As one progresses through Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it becomes overly evident that Ophelia is the most deserving of readers’ sympathy because of the following reasons: as a women, she is weak and has no authority over her own affairs; she has no control over her madness and her death; she is never compensated for her father’s death or her lover’s betrayal. Shakespeare creates sympathy for Ophelia by introducing her to the audience as a women who is too naïve to understand the difference between love and lust and who has no control over her life as both her brother Leartes and her father Polonius dictate her to keep her distance from Hamlet who will only use her for sex and will not marry her (I.iii.5-136). Polonius also plans to “loose my daughter to him” (II.ii.154) to spy on Hamlet just like he is using his servant Reynaldo to spy on Leartes making it clear that Ophelia holds no more importance to Polonius as a daughter than as a servant. Shakespeare amplifies Ophelia’s weakness in Act IV by bringing to light Ophelia’s insanity caused by the grief of her father’s death. While Hamlet is duty bound as a Prince and “his will is not his own, / For he himself is subject to his birth. / He may not, as unvalued persons do, / Carve for himself” (1.iii.17-20), one cannot sympathize with him as he is still a prince, but the fact that being born as a girl robs Ophelia of her basic right to make her own life decisions, begs the audience to direct their sympathy towards Ophelia the most. As the grief of Polonius’ death and Hamlet’s betrayal is too much for the frail Ophelia to handle, she goes insane and in her madness, she is unable to save her drowning self. Shakespeare mentions that Ophelia “willfully seeks her own salvation” and had she “not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial” (V, i, 1- 21), but the audience knows that she is insane and hence not in her right mind to commit suicide. Shakespeare outstandingly creates even more sympathy for Ophelia than any of his other characters when although, both Leartes and Hamlet die trying to avenge the deaths of their respective fathers - and in turn succeeding - Ophelia dies in vain. On the note of avenging their fathers, both Hamlet and Leartes are requited when their fathers’ killers die at their hands in the last scene of the play, yet Ophelia dies with the pain of never knowing why Hamlet betrayed her love or killed her father. This leaves the audience feeling pity and sorrow for Ophelia at her untimely and unnatural death. In conclusion, the reasons Ophelia is the most deserving of readers’ sympathy are: her unfair status in society as a woman, her madness and her tragic death, and the lack of retribution for her father’s death and her lover’s disdain.