Hamlet’s Gentle Ophelia Essay -- The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays

small towns Gentle Ophelia William Shakespeare created a gentle atomic creature in the caliber of Ophelia in the tragedy Hamlet. Her strange misfortunes, as well as some other circumstances, make her life an elicit one to explore in this essay. cellblock and Trent in The Cambridge History of English and American Literature maintain that Ophelia is interesting in herself, aside from her relationship with the hero Of Ophelia, and Polonius, and the queen and all the rest, not to mention Hamlet himself (in whose soul it would be absurd to attempt to load down in new points here), after this we need not say anything. But it is manifest that they are not, as in the case of Coriolanus, interesting merely or mainly for their connection with the hero, but in themselves. (vol.5, pt.1, ch.8, sec.16, no.55) Helena Faucit (Lady Martin) in On Some of Shakespeares Female Characters reveals the misunderstand character of Ophelia My views of Shakespeares women befool been wont to tak e their shape in the living portraiture of the stage, and not in words. I have, in imagination, lived their lives from the very beginning to the end and Ophelia, as I have pictured her to myself, is so unlike what I catch out and read somewhat her, and have seen represented on the stage, that I can scarcely believe to make any one think of her as I do. It hurts me to hear her spoken of, as she often is, as a weak creature, wanting(p) in truthfulness, in purpose, in force of character, and only interesting when she loses the little wits she had. And yet who can wonder that a character so delicately outlined, and shaded in with touches so fine, should be often gravely misunderstood? (186) Ophelia enters the play with her ... ...s 6.1 (May, 2000) 2.1-24 . Pennington, Michael. Ophelia Madness Her Only Safe Haven. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet A Users Guide. parvenu York Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakes peares Tragedies. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/crossroads/full.html No line nos. Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York G.P. Putnams Sons, 190721 New York Bartleby.com, 2000 http//www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html