Ophelia has been a source of inspiration for countless artists over the years and each artist chooses to represent Ophelia in a different way. The way that Ophelia is portrayed in the John Everett Millais painting is in a higly ominous, haunting, and grim. The way her body is postioned, with her hands up ward, sort of like she was pleading with god to take her off the earth, since death is a very big theame of this play, and she did show signs of loosing her mind before. It's not as if she was upset, she didn't look like she tryed to fight dieing in this picture she looks like she just accepted her faith. The flowers around her, in this painting in a way show what she was feeling the last moments of her life. She wasn't thinking like an adult, but as a child which is why there where crow flowers in the background nettles around the willow, to represent pain. Forsaken love,is what the willow in the background represents, her forsaken love to be with Hamlet. In her hand she was holding the folower that represented sorrow, the sowrrow that she was holding inside her untill she could not hold it any more.
I beleive that Shakespeare intended Ophelia to be portrayed as a girl that acts wimpy, and frail but it's just an act. I don't beleive that she is ment to be only one person and act one way, she is supposed to be mystruous since in every scene of the play she acts diffrent, maybe she was always depressed and thats why she ended it all. Ophenlia's final moments where like a dream, they had to be beacuse she had lost it all, she lost her love, her dad and soon her brain and sense of sanity joined, and faded away. Did she intertinally drown herself...that is a question that I have asked myself a few times I do not beleive it was intentianl in a way. I mean she had lost her mind, so her even jumping into the river to die couldn't of been intentinal, it was just her mind was gone so she didn't think of the consquenses so she jumped in, in my oppinion. Gertrude knew, she knew how Ophelia died, with great detail, she saw it. There could be no other reasoning for it she saw it and she didn't try to help her.
I beleive that the reason for Ophelia's madness is that she lost her boyfriend, who she knew she could never be with beacuse she was never royal, her father was killed by the love of her life, if thats not enough to make someone go crazy I don't know what is. Everyone and everything helped contrubute to her demise not just one thing, she was too weak to handle it all so she desided to take the easy way out. In a way I do feel sorry for her, all the strees and death around her, it influenced her new nutty attitude. If i where to direct the play i would repersent her as if she was crazy, but only beacuse of what has been done around her, I would also direct it so that Gertude is around her when she jumped into the lake, she watched it and didn't help her at all. I would reprsent her as a strong young women who is then torn down due to her surrounds and the pain she has gone through.
1 comment:
Nazila, I absolutely love your background. In reading your posts about Hamlet I found it particularly fitting. I'm sure you didn't choose it just for Hamlet, but there is something about the dark red and black color scheme that just seems so fitting for such a dark play with so much murder!
You give a very well-written and nuanced description of Ophelia's character. I love that you would represent her as a strong woman; I always seem to want to view her in this way, despite the way she dies. I think that it does take a strong character to listen to her father and brother's advice, even though she loved Hamlet. That's not easy at all! Great analysis!
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