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This 5 page paper discusses and contrasts the roles of Desdemona and Ophelia. Bibliography lists 8 sources.
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5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: KV32_HVdesoph.rtf
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is co-dependent. Discussion It has to be mentioned that women in Shakespeares time were not afforded the liberties they have today. A woman would have been under her fathers control
until she married, at which time she was duty bound to obey her husband in all things. Therefore, Ophelias unquestioning obedience to Polonius, her father, is not unnatural or surprising.
But the fact that Desdemona defies her father to marry Othello is startling; even today a mixed marriage raises eyebrows. In the 16th century it would have been almost unheard
of. Ophelias so-called "co-dependency" may well result from the fact that she has no female figure in her life to provide her with a role model/mentor. She has no wise
and bawdy nurse like Juliet; the only other woman in the play (besides various ladies of the court) is Queen Gertrude, and she is troubled by her sons behavior and
enamored of her husband. She has almost no direct interaction with Ophelia, which leaves the girl at the mercy of the men in her life: her father, her brother, and
Hamlet. Both Polonius and Laertes lecture her and tell her not to believe Hamlet when he makes his "tenders" to her; she is not of noble blood and its no
good for her to dream about marrying a prince "out of thy star; / This must not be" (II.ii.141-142). As a dutiful daughter and loving sister, she would obey. In
addition, Corum points out that as a counselor to the King, Polonius is not a buffoon, as he is often portrayed, but a very brilliant man: "Those with their wits
about them would have assumed that beneath whatever dutiful pose he has fashioned, Polonius could not be other than shrewd" (3). This quality of shrewdness is found throughout the play,
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