The Hamlet Project

I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Ophelia. I guess this is the line to confess that –
Because this is her second line.
It is also four one syllable words
And also a question
That evades and leads Laertes into more speech.
Ophelia herself is just a responding machine.
The men around her boss her around,
Pass her around to boss between themselves
Brother to father to Hamlet and so on to her grave.
No, no – I do have sympathy for Ophelia.
She’s got nothing of her own really –
No real language of her own
No life.
She just bounces back balls that are served to her.
But I don’t like her.
I want her to put something on the table –
Shock them all by pulling out a steak knife
And embedding it near someone’s finger. I want her to say something in this play.
But she doesn’t
And she won’t –
Not til she goes crazy
Which, you know, I do, I sympathize.
I feel bad for her but I can’t understand why Hamlet loves her.