ABSTRACT. Considered to be one of the less important characters of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is actually a complex young woman who points to both the status of women during the Elizabethan time, and to the type of development that helps us contemplate the roots of madness. Starting as a naïve young woman, moving towards an independent female character, and eventually being driven into a state of madness she is the trigger of many of Hamlet’s actions and, though her mental state is deteriorated in the process, her intentions always seem the righteous ones. Being the reflection of male thoughts or the object of desire or merely a double of Hamlet’s madness and of his mother’s infidelity, she becomes a complex individual who intrigues the readers and invites some deeper analysis. pp. 73–78

Keywords: madness; love; desire; reflection