had this tragedy occurred today, she likely would have been professionally treated in an institution for a trauma disorder, a combination of post-traumatic stress disorder and schizophrenia. If Ophelia expressed these symptoms today, a combination of treatment and support would have prevented her death.
Hamlet was written around 1600 and set around the same time. This means that sexism was still the regular attitude, and instead of being treated with concern and worry, she was seen as fragile and broken and put on a pedestal as a beautiful object. As seen in the Painting “The Story of Ophelia,” she was seen as peaceful and content with her death (Tate). This is unlike how men are seen during mental breakdowns, such as how Hamlet was seen dying heroically at the end. Ophelia was treated more like a wounded animal with no hope for recovery. For example, in Act 4, Scene 3, Ophelia approaches Claudius and Gertrude. She is seen acting unusual, singing, and making no sense. Claudius addresses her by saying, “How are you, pretty lady?” and “Pretty Ophelia-” (Shakespeare 87-88) before addressing Laertes with his concerns about her. Even though it is still common for people to address family and friends of those with disabilities, Claudius and his comfort for Ophelia only concerning her appearance, such as comforting her by calling her pretty, show how the King and Queen were only concerned with the superficial consequences of Ophelia’s illness, instead of being genuinely concerned for her mental health and wellbeing.
At the time, mental illness such as what was affecting Ophelia was categorized as one thing across every illness – madness. Madness covered every kind of mental illness. This treatment continued until the 1900s. For example, I read a journal article on the treatment of women in mental institutions in the 1920s. In this article, women were diagnosed as “insane” or “mad” for things that would be recognized today as postpartum depression, schizophrenic, or even simply grieving. Women were seen as “insane” or “overreacting,” while also being criticized for their lack of femininity that they showed during what would today be seen as a serious mental breakdown. (Watts) This generalization of all women’s mental illnesses means that none of them could be given proper treatment as none had an accurate diagnosis. This treatment of women was still obvious through the 1900s, and the time that Hamlet was living in would have been close to the origin of this neglect. This treatment of women who suffer from mental health complications is evident in other literature. For example, The Yellow Wallpaper is a short story that shows the poor treatment of a woman who is dealing with postpartum depression and her story of abuse from her husband that drove her to insanity (Gilman). Her story is very similar to that of Ophelia, as she was pitied by her husband and left to deal with her symptoms alone, leading to her notorious insanity. Women who live with mental illness have been portrayed this way in literature since Ophelia and even through today, but women in literary history have been neglected and disrespected by those around them with no defense from anybody around them. Ophelia was simply the first in line of many victims of the patriarchy and its disregard for women who suffer.
Looking at Ophelia’s symptoms throughout the play, she likely lived with schizophrenia, and this was heightened by symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after the murder of her father and the breakup with Hamlet. Even at our first introduction, Ophelia had many signs of schizophrenia, such as relying on her father and brother as she lacked a personality separate from the men in her life. She shows a lack of a personality, receiving direction and thoughts from her brother and father, instead of from herself. For example, in Act 1, Scene 3, Laertes advises Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet. When asked her thoughts by Polonius, she responds, “I do not know, my lord, what to think,” (Shakespeare 19). This is the first of many of her decisions that are made for her by someone else. Though this is possibly due to the treatment of women at the time, the break from reality into delusions and disorganized speech is a good indicator of schizophrenia. The loss of Hamlet, combined with the murder of her father, leads to Ophelia feeling very alone and losing her only sense of identity. This combination of depersonalization, grief, and isolation leads to a break in Ophelia’s reality. Today, having a proper diagnosis of schizophrenia from the beginning would have allowed her to receive proper treatment throughout her life. After the death of her father, the signs of post-traumatic stress disorder would also have been properly treated and would have avoided the combination of schizophrenia and depression that caused her death. Today, she could have been hospitalized and treated at the first sign of being suicidal, receiving treatment and recovering over time.
In conclusion, Ophelia was not insane or mad. She was simply a victim of sexism and poor treatment from the upper class which did not respect her as a person. Had she been treated with proper care and respect, such as the mental health treatment that is available today, her death could have been prevented and she would not have been treated the way she was. During this period, any woman who showed any emotional distress was seen as “insane” or “mad,” while she was simply a young girl who deserved respect and help from a person who genuinely cared about her and her grieving process. Instead, she was a lost cause who was left to die to save face for the King and Queen.
References
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. First Avenue Editions TM, 1892.
Tate. “The Story of Ophelia | Tate.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506/story-ophelia#:~:text=15%20verso-,The%20Inspiration,not%20actually%20seen%20on%20stage.
Peschier, Diana. Lost Souls: Women, Religion and Mental Illness in the Victorian Asylum. 1st ed., Bloomsbury Academic, 2019.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. 1599.
Watts, A. (2021). Experimental treatments: women, gender, and ‘maternal insanity’ in victorian psychiatric institutions, 1920-36. Health and History, 23(1), 1–18. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5401/healthhist.23.1.0001Links to an external site.
Sprockets and Springes 