Hamlet, Madness, and the Death of a Parent

I really like the threads that connect characters together within the play. We talked about how Fortinbras and Hamlet (old and regular) parallel each other. I also find Ophelia works as an interesting parallel to Hamlet as well. Her father is killed by a member of the Danish Royal family, Hamlet (and Old Hamlet killed Old Fortinbras as well), which drives her insane and eventually leads her to die (I'm gonna go out on a limb and assume Hamlet dies at the end of this). However, despite the parallel she presents to Hamlet and Fortinbras, she lacks the ability to pursue action or agency within the story (I attribute this to the fact that she is a woman, and thus her pursuit of agency is restricted but the male characters). Instead, it is Laertes who pursues vengeance, though he doesn't suffer from madness and is able to use physical violence (through the duel) to enact his revenge. Ophelia must pursue a different kind of violence (against herself via suicide) to try to influence the world around her in a anyway, which is unfortunate because I think she's a really interesting character (personally my favorite).