A Summary Of The Movie : Deviving Ophelia

Thesis Statement: The origin of Ophelia’s madness is rendered through examination of her relationships with her father Polonius, her brother, Laertes, and her lover 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.

character. Ophelia’s dependence on others is, sadly, what lead to her death. She could not

The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.

Denmark is in a state of chaos shown by the opening death of the true

Have you ever heard of the song “What is Love?” by Haddaway? The one that’s then followed by the line “Baby don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me!” Well, in the movie Reviving Ophelia, Elizabeth has just gotten into her first “serious” relationship. The way she describes her new relationship with a boy from school, Mark, is as if she was discovering for the first time in her life what it means to truly have love. However, this quickly turned for her an illusion of an amazing relationship into one of an abusive relationship.

Shakespeare places many interesting characters in his plays. Claudius, Polonius, Marcellus, and Reynaldo are a few from his play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. However, Ophelia appears to be the most innocent all throughout the play. This character has either indirectly or directly affected the lives of every main characters in the script. Ophelia’s character is portrayed as obedient, maidenly, and a mad young girl.

Dr. Pipher remembers her cousin Polly as a young girl. She describes her as energy in

     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.

Young maidens are often described as lush and virtuous. They mind their manners, they focus on etiquette, and above all else, they do not pursue a physical relationship with a man outside of marriage. The consequences of being caught in such a union were severe, including social shunning amongst verbal floggings. Some had it even worse. Those few who were unlucky enough to conceive out of wedlock would be doomed. The psychological and social repercussions would be overwhelming, and often led to suicide. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s Hamlet in his character, Ophelia. It is evident in Hamlet that Ophelia is pregnant and that this pregnancy may have contributed to her death.

The book, Reviving Ophelia, is about the hardships girls go through when they are growing up and trudging through puberty. As the author Mary Pipher states it, adolescent girls tend to lose their “true selves” in order to fit in and comply with the standards that society sets for women. Pipher, a practicing therapist, uses her own case studies to show how pressures put on girls forces them to react in often damaging ways. In most case studies she tells the audience how she helped these girls heal and regain control of their lives. It seems that her primary goal is to warn people of what certain effects can have on girls and what not to do. The one thing that Pipher tends to overlook is what parents can do right to raise healthy

It is widely believed that “Living life without honor is a tragedy bigger than death itself” and this holds true for Hamlet’s Ophelia. Ophelia’s death symbolizes a life spent passively tolerating Hamlet’s manipulations and the restrictions imposed by those around her, while struggling to maintain the last shred of her dignity. Ophelia’s apathetic reaction to her drowning suggests that she never had control of her own life, as she was expected to comply with the expectations of others. Allowing the water to consume her without a fight alludes to Hamlet’s treatment of Ophelia as merely a device in his personal agenda. Her apparent suicide denotes a desire to take control of her life for once. Ophelia’s death is, arguably, an honorable one,

Would Hamlet be different without Ophelia? This question could refer to both the character of Hamlet and the actual play. Ophelia’s role in Hamlet has been discussed by numerous critics, and many of them have questioned the necessity of Ophelia. While she is undoubtedly a lesser character compared to Gertrude, Claudius, or Hamlet, her eventual madness and demise provides an interesting discussion for Shakespeare’s critics. Although some critics believe that Ophelia only plays a miniscule role in Hamlet, she is nevertheless an essential component of the play. Ophelia serves as a foil to Gertrude, adds another feminine perspective, advances the theme of madness, and establishes the foundation for the final bloodbath with her premature death.

The character of Ophelia is an excellent element of drama used to develop interpretations of Shakespeare’s text. At the beginning of the play, she is happy and in love with Hamlet, who first notices her beauty and then falls in love with her. The development of Ophelia’s madness and the many factors that contributed to her suicide are significant parts of the plot. “Her madness was attributed to the extremity of her emotions, which in such a frail person led to melancholy and eventual breakdown” (Teker, par. 3). The character of Ophelia in Zieffirelli’s version is the personification of a young innocent girl. “Her innocence is mixed with intelligence, keen perception, and erotic awareness” (Teker, par. 13). This Ophelia is a victim

Ophelia’s character has been highly popularized throughout time and even though some do not support her, others do advocate for her. Some feminist critics feel that it is their responsibility, as feminists, to approach as to how to portray Ophelia. Carol Neely believes that Ophelia’s story should be told, but there is nothing to tell. Shakespeare does not give enough information to imagine a past for Ophelia. She only appears in 5 of the 20 scenes, which are for her love story with Hamlet. Lee Edwards has similar beliefs to Neely; it is not possible to rebuild Ophelia’s biography from the text. Edwards states, “We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet.”