Reviving Ophelia Essays

  • Reviving Ophelia

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reviving Ophelia Mary Pipher, author of the book Reviving Ophelia, has made many observations concerning young adolescent girls in our society. She wrote this book in 1994, roughly eleven years ago. Although some of her observations made in the past are not still accurate in today’s world, there are many that are still present in 2005. The primary focus of Pipher’s comments is to explain how young girls are no longer being protected within our society. This female inferiority idea has been imbedded

  • Reviving Ophelia

    1891 Words  | 4 Pages

    Reviving Ophelia Adolescent girls growing up in today’s society endure many more hardships than in previous years. Adolescence is no longer a time of endless sunny days spent on the back porch with a glass of country time lemonade and a smile extending ear to ear. Adolescence for girls is now generalized as a dark and depressing period of life that often seems hopeless and never ending. Mary Pipher PH.D tries to illustrate just how drastically life has changed over the years for teenage girls

  • Reviving Ophelia Summary

    1865 Words  | 4 Pages

    In clinical psychologist Dr. Mary Pipher’s book, Reviving Ophelia, the topic and concerns were the social treatment of young girls and the affects it has on development in that area as well as the influence it has on their cognitive processes. Dr. Pipher also explored the cultural and societal pressures put on young women from a very early age. She used case studies of her patients to elaborate on these influences and give first-hand examples to paint a clear picture of the problems engrained in

  • Book Report on Reviving Ophelia

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    Book Report on Reviving Ophelia In this book therapist Mary Pipher writes about her experiences at work with adolescent girls. It is intended to make the reader aware of the perils of being a teenager in today's sexualized and media-saturated culture. She talks about how this new and more hostile environment affects adolescent girls' emotional growth and development, and how hard it is to stay true to yourself while trying to fit in with peers. For the most part this book is Dr. Pipher's attempt

  • Gender Roles and Socialization in Adolescence

    1530 Words  | 4 Pages

    A Review of Mary Pipher”s “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”, Laura E. Berk's “Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood”, and Lina A. Ricciardelli's “Self-esteem and Negative Affect as Moderators of Sociocultural Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Strategies to Decrease Weight, and Strategies to Increase Muscles Among Adolescent Boys and Girls” Adolescence is one of the most difficult times for development. This difficulty is experienced very differently

  • Summary Of The Book 'Reviving Ophelia' By Mary Pipher

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reviving Ophelia Summary Throughout her book Mary Pipher, a clinical psychologist, describes the behaviors and relationships of adolescent teen girls. She explores the issues that most of her patients have in common: parents and divorce, depression, weight, drugs, alcohol, violence, and sex. Pipher provides examples of girls who had suffered from each category, and ends with a generalization that connects each situation to a deeper meaning. Although parents and daughters are somewhat to blame in

  • Reviving Ophelia Saving The Selves Of Adolescent Girls Essay

    1593 Words  | 4 Pages

    Introduction Growing up is tough for adolescent girls because society believes they need to be a certain way. They struggle within themselves to be accepted by society. In the book Reviving Ophelia Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls written by Mary Pipher, an American clinical psychologist, she discusses her experiences with many different kinds of girls. Pipher tells stories of her clients and friends children. She jumps from one story to the next and brings them together. She discusses the

  • Hamlet - Shakespeare's Ophelia as Modern Icon

    3387 Words  | 7 Pages

    Shakespeare's Ophelia as Modern Icon Shakespeare's Ophelia is not lacking in attention. As one of Shakespeare's most popular female characters she has enjoyed many appellations from the bard. '"Fair Ophelia." "Most beautified Ophelia." "Pretty Ophelia." "Sweet Ophelia." "Dear Ophelia." "Beautiful Ophelia…sweet maid…poor wretch." "Poor Ophelia."' (Vest 1) All of these names for Ophelia can be found in Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Since Shakespeare's incarnation of Ophelia many

  • The Innocence of Gertrude and Ophelia in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Innocence of Gertrude and Ophelia “Pretty Ophelia,” as Claudius calls her, is the most innocent victim of Hamlet’s revenge in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Hamlet has fallen in love with Ophelia after the death of his father. Ophelia “sucked the honey of his music vows” and returned Hamlet’s affection. But when her father had challenged Hamlet’s true intentions, Ophelia could only say: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think.” Ophelia was used to relying on her father’s directions and she

  • Miss Ophelia in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    Miss Ophelia in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin Being the only Northerner to take a focal role in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Miss Ophelia is a realistic adaptation of the ideal woman that Harriet Beecher Stowe proposes with the images of the other perfect women. She is educated, single, independent, ambitious, and motivated by a certain sense of duty. Unlike the other women in the novel, she is the one with the most masculine mannerisms: she relies on her thoughts rather than her emotions

  • The Tragedy of Lady Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1356 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Tragedy of Lady Ophelia of Hamlet Melancholy, grief, and madness pervade Shakespeare's great tragedy, Hamlet.  The emotional maladies presented within Hamlet, not only allow the audience to sympathize with prince Hamlet, but also with the tragic lady Ophelia as well.  It is Ophelia who suffers at her lover's discretion because of decisions she was obligated to make on behalf of her weak societal position. Hamlet provides his own self-torture and does fall victim to melancholia and grief

  • Sane Hamlet and Mad Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    Sane Hamlet and Mad Ophelia In Hamlet, Shakespeare incorporates a theme of madness with two characters: one truly mad, and one only acting mad to serve a motive. The madness of Hamlet is frequently disputed. This paper argues that the contrapuntal character in the play, namely Ophelia, acts as a balancing argument to the other character's madness or sanity.  Shakespeare creates a contrasting relationship between the breakdown of Ophelia and the "north-north-west" brand of insanity used by Hamlet

  • Ophelia

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ophelia A play with great value and quality would best describe one of Shakespeare’s intriguing plays, Hamlet. Events, dilemmas, action, and the characters all contribute greatly to make the play interesting and appealing. Every event that occurs leads to the outcome of dilemmas and action. The characters personalities is what makes the action is even more exciting. Each character has got their own special significance in the roles they play. However Ophelia, the daughter of the Lord Chamberlain

  • Essay on Ophelia - The Innocent Victim in Shakespeare's Hamlet

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ophelia - The Innocent Victim in Shakespeare's Hamlet Poor Ophelia, she lost her lover, her father, her mind, and, posthumously, her brother. Ophelia is the only truly innocent victim in Hamlet. This essay will examine Ophelia's downward spiral from a chaste maiden to nervous wreck. From the beginning of the play, in Act I Scene iii, Laertes and Polonius are trying to convince her that Hamlet does not love her and only is interested in her so he can sleep with her. Laertes says "Perhaps he

  • The Manipulation And Loss Of Ophelia In Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1914 Words  | 4 Pages

    like he is "mad north-northwest", but it is his lover, Ophelia, who is truly mad.  Both lose their fathers at the hands of others and both have loved ones that seem to have turned against them.  Unlike Hamlet, who has revenge, Ophelia ends up having nothing to hold onto.  Her sanity breaks and sends her into a downward spiral, while Hamlet's remains intact.  In this paper, I will show that it is the manipulation by and loss of the two men Ophelia loved most-Hamlet and her father, Polonius-which leads

  • Hamlet Essay: The Unlike Characters of Gertrude and Ophelia

    3414 Words  | 7 Pages

    Hamlet -- the Unlike Characters of Gertrude and Ophelia The Shakespearean tragedy Hamlet features two ladies who are very unlike in character. Queen Gertrude, denounced by the ghost as faithless to King Hamlet, is pictured as evil by many, while Ophelia is seen as pure and obedient and full of good virtues. Let’s explore these two unlike people. Rebecca Smith in “Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother” presents an unusually “clean” image of the present queen that is not consistent with

  • The Real and Feigned Madness of Hamlet and Ophelia

    508 Words  | 2 Pages

    to an ending in which almost every major character is dead. Two of these maddened characters are Hamlet and Ophelia, who also share a love for each other. But though their irrational behavior is often similar and their fates alike, one is truly mad while the other is not. Both Hamlet and Ophelia act very strangely. Hamlet, the prince of Denmark, insults everyone around him. He tells Ophelia he never loved her, calls her father a fishmonger, and in subtle ways calls his mother a whore and her new

  • The Tragedy of Ophelia in Hamlet

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Tragedy of Ophelia in Hamlet Sweet and innocent, faithful and obedient, Ophelia is the truly tragic figure in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. "Her nature invites us to pity her misfortune caused not by any of her own self-initiated deeds or strategies"(Lidz 138). Laertes tells us convincingly how young and vulnerable Ophelia is, (act I. iii.10) likening her budding womanhood's destruction from Hamlet to a process as "the canker galls the infants of the spring,/ Too oft before their buttons

  • The Causes of Ophelia's Breakdown

    837 Words  | 2 Pages

    his emotional outbursts, which lead to the destruction of almost all of the characters in the play. The most notable self destruction came from Ophelia, Hamlet’s object of affection. During the play, Ophelia had undergone a lot of stress which lead her character to metamorphous. At the beginning of the play, Laertes spoke to his sweet, loving sister Ophelia about his departure of Denmark to go to England and also his concerns of she and Hamlet’s relationship. He warned her of what he thought Hamlet's

  • Analysis of Ophelia from Hamlet

    5116 Words  | 11 Pages

    Analysis of Ophelia from Hamlet Ophelia is gentle, loving and beautiful. She is also obedient to her father and loyal to her family and it is this which draws her into the circle of disaster and leads to her "untimely death". She is deeply in love with Hamlet and believes his "tenders" to be sincere, but her obedience to both her father and her brother must come first. Laertes tells her to beware of Hamlet's interest as it is driven by lust, not love. He also points out the difference in their