OPHELIA

Once the object of Hamlet’s affection, Ophelia still loved him dutifully, even when he neglected her. She deemed his ill treatment of her a result of sudden madness, not knowing that it was feigned to mask revenge against his murderous uncle. But the accidental death of her father by Hamlet’s hand drove her to her own madness and death.

Unable to comprehend this overflow of negative emotion, she grew distracted and unanchored from reason. One day while unattended she fell into a stream, and unable to control the tide of life’s events that surrounded her, she succumbed to the numbing waters of forgetfulness. Insensible to her peril, she seemed to be in her natural element, and she drowned singing and playing with flower garlands.

So it is fitting when Laertes laments, “Too much water hast thou poor Ophelia, and therefore I forbid my tears.”