But is Ophelia essential, or merely auxiliary?
Essential, if we consider Hamlet's pessimistic feeling as to woman and
the "breeding of sinners" a necessary part of his character; auxiliary,
if we take the view that without this feeling he would still have been
Hamlet, and the action, to all intents and purposes, the same. The
remaining characters, on the other hand, are clearly auxiliary. This is
true even of the Ghost: for Hamlet might have learnt of his father's
murder in fifty other ways.
Polonius, Laertes, Horatio, and the rest might all have been utterly
different, or might never have existed at all, and yet the essence of
the play might have remained intact.
It would be perfectly possible to write a _Hamlet_ after the manner of
Racine, in which there should be only six personages instead of
Shakespeare's six-and-twenty: and in this estimate I assume Ophelia to
be an essential character. The dramatis personae would be: Hamlet, his
confidant; Ophelia, her confidant; and the King and Queen, who would
serve as confidants to each other.
Pages:
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116