Ophelia is only one of two female characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and when viewed by a modern audience, she is seen as shy, meek, innocent, and submissive to the males around her. To audiences of the show's era she would have been seen in a different light, as those traits would have made her an ideal woman. In an attempt to understand Ophelia's character one can simply flip through the pages of the play and study the few scenes of dialogue she has and examine her language, or lack thereof. Taking into consideration the person they are responding to, the context of the dialogue, and the specific choice of words all play a key role in analyzing their voice. A good place to start looking at Ophelia's submission is during Act 3, Scene 1, where Claudius and Polonius decide to use Ophelia as bait for Hamlet. Ophelia is present throughout the entire discussion which deals with questioning Hamlet's madness and only speaks once in this entire sequence. “Madam, I wish so” (3.1.43), is Ophelia's response to Gertrude's wish that this plot clarify Hamlet's behavior. The answer is short, direct and full of respect. What makes him stand out even more is that he addresses Gertrude correctly. Even though Gertrude is not a male figure, Ophelia still acknowledges Gertrude's superiority with the response referring to her as Lady. In the following sequences we continue to see Ophelia addressing her superiors in this appropriate manner, namely Hamlet. Ophelia speaks eleven times in her exchange with Hamlet and of these eleven times there are only three instances where she does not respond by addressing Hamlet as "my lord" or "lordship". The additional use of “desire” instills the idea that Ophelia might actually be a bit… middle of paper… here. While Ophelia has very few lines and most of them consist of just a few short words which are far from interesting and are not what is usually considered Shakespearean. However, they are actually special to her. It is through this specific use of language that we are able to gain insight into Ophelia that reinforces what other characters project onto her, especially if one takes time to watch her moment of self-reflection. We are able to see her innocence and meekness in her responses and even when we finally see what Ophelia really thinks, it really only reinforces what we've already learned; who is an unpretentious character. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. Literature "The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark": an introduction to reading and writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th edition. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print