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

Hamlet - Shakespeares Ophelia as Modern IconShakespeares Ophelia is not lacking in attention. As genius of Shakespeares most popular female characters she has enjoyed many appellations from the bard. Fair Ophelia. Most beautified Ophelia. Pretty Ophelia. Sweet Ophelia. Dear Ophelia. Beautiful Opheliasweet maidpoor wretch. miserable Ophelia. (Vest 1) altogether of these names for Ophelia can be found in Shakespeares The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Since Shakespeares 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- coped, blue-eyed daughter of the north. Ophelia the young, the beauteous, the harmless, the pious. Clumsy Opheliaopen-hearted but light-brainedincapable 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 comparatively 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. start 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. appendage 1 Ophelias Legs (Voyeur in a Small Town)From Dead Snakes, Cat s and the IRS, Poetry of Rock and RebellionI watch eyesthinking of an oldfree mans story, perceive slantedgilts of lightcat-backed mountainsbristling in the distancethere is an Ophelias legssofter than blood in the trailshes unfolded towardcrossed by doves flightand spider tip-toeing-the angle determineswhat will notice-eachs country fingers reachthrough 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