In act 2, scene 1 of the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, Ophelia is very distraught. Ophelia is mainly concerned with the behavior of her love interest, Hamlet.
Ophelia has been ordered by her father to stop seeing Hamlet. As an unmarried woman, she does whatever her father orders. Later, Ophelia's father requests her help and asks her to spy on Hamlet for him. Ophelia does this as well.
In this particular scene, Hamlet has entered Ophelia's room, she tells us. He seemed insane, as he was dirty and partially unclothed. Hamlet then proceeded to grab Ophelia by the arm and shake his head up and down. He left the room abruptly after sighing heavily. This interaction would be reason enough for a young girl to be upset.
Throughout the entire play, until her death, Ophelia is obedient and passive. She lets the men in her life control her thoughts and actions. She is also defined, by men, by her sexuality. Ophelia has no escape from her life and eventually goes mad and commits suicide.
Ophelia's just had a terrible fright. While she was in her room, minding her own business, sewing, Hamlet suddenly burst in. He was in a terrible state—he wasn't wearing a hat, his shirt was unbuttoned, and his stockings were dirty. Even worse, he started acting crazy. Ophelia tells her father, Polonius, that Hamlet grabbed her by the wrist and then just stood back and looked at her without saying a word, as if he were an artist about to paint her portrait. After shaking Ophelia's arm a little and jerking his head up and down three times, Hamlet gave out a deep sigh as if it were his last breath. Then he left.
Ophelia's understandably creeped out by Hamlet's weird behavior. For his part, Polonius is convinced that Hamlet's been driven mad by his love for Ophelia. He goes off with Ophelia to see the king and tell him all about his stepson's crazy antics.
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