Ophelia in Hamlet

In Hamlet, the character Ophelia plays multiple roles. First is that of an innocent girl. Throughout most of the play, between her father and her brother she is always being told what to do, and she always obeys their demands. At the same time however, Hamlet accuses her of lacking any innocence. He essentially tells her that she belongs in a brothel because she is destined to cheat on her future husband. These insults hurt her even more than they would normally because she is convinced that Hamlet loves her before this. The other role that she plays is that of the victim. Initially she is the victim of Hamlet's madness, whether it is feigned or legitimate. He swings dramatically from loving her to insulting her and denying his love. She is also a victim of the violence in the play. When Hamlet kills Polonius, he is surprisingly indifferent, caring only enough to call Polonius a fool. Gertrude also seems not to care as much as she should. Ophelia is one of the few characters who is hurt both by Hamlet's madness and violence, and serves as a reminder that his actions were indeed terrible things to do.

Hamlet's Role as an Unreliable Narrator

In Hamlet, there is no narrator. The reader has to understand the story purely through dialogue. In a sense, the characters who participate in this dialogue become the narrators. The problem with this is that Hamlet has more dialogue in the play than any other character. He also has multiple monologues and conversations with a ghost no one else ever speaks to. Hamlet dominates the role of "narrator" in the story. Hamlet is very driven by his emotions, and at his sanity is often called into question. This makes him an unreliable narrator. He often exaggerates or offers false information (for example his father's death goes from two months ago to less than one month ago in the same speech). Unreliable narrators are also present in other books we've read. The Things They Carried, Heart of Darkness, and  Mrs. Dalloway all have subjective, emotion driven narrators. Interestingly, none of those books aim to convince the reader of their accuracy. Instead they all aim to portray certain truths about human nature that apply even in these doubly-fictitious worlds. This leads me to think that this was Shakespeare's goal as well.

Why Shakespeare is Harder to Read

There a number of reasons why Shakespeare is harder to read than a modern author. First, and most obvious, is his language. The English language is simply not spoken in the same way as it was when he wrote his plays. This compounded with the intellectual style of writing he has creates a way of writing that is much harder to understand than most modern authors. The next source of difficulty is the format. It is meant to be performed, and so there is only dialogue. There are few internal thoughts, actions, or description of the setting to clue you in on what is happening or what the characters are feeling. Also, because reading does not provide the visuals of the play or an introduction of the characters, I feel it takes much longer for me to be able to distinguish characters. These difficulties, instead of taking away from Shakespeare's writing, make it even more impressive. The fact that I can enjoy "solving" his writing even when its meant to be straightforward shows just how impressive a writer he was.

Ambition in Hamlet

Ambition is almost always seen as a positive trait to possess. Ambition is what creates great leaders, inspires great discoveries and sells great products. In Hamlet, however, ambition is portrayed in a less positive light. Instead of being enabled and inspired by ambition, Hamlet's friends believe it to be contributing to his depression. He is unable to exercise his ambition and feels trapped and bored. While his friends intend telling Hamlet he is ambitious to be a compliment, they expose it as one of the reasons he is so unhappy. So far, arguably the only ambitious character who has been able to act on their ambition is King Claudius. The way he acts, though, is far from positive. These actions, murdering the King then marrying his wife to take the throne show the negative, even evil side that ambition can have.