<span>Ophelia was used by Claudius and Polonius to deal with their problem with Hamlet by making Ophelia as the bait because they Claudius and Polonius wanted to perform a trap with Hamlet. She was instructed to pretend reading a book and be approached by Hamlet who loved her once.</span>
Polonius uses Ophelia as bait in order to determine the validity of Hamlet's madness.
Explanation:
It is in Act 3, scene 1 that Polonius and Claudius are talking about how excited Hamlet is about the players' performance that night and they wonder about the motives for his madness, there is that Ophelia becomes part of the plan as they think that Hamlet will tell her his inner thoughts if they have the chance to speak "alone" while they are in fact being observed from a hiding position.
I think her attitude affects the children great because she is teaching them to not be scared/nervous. I do think she is portrayed realistically because she is being brave?