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Ophelia is a character from Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, daughter to Polonius, sister to Laertes, and love interest of Hamlet. She is a loyal and dutiful daughter, who obeys her father's instruction to "lock herself from Hamlet's resort". There is a theory, however, that Ophelia may have been physically intimate with Hamlet at some point in the past. This theory is clearly visualized in the 1996 Kenneth Branagh film, where Hamlet and Ophelia are shown having sex in bed.
When Hamlet apparently goes mad, Polonius believes that his lovesickness for Ophelia is the cause. He arranges, and secretly observes, a meeting between the two lovers, in order to test his theory. Hamlet, realizing that Ophelia is confederate in her father's plot and generally upset with women, makes many cruel and humiliating remarks to her. Because of this, Ophelia is considered a scapegoat to Hamlet's anger with his mother and women as a whole.
Now truly convinced that Hamlet is mad, Ophelia comments sadly: "O, what a noble mind here is o'erthrown." She loved Hamlet, and he rejected her. Furthermore, Polonius is later brutally murdered by Hamlet himself. This is too much for Ophelia; she loses her sanity, and falls into a stream while collecting flowers. She drowns without attempting to save herself. Some say this lends credence to a theory that alleges she was carrying Hamlet's child as drowning one's self was supposedly a common way for unwed mothers in that era to commit suicide. Before her death, Ophelia sings snatches of bawdy songs and refers to common wildflowers that each had significance in folklore ("rosemary, that's for remembrance").
Ophelia's death is described in detail by Hamlet's mother Gertrude in a famous monologue. It is never explained who witnessed her death.
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Ophelia in art and literature
Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky, in the first chapter of his 1880 masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov, described a capricious young woman who committed suicide by throwing herself off a steep cliff into a river, simply to imitate Shakespeare's Ophelia. Dostoevsky concludes that "Even then, if the cliff, chosen and cherished from long ago, had not been so picturesque, if it had been merely a flat, prosaic bank, the suicide might not have taken place at all."
Mary Pipher alluded to Ophelia in the title of her nonfiction book . The book puts forth the thesis that modern American teenage girls are victimized, lost, and unsure of themselves, like Ophelia.
The Grateful Dead incorporate Shakespeare's words in their song Althea: "Yours may be the fate of Ophelia / Sleepin' and perchance, to dream."
In the Capcom game Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, Ophelia, however, was depicted as the demonic priestess of the genma/demon's legion, one of the core member of Genma Triumvirate, she taking the guise of Lady Yodo/Cha-Cha, wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, by taking her form (the real Yodo was sacrificed, though is later shown to be alive and well).
Dying Like Ophelia is an award winning six-minute drama about a woman who wants to die in a manner resembling Millais's painting. It was based on an excerpt of the play, Lion In The Streets, by Judith Thompson.
L'arc en ciel ( a popular Japanese band ) has a song called Ophelia.
Jewel references Ophelia in the song "Innocence Maintained:" ("Ophelia drowned in the water/Crushed by her own weight")
David Usher wrote the song "Ophelia" on the "Creature" album, which can be interpretated as Hamlet's complaint
The Shroud wrote the song "Ophelia" for their cd, Drowning Dreams, which was released in 1992
Abney Park wrote the song "Dear Ophelia" for their cd, The Death of Tragedy, which was released in 2005
Danish band Kashmir (band) features the song "Ophelia" on their No Balance Palace-album from 2005. As in the Shakespeare play, this Ophelia finds answers in inexplicable in insanity.
Emilie Autumn released her album Opheliac in the UK in September of 2006. The album shares a name with one of the songs in which Emilie compares herself to Ophelia. Emilie sings "as the water rises up again" and "I only hope that in the end you can see the Opheliac in me, its the opheliac in me." and "what if I swim or sink".
Darling Violetta's song Ophelia refers to the character's suicide in the lines "the water is quier, and calm, makes me feel like I am home"
Jean Betts, a playwright from New Zealand, wrote a feminist version of Hamlet from Ophelia's point of view. The play contains original writing by Betts interwoven with Shakespeare's own text and is called "Ophelia Thinks Harder".
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