Essay on Hamlet and its Ophelia -- Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet and its Ophelia In Shakespeares Hamlet there is an innocent young lady who comes to an undeserved and indecorous end. She is Ophelia, the subject of this essay. Bryan N. S. Gooch in Review of The Shapes of Revenge Victimization, Vengeance, and Vindictiveness in Shakespeare, presents Ophelia as the powerless victim Harry Keyishian . . . clearly presents in Chapter I, Victimization and Revenge conversion Voices, a useful survey of the problem, drawing from books on the passions and moving on to consider not only the power of the revenger but the powerlessness of victims, e.g., the Duchess of Gloucester, Ophelia. . . . (1). Helena Faucit (Lady Martin) in On Some of Shakespeares Female Characters comments on the misunderstood character of Ophelia My views of Shakespeares women have been wont to take their shape in the living portraiture of the stage, and not in words. I have, in imagination, lived their lives from the very beginning to the end and Ophelia, as I have pict ured her to myself, is so unlike what I hear and read close her, and have seen represented on the stage, that I can scarcely hope to make any one think of her as I do. It hurts me to hear her verbalize of, as she often is, as a weak creature, wanting in truthfulness, in purpose, in force of character, and only interesting when she loses the little wits she had. And merely who can wonder that a character so delicately outlined, and shaded in with touches so fine, should be often gravely misunderstood? (186) Ophelia enters the play with her brother Laertes, who, in parting for school, bids her farewell and gives her advice regarding her relationship with Hamlet. Ophelia agrees to ab... ...-30. Lehmann, Courtney and Lisa S. Starks. Making Mother Matter Repression, Revision, and the Stakes of Reading Psychoanalysis Into Kenneth Branaghs Hamlet. Early Modern Literary Studies 6.1 (May, 2000) 2.1-24 <URL http//purl.oclc.org/emls/06-1/lehmhaml.htm>. Pennington, Michael. Ophelia M adness Her Only safe and sound Haven. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet A Users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. mamma Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.