abused women in Shakespeare

Like Lavinia, Ophelia falls victim to the abuse of the men she trusts. Ophelia is the most innocent victim of Hamlet’s revenge in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Ophelia’s trust and dependency upon the men in her life lead to her madness and ultimately to her death. “While suggesting complete mental derangement, Shakespeare advances the play by giving us a very clear indication of the reason for Ophelia’s madness: her irreconcilable attachments to Polonius …

…did not commit and finally strangled to death, yet all the while she does not struggle and when Emilia walks in and asks Desdemona “who hath done this deed?” Desdemona says to Emilia, “Nobody. I myself. Farewell. Commend me to my kind lord-O, farewell!” (5.2.132-34). Desdemona dies tragically at no fault of her own, her marriage had barely begun yet had ended before her death when Othello jealously let his imagination run wild. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**