Character Analysis: Reviving Ophelia

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

Watching the film Reviving Ophelia was frustrating and hard to watch because Elizabeth was not realizing that she was in an abusive relationship. Every time her boyfriend Mark abused her physically or would yell at her, Elizabeth would justify his actions and blamed herself. In domestic violence relationships this is known as self-blame. The victim blames themselves for the abusers actions. Throughout the film Elizabeth kept saying that it was her fault and her mom told her to get that idea out of her head.

   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.

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static character in the play. Instead of changing through the course of the play, she remains suffering in the misfortunes perpetrated upon her. She falls into insanity and dies a tragic death. Ophelia has issues surviving without a male influence, and her downfall is when all the men in her life abandon her. Hamlet’s Ophelia, is a tragic, insane character that cannot exist on her own.

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 through her best selling book “Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls”. Although Mary Pipher was once a clinical psychologist, she articulates very well for everyone to clearly understand her ideas and perspectives. One way

     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.

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.

Domestic Violence is a type of abuse that usually involves a partner or spouse wanting to take control and power of the other partner through the form of physical or verbal assault. Domestic Violence, defined as abuse involving intimate partners, is a growing problem in the United States (Barrier 1998). The frequency of violence can be on and off, occasional or chronic.

Eliza after receiving assistance from Senator Bird is reunited with her husband, George. They find a temporary haven in chapter 13 of the novel in the Quaker Settlement which is run as if it's a kind of matriarchy. In the first part of the novel, that plot of escape alternates with Tom’s plot. Tom sailed to a slave owner down South. It's at the end of chapter 17, where was also the first edition of the novel ended.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare makes it clear that Prince Hamlet is insane or at least on the verge of “madness.” However, Ophelia (daughter of Polonius, King of Denmark) begins to go mad, as well, after Hamlet kills her father, and the other numerous tragedies that plague her like a black cloud hovering about until her untimely death.

Domestic violence can be defines as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Abuse is physical, sexual, emotional, economic pr psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure or wound

“I do not know, my lord, what I should think. POL: Marry, I will teach you. Think

I am at loss at how such misfortune fell upon a lovely girl like Ophelia. Ophelia was loved by many, her family showered her with love since birth. She had even gotten my son's attention and had him head over heels for her. The two seemed like a perfect couple in my eyes. Being the lovely girl she was, I thought she was perfect for my dear Hamlet.

Ophelia is another one of Shakespeare’s tragic victims. Throughout the years, her character has been analyzed in a multitude of ways. Arguably being one of the main characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is known for being one of the least developed. In her literary criticism piece, Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism, Elaine Showalter goes through countless interpretations of Ophelia’s character.

The passing of Laertes and Ophelia’s mother influences their self esteem and dependency in outside relationships because it is in these close levels of intimacy “that initial unresolved conflicts within the family are reenacted” and initiated subconsciously (Tyson 18). However, both exhibit and perform the reenactment of their deepest, hidden feelings about their mother’s absence in two different and distinct manners. Furthermore, it is directly verified that when experimented, “...research links parental death to increased emotional reactions and grief process, which in turn links to commitment levels in romantic relationships”; therefore, creating a wide variety of emotion backlash on Laertes and Ophelia to “find the one” (Anderson 1). When analyzing Laertes’ liaisons, there are not many secure connections evident in the play as he is depicted almost as a lone wolf-like, strong-willed, and predominantly independent character. Although, Ophelia exposes his lifestyle in Act I, Scene III, by showing the audience a different side of Laertes after witnessing his so-called “protective” advice to Ophelia: