With a quick recap of the play it is pretty easy to
catalogue the trials that Ophelia has been through in the past couple of days. First
her father suggested that Hamlet's feelings for Ophelia aren't true and that he may only
be using her. Her father tells her to break off all contact with Hamlet, which she
does, but she is broken hearted over it because she truly loves Hamlet. Then when she
gets a chance to talk to Hamlet, he tells her to get herself to nunnery, that he never
loved her, and that she is like all women who flirt and put on their act for men. The
conversation is even worse if you consider that a nunnery could be a house for nuns (a
convent) or slang for a house of prostitution. She is shocked and hurt by his behavior
and convinced that he has lost his mind. She directly states, "O, what a noble mind is
hers o'erthrown!"
Later, Hamlet speaks in a very bawdy
and suggestive way to her during the play within a play. She probably doesn't know what
to make of that -- is she offended? is this more of the old, teasing
Hamlet?
Shortly after this it is discovered that Hamlet,
the man she loves, has killed her father. He doesn't seem all that remorseful for act
either. He has hidden the body and used it as a joking taunt to
Claudius.
Ophelia has clearly been through
enough emotional turmoil to cause a complete breakdown. The queen probably doesn't want
to see her because she knows that Hamlet's actions are the cause of Ophelia's
breakdown. She likes Ophelia and seeing this true madness will be heartbreaking and may
cause more uncomfortable inward self-reflection for the queen. The queen has already
been given a full guilt-trip with Hamlet, and seeing this change in Ophelia will be yet
another display of how others act in the face of a huge loss, as opposed to the queen
who quickly moved on to a new husband and an almost seamless continuation of her life as
she knew it.
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