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What Causes Ophelia's Downfall

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What Causes Ophelia's Downfall
Hamlet is the cause of Ophelia’s tragic downfall. She enters the play vibrant and in love; Ophelia bound herself to Hamlet, he came to her in his weakest moment after meeting the ghost, and then lets her sink to her death. By leading her on, then rejecting her, he sets Ophelia up for a brutal heartbreak as she falls desperately in love with him, only to be pushed away. Her instability, as a product of this, comes to a head when Hamlet kills her father, mentally crippling her. The loss of the two most important men in Ophelia’s life proves too much for her, so when the river swallows her whole, Ophelia accepts her death with open arms. Ophelia’s character plays an important role in modern literature, many authors are able to take inspiration
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