I must admit I'm like Sheena - having trouble getting enthusiastic about Hamlet, and hoping that reading other people's posts will do it for me! (And yes, I watched KB's Hamlet - it definitely helped, but it wasn't enough, despite the beautiful language!)

About Ophelia, though - I think one of her functions is to show Hamlet what "might have been" if he'd only been willing to let sleeping dogs lie, or if he'd never found out the cause of his father's death in the first place. It's like she's the symbol of the other path he might have taken - the girl he might have married with his family's full approval, had children with, been very happy with, and had a "normal", sunlit life with.