Ophelia, the innocent tragic heroineHamlet, Prince of Denmark, by William Shakespeare, is a well-known tragedy of the 19th century. This play presents several examples of tragic heroes, tragic flaws, and other elements of a tragedy. A tragic play was a play that had at least one tragic hero with a tragic flaw that ended in an inevitable catastrophe, which was usually the death of the tragic hero. This perfectly describes Hamlet, the prince of Denmark. As mentioned before, there have been several tragic heroes. A few of them were Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia. Ophelia was a very important heroine, second only to Hamlet. She showed that loyalty to three different men wasn't always possible, no matter how much she truly loved each of them. Although most tragic heroes were guilty to some extent, Ophelia was completely innocent. It is because of her innocence that she is considered a tragic heroine. Ophélie was torn between the love of three different men. She finally realized that she could love them all, but she couldn't be faithful to them all. This drove her to the point of madness. The three men she loved deeply were Polonius (her father), Laertes (her brother), and Hamlet (her lover). His tragedy began with his brother. Laertes knew of Ophelia's romantic relationship with Hamlet; however, he also knew that she was just the daughter or a courtier and that Hamlet was a prince. At that time, princes were not allowed to marry inferior women. As Laertes prepared to leave for his trip to Paris, he advised Ophelia to "hold it as a fashion and a toy in the blood: a violet in youth of primitive nature, forward, non-permanent, sweet and without duration ; the perfume and the supplication of a minute; no more." (Hamlet) In other words, Laertes told his stupid sister...... middle of paper ...... that she loved him. Ophelia is pushed so 'to madness and ends up drowning in a pond This once again shows the elements of a tragic play You can also see Ophelia's innocence throughout the play. to each of the three men she loved, and it ended up costing her her life. However, her "suicide" wasn't really considered suicide at the time, so she was still allowed to have a "burial." Christian' It wasn't considered suicide because she wasn't the one who caused his grief. At the time, suicide was only considered suicide if you killed yourself for something of your own. had done, for example if you had murdered someone As you can see, Ophelia is a great example of a tragic hero Her loyalty to three men caused her final destruction, death. Furthermore, his death brought about the final destruction of his brother's death and that of Hamlet..