Representation Of Ophelia In Hamlet

Analyses of Ophelia in Hamlet Adaptations and Related Works

One of Shakespeare's most well known and extensively reviewed works is Hamlet. Hamlet tells the story of a young prince who attempts to avenge his father’s murder. This story features a variety of characters, one of the most well known being Ophelia. The love interest of Hamlet and daughter of Polonius. She is a young innocent woman who is driven to madness. This character has been examined and written about multiple times. Three of these pieces include Cameron Hunt comparing Ophelia to the biblical character, Kaara Peterson’s analysis of depiction of Ophelia in artworks, and Gulsen Sayin Teker and her study of various depictions of Ophelia in film adaptations of Hamlet. The articles

More specifically the depiction of the character in the films of Kozintsev, Zeffirelli, and Branagh. Before the era of film most stage productions of Hamlet depicted Ophelia in a similar manner. She was portrayed as stereotypically weak and feminine, and her madness was contributed to her weak will and mind. This depiction was not challenged until the mid 1960’s when she was shown to have more depth in Kozintsev’s 1964 version of Hamlet. She is shown feeling a range of emotions from love, to sadness, and to anger. Ophelia was portrayed even differently in the 1990 version of Hamlet directed by Zeffirelli where Ophelia is shown to be a woman who is very young, but also very mature. The author believes that Zeffirelli is trying to convey the notion that Ophelia went mad because she was living in a male dominated world,and it wasn’t due to the fact she was weak minded. The last portrayal she examens is the one in the 1996 version of Hamlet directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. In this more recent version Ophelia is more mature and both emotionally and physically stronger. The author states that this version of Ophelia is less “pretty” and more realistic, especially when she is going mad. Once again her madness is associated with her treatment and not her frail mind. The author concludes the article by saying that Ophelia’s growth comes from the feminist criticism in the mid twentieth century and her madness stems from her oppression in the