Blog 5: Analytic Snapshot of "Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome"

        Thomas Plummer, a BYU professor of Germanic and Slavic languages, delivered his faculty lecture, “Diagnosing and Treating the Ophelia Syndrome”, to the German Honor Society Delta Phi Alpha in April 1990. The purpose of Plummer’s address is to convince his listeners or readers of the dangerous implications of the “Ophelia Syndrome” and to help them avoid becoming ensnared in its web. The lecture’s central message is that we, as students and functioning members of society, need to think, feel, and act for ourselves and not force our opinions on others. The “Ophelia Syndrome” epidemic may have been more apparent to Plummer in his role as a college professor, where he constantly observed student-teacher relationships. He stated himself that the disease is manifest frequently in universities. Thus, Plummer assumes that his audience is just as aware of the existence of the “Ophelia Syndrome” in many parts of the world.

         To illustrate the need to think for oneself, Plummer employs the strong metaphor of Ophelia and Polonius frequently in his address. Opening with a scene from Hamlet in which Ophelia concedes to let her father tell her what to think and feel, the professor asserts that there are a number of Ophelias and Poloniuses in our own society. Those who are ignorant, dependent, and submissive and manipulated into feeling what they are supposed to feel and thinking what they are supposed to think are Ophelias. Those who claim to know answers when they have none, feign expertise by virtue of authority, and seek after the power (the manipulators) are Poloniuses. Plummer paints these characters in such an unpleasant light that most readers would never wish to live such an existence—urging them to avoid becoming Ophelias, and even Poloniuses, at all costs.

         Plummer also describes a number of personal experiences when listing his six ways to treat the “Ophelia Syndrome.” In doing so, he invites readers to relate to him on a deeper level. We learn that he has experienced the effects of the disease himself and fought back. With the professor’s shining example, we are able to move forward in our own battles against the “Ophelia Syndrome.”