Ophelia
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- For other uses, see Ophelia (disambiguation).
Ophelia is a character from Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, daughter to Polonius, sister to Laertes, and love interest of Hamlet. She is a loyal and dutiful daughter, who obeys her father's instruction to "lock herself from [Hamlet's] resort". There is a theory, however, that Ophelia may have been physically intimate with Hamlet at some point in the past. This theory is clearly visualized in the 1996 Kenneth Branagh film, where Hamlet and Ophelia are shown having sex in bed.
When Hamlet apparently goes mad, Polonius believes that his lovesickness for Ophelia is the cause. He arranges, and secretly observes, a meeting between the two lovers, in order to test his theory. Hamlet, realizing that Ophelia is confederate in her father's plot and generally upset with women, makes many cruel and humiliating remarks to her. Because of this, Ophelia is considered a scapegoat to Hamlet's anger with his mother and women as a whole.
Now truly convinced that Hamlet is mad, Ophelia comments sadly: "O, what a noble mind here is o'erthrown." She loved Hamlet, and he rejected her. Furthermore, Polonius is later brutally murdered by Hamlet himself. This is too much for Ophelia; she loses her sanity, and falls into a stream while collecting flowers. She drowns without attempting to save herself. Some say this lends credence to a theory that alleges she was carrying Hamlet's child as drowning one's self was supposedly a common way for unwed mothers in that era to commit suicide. Before her death, Ophelia sings snatches of bawdy songs and refers to common wildflowers that each had significance in folklore ("rosemary, that's for remembrance").
Ophelia's death is described in detail by Hamlet's mother Gertrude in a famous monologue. It is never explained who witnessed her death.
[edit] Ophelia in art and literature
- French poet Arthur Rimbaud wrote the poem 'Ophélie' about her. She was a favorite subject of Romantic and Pre-Raphaelite artists such as John William Waterhouse and John Everett Millais. Millais's painting Ophelia was part of the original Tate Gallery collection and is the most popular postcard sold at the Tate Britain in London. It depicts her holding flowers, mouth agape, floating in the weedy brook just before she is pulled to 'muddy death'.
- Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, in the first chapter of his 1880 masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov, described a capricious young woman who committed suicide by throwing herself off a steep cliff into a river, simply to imitate Shakespeare's Ophelia. Dostoevsky concludes that "Even then, if the cliff, chosen and cherished from long ago, had not been so picturesque, if it had been merely a flat, prosaic bank, the suicide might not have taken place at all."
- Mary Pipher alluded to Ophelia in the title of her nonfiction book Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls. The book puts forth the thesis that modern American teenage girls are victimized, lost, and unsure of themselves, like Ophelia.
- Ophelia's Revenge, a novel by Rebecca Reisert, is a retelling of Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view.
- Bob Dylan refers to her in "Desolation Row" on his album, "Highway 61 Revisited." In his song "Memphis Skyline" from the Pre-Raphaelite-esque album "Want Two" Rufus Wainwright pays tribute to Jeff Buckley and how his version of Leonard Cohen's "Halelujah" sounded like "mad Ophelia." In music, Ophelia is also referenced by Natalie Merchant in her song, 'Ophelia' on the album of the same title. The Band wrote a song titled 'Ophelia', though the song is most likely not about Ophelia.
- Michale Graves sings about her in his song "Ophelia"
- The Grateful Dead incorporate Shakespeare's words in their song Althea: "Yours may be the fate of Ophelia / Sleepin' and perchance, to dream."
- In the Capcom game Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Ophelia, however, was depicted as the demonic priestess of the genma/demon's legion, one of the core member of Genma Triumvirate, she taking the guise of Lady Yodo/Cha-Cha, wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, by taking her form (the real Yodo was sacrificed, though is later shown to be alive and well).
- Dying Like Ophelia is an award winning six-minute drama about a woman who wants to die in a manner resembling Millais's painting. It was based on an excerpt of the play, Lion In The Streets, by Judith Thompson.
- Uranus's secondmost innner moon was also named after Ophelia after being discovered by Voyager 2 in 1986 , and is one of the smallest moons in the solar system (with a diameter of only 16 km).
- Ambulance Ltd has a song called Ophelia.
- L'arc en ciel ( a popular Japanese band ) has a song called Ophelia.
- Emilie Autumn has a song called Opheliac.
- Indigo Girls have an album called Swamp Ophelia
- Lord Vampyr has a song called The Ophelia's Ghost
- Rasputina has a song called Dig Ophelia
- Jewel references Ophelia in the song "Innocence Maintained:" ("Ophelia drowned in the water/Crushed by her own weight")
- David Usher wrote the song "Ophelia" on the "Creature" album, which can be interpretated as Hamlet's complaint
- The Shroud wrote the song "Ophelia" for their cd, Drowning Dreams, which was released in 1992
- Abney Park wrote the song "Dear Ophelia" for their cd, The Death of Tragedy, which was released in 2005
- Danish band Kashmir (band) features the song "Ophelia" on their No Balance Palace-album from 2005. As in the Shakespeare play, this Ophelia finds answers in inexplicable in insanity.
- Emilie Autumn released her album Opheliac in the UK in September of 2006. The album shares a name with one of the songs in which Emilie compares herself to Ophelia. Emilie sings "as the water rises up again" and "I only hope that in the end you can see the Opheliac in me, its the opheliac in me." and "what if I swim or sink".
- Darling Violetta's song Ophelia refers to the character's suicide in the lines "the water is quier, and calm, makes me feel like I am home"
- Jean Betts, a playwright from New Zealand, wrote a feminist version of Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view. The play contains original writing by Betts interwoven with Shakespeare's own text and is called "Ophelia Thinks Harder".
- A new rock band named Exit Ophelia, is currently recording their first album.
- Playwright Don Nigro explains Ophelia's madness in a first-person narrative by her in his 10 minute play Dead Men's Fingers.
