Ophelia´s death in Shakespeare´s Hamlet and in Millais´s Ophelia:A comparison

Seminar paper from the year 2010 in the subject Art - Overall Considerations, grade: 1,0, University of Würzburg (Philosophische Fakultنt I), course: SHAKESPEARE S HAMLET & OUR HAMLET, language: English, abstract: As long as Shakespeare s Hamlet exists, people are fascinated by the young woman Ophelia and her fate. She is a woman who leads a life which is dominated by men and their influence on her. Especially the network of intrigues, but also her helplessness and the being at someones mercy reduce Ophelia to despair. Her struggle ends with a mysterious death by drowning, which is to be analyzed in this assignment. This will be done by comparing the original passage from the Queen s description of Ophelia s death with the painting Ophelia by John Everett Millais. During her description the Queen mythologises Ophelia s death by using special words or pictures. So the question arises in how far Millais translated these words and pictures into his painting and whether his painting exaggerates or decreases the mythology and symbolic Shakespeare used. To be able to answer this question, similarities and differences between the description of Ophelia s death and the painting Ophelia by Millais are analysed. To lead to these two scenes of Ophelia s death and to get deeper into the comparison, it is reasonable to start with an analysis of Ophelia s position in the play, as well as an analysis of the background of Millais s Ophelia.