“ Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ” by William Shakespeare and “ The Glass Menagerie ” by Tennessee Williams both introduce two characters that are indistinguishable to each other through their manner of life and feelings toward work forces. Laura Wingfield from “ The Glass Menagerie ” and Ophelia from the “ Hamlet, Prince of Denmark ” are both alone characters that require the reader to believe beyond their ground to understand why the writer ‘s portray them as they do. In their similarities, Laura and Ophelia are both sweet and guiltless immature misss, so sweet that most would look at them as if they were weird. They are both really dependant on their households and look at work forces to find their behaviour and ways of life. As readers compare and contrast Laura and Ophelia, they realize that the two characters are really much identical.
Laura Wingfield has really small duologue in “ The Glass Menagerie ” , even though she is in the centre of many scenes and hence the power of her presentation as a tragic figure lies in metaphor, phase waies, and the perceptual experiences of duologue of other characters. Still, even a physical disability and societal clumsiness are non plenty to measure up her as tragic – her state of affairs itself contains calamity.
In many ways, she is tragic because she seems to experience so much. Furthermore, the male child she was in love with throughout high school kisses her and so tells her that he is engaged to be married, which by the terminal we are convinced that she is doomed to populate out her life as the “ old amah ” her female parent ever feared she would go. For Laura in “ The Glass Menagerie ” , flight is impossible and it is tragic that in the terminal she is non even a beautiful rare glass statuette, but a unicorn with a broken horn, a “ normal Equus caballus ” or the mythic “ Blue Rose ” that is reasonably, but unreal. Aside from the scene in “ The Glass Menagerie ” during which the reader pictures Laura rolling the streets entirely with a bad leg in the cold, merely to acquire out of her category, one of the most tragic scenes is when she is entirely with Jim. It is at this point that we see the full tragic range of her state of affairs, particularly since Jim seems to show a image of the “ existent universe ” therefore doing Laura contrast with it. Merely as her brother says, Laura lives in “ a universe of her ain – a universe of small glass decorations ” and when Jim asks her, in one of the of import quotation marks from “ Glass Menagerie ” by Tennessee Williams, “ Unicorns – are n’t they extinct in the modern universe ” it is clear that Laura has no topographic point in the “ modern universe ” and that she is like the unicorn, both before and after the horn is broken off. The horn, nevertheless, symbolizes her bosom while the unicorn itself is her withdrawal from the existent universe. She should non be touched, since she breaks so easy. Even she seems to recognize this when she tells Jim, “ if you breatheaˆ¦it interruptions. ” It is tragic that her one time opportunity at being grip is shattered and impossible. While it is tragic plenty to believe of a diffident individual with a bad leg, this is non the existent calamity – the true tragic scenario is that she is the broken unicorn who is fated to go a regular Equus caballus.
Of all the polar characters in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is the most inactive and unidimensional. She has the possible to go a tragic heroine – to get the better of the hardships inflicted upon her – but she alternatively crumbles into insanity, go simply tragic. This is because Ophelia herself is non every bit of import as her representation of the double nature of adult females in the drama. Ophelia ‘s distinguishable intent is to demo at one time Hamlet ‘s warped position of adult females as indurate sexual marauders, and the artlessness and virtuousness of adult females. Through Ophelia we witness Hamlet ‘s development, or de-evolution into a adult male convinced that all adult females are prostitutes ; that the adult females who seem more pure are inside black with corruptness and sexual desire.
But, to the remainder of us, Ophelia represents something really different. To those who are non blinded by injury and fury, Ophelia is the prototype of goodness. Very much like Gertrude, immature Ophelia is childly and naA?ve. Unlike Queen Gertrude, Ophelia has good ground to be incognizant of the rough worlds of life. Even though her love for Hamlet is strong, she obeys her male parent when he tells her non to see Hamlet once more or accept any letters that Hamlet writes. Her bosom is pure, and when she does something dishonest, such as Tell Hamlet that her male parent has gone place when he is truly behind the drape, it is out of echt fright. Ophelia clings to the memory of Hamlet handling her with regard and tenderness, and she defends him and loves him to the really end despite his ferociousness. Ophelia ‘s darling Hamlet causes all her emotional hurting throughout the drama, and when his hatred is responsible for her male parent ‘s decease, she has endured all that she is capable of digesting and goes insane. But even in her insanity she symbolizes, to everyone but Hamlet, incorruptness and virtuousness.
Laura and Ophelia are both really guiltless, neither one of them did anything to ache anyone else. Both are compassionate towards their “ lover ” . Ophelia is compassionate towards Hamlet, even when everyone thinks he ‘s traveling insane. Laura is compassionate about her brother being unhappy. Both are delicate. Ophelia is driven insane by Hamlet because she thinks she has driven him insane. Laura is considered delicate like the glass unicorn, but she is stronger than Ophelia. Laura chooses to non travel to typing category, so she shows that she can travel against her female parent ‘s wants, so Laura has a stronger self-identity than Ophelia, who allows her male parent to utilize her and does what she ‘s told.
When it comes to work forces, Laura has a more childly version of unrecorded. School girl crush type of love. Ophelia is really inactive, and allows her male parent and brother to utilize her, but it appears that she and Hamlet may hold had sex, whereas the reader is led to believe Laura ne’er moved beyond an immature girlish crush. The sexual dealingss or deficiency thereof between Hamlet and Ophelia are problematic. Other bookmans may differ, but I am in head to believe they did hold sex.
Work Cited
Smith, Nicole. “ Laura in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. ” The Tragic Figure of Laura in The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams. Nicole Smith, 2010. Web. 23 Oct 2010. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //www.articlemyriad.com/110.htm & gt ; .
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. 3rd erectile dysfunction. Boston, MA: Bedford St. Martins, 2009. 777-898. Print.
