Ophelia is essentially a pure and virtuous character who is driven insane by the conflicting demands of her father and brother on one hand and her former boyfriend, Hamlet, on the other. She changes from a state of innocence to one of disillusionment and despair as the play goes on.
At the beginning of the play, Laertes, her brother, tells Ophelia that Hamlet is not serious about her. He says, "For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, / Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, / A violet in the youth of primy nature" (I.3.5-7). In other words, Laertes informs Ophelia that Hamlet's attentions are fleeting, and that they will pass because he is changeable young man. Later, her father, Polonius, tells her, "You do not understand yourself so clearly / As it behooves my daughter and your honor" (I.3.97-98). He accuses her of not acting with the modesty she should, but Ophelia is ultimately an honest and honorable person. While the people around her accuse her, she acts with rectitude and obedience.
In Act III, Scene 1, she obeys Claudius, Hamlet's uncle, and her father when they ask her to spy on Hamlet. Polonius even tells her, "Read on this book / That show of such an exercise may color / Your loneliness.—" (I.3.46-49). He asks his daughter to read from a prayer book when she is trying to deceive Hamlet, an act of hypocrisy, so that she seems innocent when Hamlet comes by. She obediently responds. During the conversation that follows, Hamlet tells her, "Get thee to a nunnery. / Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" (I.3.23-24). He says that she should become a nun so that she won't give birth to more sinners like herself. Ophelia responds to Hamlet's hurtful words only by asking God to help him (line 135).
Throughout all of these manipulations by her father, brother, and former boyfriend, Ophelia doesn't change. She only says, "O, how miserable I am to see Hamlet now and know what he was before!" (I.3.161-162). Her essential good nature is intact.
However, by Act IV she is carried away by grief over how the men around her treat her and becomes mad. In some senses, she also seems to be more aware of the way men mistreat her. She is less innocent and more knowing, even as she is insane. She sings in verse (which, as it isn't in iambic pentameter, marks her as insane): "He is dead and gone, lady, /He is dead and gone. / At his head is a patch of green grass, / And at his feet there is a tomb stone." (IV.5.26-29). This verse signifies that she has become obsessed with death and is depressed and deranged after her father's death. When Claudius asks her how she is doing, she answers, "Well, God'ield you," which means may you get what you deserve. She then sings a song about a young man tricking a young woman into sleeping with him and then not marrying her (lines 40-50).
She has changed because she is now more aware of the way in which men mistreat women. Later, she drowns, and she seems to have done nothing to save herself. As Gertrude says, Ophelia is "As one incapable of her own distress" (IV.7.175). In other words, Ophelia shows no sign of saving herself, as she is resigned to the evil in the world but has decided she wants to pass on to another world so she doesn't have to deal with it.
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