Discuss the role of Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Ophelia’s sanity is one of the prime aspects of her character. In Act4Sciiii, Ophelia sings a song about a maiden who is tricked into losing her virginity by the false promise of marriage. She sings ‘You promised me to wed.’, a refrain from a song about love and male infidelity. Her constant singing throughout these scenes conveys a sense of sadness to the audience as we sympathise with Ophelia, recognising the similarities between her and the lady of the song. By Shakespeare having Ophelia sing songs like this, he suggests to the audience that her madness is as a result of the patriarchal pressures of the male members of society. She seems distressed by the way she has been treated by the men in her life, an idea once again presented in the song as ‘young men will do’t’. Her obsession with a happy ending and the dream of love is what Shakespeare uses to emphasise how women are subordinate as Ophelia’s unhappiness becomes a prominent aspect of the play. 
Ophelia’s insanity does not end here as in line with the typical tragedy plot, death is present. The details of Ophelia’s death remain ambiguous as Shakespeare aims to maintain a veil between appearance and reality in order to make the audience question the credibility of Gertrude’s recollection of events. Gertrude informs Laertes, Ophelia’s brother, that she lies drowned in a ‘brook’, and ‘with fantastic garlands did she come’. The description of her death and her final image is an extremely significant aspect of her death as it illustrates a sense of innocence while emphasising the cruelty she experienced. By submerging her amongst ‘crow-flowers, nettles, daisies and long purples’ Shakespeare evokes a sense of ever-lasting beauty for Ophelia as even when she is dead she is still surrounded by beautiful flowers and plants. The listing of the natural images within Gertrude’s description introduces a sad irony as Shakespeare makes us feel sympathetic for the life Ophelia led. Despite this, there is still some sexual connotation with the mention of ‘long purples’, a flower appearing like genitals to the ‘liberal shepherds’. Shakespeare purposefully returns Ophelia back to her position as a symbol of male sexual desire and ignorance. The ambiguity in terms of how she died is implied by Gertrude stating how Ophelia was ‘clamb’ring to hang’, this verb suggesting struggle and the desire to remain above water, similarly presented by the later used verb ‘fell’ connoting an accidental action.