Custom Term Papers: Hamlet’s Heroine, Ophelia -- GCSE English Literatu

Hamlets Heroine, OpheliaIn Shakespeares calamity Hamlet at that place is, technically, no heroine. But the female character who comes scalelike to qualifying for the role is not Gertrude, whose sinful past precludes this, but quite a Ophelia, the universal victim of the drama. She is truly a good, upright person although she is put-upon by her father, brother and boyfriend. Harry Levin, in the General Introduction to The riverside Shakespeare, elaborates on the particular kind of prose which the dramatist uses with Ophelia when she suffers her madness Though there is no invariable rule, the comic scenes are frequently in prose, whereas the tragic scenes are usually in verse. Yet some of the most tragic, notably Ophelias made scenes and the sleep-walking scene of Lady Macbeth, are in that special kind of distracted prose which Shakespeare reserved for moments of mental distraction, when the fragments of suppressed emotion comfortably up from the unconscious. (11) Shakespeares us e of distinctive language is one consideration concerning Ophelia. Another is her victimization. Gunnar Boklund in Hamlet performs a partial-analysis on the character of Ophelia in Shakespeares tragedy, Hamlet The only character who is presented almost entirely as a victim is Ophelia, a victim of the Kings concern and curiosity, her fathers servility and fundamental indifference to her, Hamlets misunderstanding of the situation and brutal treatment of her, and finally his fatal gormandise through the arras in the closet scene. Her madness is, as I see it, a purely pathetic element in the play. In the world where Hamlet has been forced to act, there appears to be no style for passive and obedient innocence. It is crushed, and perishes. (123) The p... ... Madness Her Only Safe Haven. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. apply Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from Hamlet A Users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on T he Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Excerpted from Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/ juncture/full.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York G.P. Putnams Sons, 190721 New York Bartleby.com, 2000 http//www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan issue Co., 1992.