The Ophelia Page

"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,

love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.

There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue

for you; and here's some for me: we may call it

herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with

a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you

some violets, but they withered all when my father

died: they say he made a good end,--"

From Act IV, Scene V of William Shakespeare's Hamlet,
printed on the frame of Arthur Hughes' painting Ophelia.

Ophelia by Anna Lea Merritt

Commentary/Scholarly Articles on Ophelia

"Whereas for Hamlet madness is metaphysical, linked with culture, for Ophelia it is a product of the female body and female nature. . . . Ophelia's virginal and vacant white is contrasted with Hamlet's scholar's garb, his 'suits of solemn black.' Her flowers suggest the discordant double images of female sexuality as both innocent blossoming and whorish contamination; she is the 'green girl' of pastoral, the virginal 'Rose of May' and the sexually explicit madwoman who, in giving away her wild flowers and herbs, is symbolically deflowering herself. . . . The mad Ophelia's bawdy songs and verbal license, while they give her access to 'an entirely different range of experience' from what she is allowed as the dutiful daughter, seem to be her one sanctioned form of self-assertion as a woman, quickly followed, as if in retribution, by her death." (Elaine Showalter, "Representing Ophelia")

Reading Ophelia's Madness--scholarly article.

Gender and Identity in Hamlet: A Modern Interpretation of Ophelia--interesting student paper.

Ophelia's Flowers and Their Symbolic Meaning Act 4, Scene 5, of Shakespeare's Hamlet --Ophelia's flower language, by a botanist. See actual images (with commentary) of her flowers: Millais's Ophelia: Symbolism.

By the Way, Ophelia is Pregnant--interesting approach.

Lesson Plan:  Enter Ophelia--focuses on the "mad scenes."

Feminist Criticism and Teaching Hamlet--Neely's article on different feminist approaches to Ophelia and Gertrude.

Ophelia Has a Lot to Answer For --Margaret Atwood lecture read at the Stratford Festival. Alternate copy: Atwood on Ophelia. See also her amusing Gertrude Talks Back.

Shakspeare's Heroines: Characteristics of Women, Moral, Poetical and Historical --influential 19th-century interpretation by Mrs. Jameson.

The Girlhood of Shakespeare's Heroines--a pre-Freudian account of the trauma that formed Ophelia's sexual identity by 19th-century Mary Cowden Clarke.

Ophelia by Ernest Hebert

Ophelia Paintings

". . . [S]uperintendents of Victorian lunatic asylums were also enthusiasts of Shakespeare. . . . The case study of Ophelia was one that seemed particularly useful as an account of hysteria or mental breakdown in adolescence, a period of sexual instability which the Victorians regarded as risky for women's mental health. . . . Reality,  psychiatry, and representational convention were even more confused in the photographic records of hysteria produced in the 1870s by Jean-Martin Charcot. . . ; his women patients were coached in their performances for the camera, and, under hypnosis, were sometimes instructed to play heroines from Shakespeare. . . . [T]he Victorian madwoman looks mutely out from men's pictures, and acts a part men had staged and directed . . . ." (Elaine Showalter, "Representing Ophelia")

Doubt Thou the Stars are Fire: An Ophelia Gallery--most complete collection of Ophelia images on the web (short of the porn sites!)--great commentary on the Pre-Raphaelite paintings. Links at top of page to 20th-century stage, movie, and popular culture versions.

Ophelia -- Victimized Woman or Femme Fatale?--commentary on the Ophelias of Millais and Rossetti.

Ophelia --links to Ophelia information (including modern lyrics on Ophelia) and many, many Ophelia paintings.

Ophelia --two pages of Ophelia images (some not seen above) interspersed with quotations and selected Ophelia scenes from the play. Click link to "Mad Ramblings of Ophelia" at bottom of page.

Ophelia (Emory U)--many links to Ophelia paintings, arranged chronologically. See also Rusche's Shakespeare Illustrated.

"The Play Scene in Hamlet" by Daniel Maclise ( 1842)

Ophelia, Hamlet, and the court watching the "mousetrap" play-within-a-play.

Ophelia on Screen and on Stage

"But since the 1970s too we have had a feminist discourse which has offered a new perspective on Ophelia's madness as protest and rebellion. For many feminist theorists, the madwoman is a heroine, a powerful figure who rebels against the family and the social order; and the hysteric who refuses to speak the language of the patriarchal order, who speaks otherwise, is a sister." (Elaine Showalter, "Representing Ophelia")

Psychology (Ophelia as Hysteric)--19th-century romantic interpretation of Ophelia. View this entire Interdisciplinary Shakespeare site for more on 19th-century responses to the play.

On Some of Shakespeare's Female Characters--letter by the Victorian actress Helena Faucit on her interpretation of Ophelia

Ophelia by Madeline LeMaire

Hamlet Links

• Hamlet Online --many, many helpful links.
• Classroom activities to accompany Hamlet--long list of links, plus Discussion Questions and good Hamlet links. (See the entire Homepage Hamlet Study Guide.)
• Teacher Cyberguide for Hamlet.
• Hamlet and Co.--many helpful links.
• The Oedipus-Complex as An Explanation of Hamlet's Mystery: A Study in Motive --complete text of Ernest Jones' famous Freudian reading.
• Too Much in the (Black) Sun:  Hamlet's First Soliloquy, A Kristevan View --Crunelle-Vanrigh's scholarly article based on a new psychoanalytic reading.
• Making Mother Matter: Repression, Revision, and the Stakes of 'Reading Psychoanalysis Into' Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet --scholarly article.

Shakespeare Links

• The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
• The Shakespeare Mystery.
• The Folger Shakespeare Library
• The Shakespeare Oxford Society Homepage

Ophelia in the Thistles by Georges Clairin

             

Return to Gender, Literature, and Art Index

All quotations are from Elaine Showalter, "Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism" in Shakespeare and the Question of Theory, eds. Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman (Methuen 1985) 77-94.