Kayla Gill--Bonus Blog

An interesting topic we discussed today in class was the death of Ophelia. Ophelia committed suicide which was very different from the other deaths in the play. Ophelia drowned herself while many of the other deaths were committed by poison or stabbing. It was a curious discussion on why she took such a different method. As Dr. Schuler explained, she was considered phlegmatic temperament.  Each of these temperament's, during the medieval time period, is associated with some kind of Element.  Phlegmatic is associated with water. So, it makes sense that she would drown herself as if she was returning to the element in which she came. However, I felt as if there was more in this story.
Many describe water as a peaceful but powerful thing. Ophelia was beautiful and typically throughout the story, she was very calm. However, in the beginning, she was powerful in a sense related to Hamlet. He was infatuated with her. She had the power to control him because of his love for her. However, later on, his love for her is outweighed by his revenge for his father.
Another interesting point is water is overtaking. It can captivate any space and fill any void. She let the water overtake her. It symbolized how she never had complete control over her life. She was always at the weight of others. Just like the water had complete control over her.  It showed how she was constantly overtaken by Hamlet r her father or her brother and never had true and utter control. However, it also seems the reasoning for her suicide was an attempt to have full control over her life.