I just read of Ophelia's awful disposition, and I tell you if it weren't for her father and Laertes's "groundless slander" (Seng) she would not be mad as she is. I agree with Seng that Polonius and Laertes steal Ophelia's innocence by implanting distorted views of my love for her in her head which "is clearly the beginning of her tragedy" (Seng).
"I lov'd Ophelia. Forty thousand bothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum." (5.1.216-218). We were perfect for each other and everyone else thought so too! My mother even "hop'd" that she would "have been my...wife" (5.1.191). If only Laertes and his father had not made "an accusation of guilt where no guilt has been" (Seng).....but of course I had a hand in this too. But I would not have killed Polonius if it weren't for "his spying, sneaking, and eavesdropping" (Seng). Even the song Ophelia sang supports what I believe. Ophelia sings that "Young men will do't, if they come to't; / By cock, they are to blame" (4.5.59-60). What treacherous words her family has put into her innocent mind! This song is a direct reflection of the skewed view of man, and thus me, that her father and brother have forced upon her.
It is funny how Ophelia seems to be proclaiming more truth when she is mad than when she is in a stable mental condition. She said that she would "give [Laertes] some violets, but they / wither'd all when my father died" (4.5.175-176). A direct stab at Laertes's ill instructions from months ago and he pays no heed! When Ophelia was going off the handle singing these ballads, Laertes blew it off as nothing as he was busy plotting his revenge. Does he not realize that all he has told her over the past months has taken its toll? I heard that he himself said "a young maid's wits" are "as mortal as an old man's life" (4.5.154-155). What a hypocrite. I guess Laertes really does possess "wooden understanding" (Seng).
Ophelia's mental state makes me regret killing her father less and less, because if it weren't for him, she would be in her right mind right now.
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