What makes Ophelia a good and appropriate choice for use in Dr. Mary
Pipher’s
Reviving Ophelia ?
The answer may lie in how she is treated by others in her community; she has relatively no power in her culture.

• Prince Hamlet of Denmark is urged by his father’s
Ghost to avenge his murder at the hands of the dead king’s brother, now King Claudius; to make matters worse, Claudius has married the widow, Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. To this end, Hamlet feigns madness, eschews his beloved, Ophelia (sister to
Laertes and daughter to Polonius), and begins to see if he should kill Claudius.
• Ophelia goes insane after Hamlet’s departure and her father’s death (via Hamlet).

•
Ophelia is counseled first by her brother,
Laertes, and next by her father, Polonius, to stay away from
Hamlet.
•
Ophelia agrees to obey her father’s charge.
Joseph Severn’s Ophelia

•
Ophelia is frightened by an unkempt and disturbed Hamlet, who may have come to say goodbye to her as he is now charged with bringing his father’s murderer to justice and fears the distraction of other relationships.
Arthur Hughes’s Ophelia

•
Ophelia is compelled by her father and king to determine whether
Hamlet’s madness has been caused by her dismissal of him.
•
After witnessing
Hamlet’s treatment of her, the king concludes that there must be some other reason for
Hamlet’s insanity.
John Waterhouse’s Ophelia

•
Ophelia is treated very disrespectfully by
Hamlet publicly, as they prepare to watch a theatrical performance that
Hamlet believes will prove the king’s guilt in the murder of
Hamlet’s father.
Another Waterhouse Ophelia

•
Ophelia, after experiencing his public humiliation of her and after learning of Hamlet’s murder of her father, goes insane herself.
•
She begins behaving wantonly and crazily before the court
Madeleine Lemaire’s Ophelia

•
Hamlet returns to learn that Ophelia has died, apparently killing herself by drowning as harvesting flowers along the riverbank.
•
Hamlet and Laertes then fight in her grave prior to her internment.
John Everett Millais’s Ophelia

•
Ophelia, because of her position as a young unmarried woman within a patriarchal society, is torn by multiple and conflicting directives and loyalties.
– Her king
– Her father
– Her brother
– Her boyfriend
•
When those multiple directives fail or disappear, she is lost.
She goes insane and then dies, experiencing two theorized solutions for women’s freedom from patriarchy.

For more art inspired by Ophelia, see http://www.boingyboingy.com/jump/ophelia_art.html
Henry Nelson O’Niel’s
Ophelia