Hamlet - Shakespeares Ophelia as Modern Icon Essay -- Hamlet essays

Hamlet - Shakespeare's Ophelia as Modern Icon Shakespeare's Ophelia is not lacking in attention. As one of Shakespeare's most popular female characters she has enjoyed many appellations from the bard. '"Fair Ophelia." "Most beautified Ophelia." "Pretty Ophelia." "Sweet Ophelia." "Dear Ophelia." "Beautiful Ophelia†¦sweet maid†¦poor wretch." "Poor Ophelia."' (Vest 1) All of these names for Ophelia can be found in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Since Shakespeare's incarnation of Ophelia many have felt the need to offer their opinions of Ophelia as a character. '"Poor wispy Ophelia." "Devastated and emotionally exhausted Ophelia." "Pensive, fair-haired, blue-eyed daughter of the north." "Ophelia the young, the beauteous, the harmless, the pious." "Clumsy Ophelia†¦open-hearted but light-brained†¦incapable either of understanding or of curing." "A weak creature, wanting in truthfulness, in purpose, in force of character, and only interesting when she loses the little wits she had."' (Vest 1 ) These are only a few of the hundreds. For a character that only appears in five of the 20 scenes in Hamlet, Ophelia has garnered a great deal of attention from analysts, critics, artists, actresses, fiction writers, psychologists, and adolescent girls alike. Readers are consistently struck by her character that seems relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things. Ophelia is many times viewed as only important in relation to Hamlet and the effect she has on him. Ophelia is not just important in this respect, but also in respect to what she tells us about the society she came out of and the society we live in today. First analyzing Shakespeare and his precursors then concentrating on the modern day prominence of ... ...s Write About Their Search For Self. New York: Harper Collins, 1999. Vest, James M. The French Face of Ophelia from Belleforest to Baudelaire. Lanham: University Press of America, 1989. Appendix 1 "Ophelia's Legs (Voyeur in a Small Town)" From Dead Snakes, Cats and the IRS, Poetry of Rock and Rebellion I watch eyes thinking of an old free man's story, seeing slanted gilts of light cat-backed mountains bristling in the distance there is an Ophelia's legs softer than blood in the trail she's unfolded toward crossed by dove's flight and spider tip-toeing- the angle determines what will notice- each's earth fingers reach through as quietly as they must be found. I see this woman, her lovers, some have been mine. The days damn here, filigreed as hair or knowing -Theresa Courtney Gillespie