Ophelia

Ophelia was such an interesting character to me, she was my favorite even when I read this story in high school. We had a huge discussion one day about wheather or not Ophelia went mad because Hamlet, the love of her life, had killed her father or only her father's death? Or could it have been a combonation of both?
I beleived then and I still believe now that it was a combonation of the two evils that drove her mad. Women in that time solely counted on men for survival. Women most likely could not live on their own, if they did they recieved a bad reputation from the town and was usually referred to as a witch. So I think that when Ophelia lost the two most important men in her life, she had the thought of "What do I do now?" The thought of living without the man that supported her all her life and living without the man that was going to support her for the rest of her life drove her absolutely mad.
She also may have thought that no one else would want her. It does not say this in the play, but what if her and Hamlet had "got it on" before any of these events took place? She really would be alone for the rest of her life then because in those days it was unacceptable for a woman to be with more than one man in her lifetime. She would be shunned by other men. I believe that is why she went mad and killed herself. She had nothing left to live for and nothing left to look forward to.