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| John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1852. John Everett Millais, a famous Pre-Raphaelite painter, offers a good example of someone trying to capture Ophelia's story and how she may look. |
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, technically, Ophelia is only in five of twenty scenes within the play, but despite her limited number of appearances, everyone seems to be transfixed by her and search for her story. By everyone I mean nineteenth century feminists, like Anna Jameson, psychoanalysts, like Lacan, Pre-Raphaelites, like John Everett Mallais, and a large number of American, French, and contemporary feminist critics. The real trick to Ophelia is that she does not have a story to provide. As Lee Edwards says, “it is impossible to reconstruct Ophelia’s biography from the text: ‘We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’” (283).
How can someone who has so little appearances and someone with no story be so capturing? In my opinion, we want to know the unknown, we feel a need to give someone background or a story. We want to make them worth something, and try and connect aspects of them back to ourselves to feel some relation. Connect with what they are going through so we feel like we are not the only ones and to provide clarities for ourselves in some instances.
Discussion Questions:
1.What is your take on Ophelia’s little appearance and need for a story? Does she capture you, if so how?
2.If Lee Edwards’s quote is true, “it is impossible to reconstruct Ophelia’s biography from the text: ‘We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’” (283), then what would Hamlet’s story be without Ophelia?
1.What is your take on Ophelia’s little appearance and need for a story? Does she capture you, if so how?
ReplyDeleteI feel that Ophelia’s character in Hamlet is small in the sense that she does not make many appearances, but large in the sense that her character deals with difficult situations. She is a victim of a tragedy that is different than Hamlet’s. Love and death are both stems for tragedies and Ophelia’s tragic love and “insanity” definitely capture me because her situation is relatable. Today, many girls are lead-on and then left in the dust by boys, similarly, Hamlet has toyed with Ophelia and her emotions.
2.If Lee Edwards’s quote is true, “it is impossible to reconstruct Ophelia’s biography from the text: ‘We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’” (283), then what would Hamlet’s story be without Ophelia?
Without Ophelia Hamlet would become much shorter. Many of the scenes in which Hamlet and his crazed-demeanor are discussed include Ophelia. Polonious blames Hamlet’s insanity on his love for Ophelia, but without her there would be fewer speculations of what is causing Hamlet’s insanity. Hamlet would still deal with the issue of whether or not he should kill his uncle and avenge his father’s murder, but the element of a “love interest” would no longer exist and I believe that it would not make Hamlet as interesting. The relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is thought-provoking as well as heartbreaking and affects all of the characters around them. Without that relationship the play would become less complex and much more one-sided. As a side-note, a few of my favorite scenes are the ones between Ophelia and her father and brother because of the love they express for her and the wise advice they provide. I would be sad to see those scenes disappear.
1.What is your take on Ophelia’s little appearance and need for a story? Does she capture you, if so how?
ReplyDeleteI think she captures readers because she is the image of purity. She is the image of innocence and femininity. Ophelia is there in the play, for the protagonist to have something around his arm. The norm of most stories is of the guy getting the girl. In the story, really she is only meant to be a sexual desire of hamlets, and she is portrayed as that. But, she is a important character. Many events in the play wouldn't happen if ophelia wasn't part. Many like the graveyard scene, where he holds the skull head, the final battle between Laertes and Hamlet or when hamlet stabbed ophelia's father Polonious. Even though ophelia is a small character, her family and her make up a lot of the play, and it would be a very different situation without her.
2.If Lee Edwards’s quote is true, “it is impossible to reconstruct Ophelia’s biography from the text: ‘We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’” (283), then what would Hamlet’s story be without Ophelia?
It would be very different, ophelia's family and herself make up half of the situations that happen in the play. People were suggesting in the play that hamlets madness was because of his love for ophelia, if ophelia wasn't there, then wouldn't hamlet be shipped off to England sooner because of his uncles suspicions? Maybe there wouldn't be so many deaths, since all of ophelia's family had died by the hands of hamlet, except her. Although, a lovers tie not being connected with hamlet might not be a big changer. I do feel the play would of gone down faster, I believe hamlets goal of killing his uncle might of come sooner and the story would of been shorter.
ReplyDelete1.What is your take on Ophelia’s little appearance and need for a story? Does she capture you, if so how?
Ophelia certainly captures me, a lot of her traits remind me of myself, which I think is in part due to Ophelia being written as a character who easy resonate with for many different people. Whether or not she was meant to be written this way is up for debate, however I think there's a little bit of Ophelia in all of us. Personally, I'd like to read Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view, due to lack of appearance throughout the story.
2.If Lee Edwards’s quote is true, “it is impossible to reconstruct Ophelia’s biography from the text: ‘We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet’” (283), then what would Hamlet’s story be without Ophelia?
I think that Hamlet's story would be incredibly peculiar without Ophelia, Shakespeare's stories almost always seem to involve a love interest, so I believe that without Ophelia, Hamlet would have to have someone else for a love interest. There have been studies that show that the most popular television shows pull in viewers with action and drama, and then keep their viewers for the long term with the love story plots. I think the same is true with books, almost every story involves some sort of an element of a love story.