Ophelia's Talents

No witnesses. In William Shakespeare's play, the Danish king dies unaccompanied. His son Hamlet isn't there; he's studying in Wittenberg, and only upon his return does he learn that his father is dead and that his mother Gertrude has since married his own uncle Claudius. Hamlet knows that this is a murder only because his father returns as a ghost. The hero here becomes a confused young man who literally sees ghosts. At the same time, his search for the truth is also an ever deeper entanglement in a delusion. What gets overlooked in this character-psychological interpretation, frequently used in spoken theater, is that Hamlet may be out of the country, but of course there are characters who notice what's going on. Ophelia, for example. The title character's girlfriend is somewhat ...