who is ophelia?
Ophelia is one of Shakespeare’s most memorable heroines, known for her innocence, her songs of madness, and her tragic death by drowning. Her character is brief on stage but long in legacy, a symbol of female fragility, lost love, and, for later generations, resistance to the constraints of her time.
In Hamlet, Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, sister to Laertes, and beloved of Hamlet. Her life unravels when Hamlet rejects her and her father is killed. Her madness is shown through fractured speech and ballads, before her ambiguous death in a brook. Shakespeare leaves the cause uncertain, accident or suicide, a choice that has kept her story fertile ground for interpretation.
how did ophelia die?
Ophelia dies by drowning, described in Act 4, Scene 7 of Hamlet. Shakespeare’s language lingers on the beauty of her final moments, her clothes buoying her like “a mermaid,” before dragging her to her death. The ambiguity, whether she fell by accident or by choice, is key to her continued fascination.
where is the ophelia painting?
The best-known painting of Ophelia, by John Everett Millais, is housed at Tate Britain in London. Revered as one of the jewels of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, it remains among the gallery’s most popular works, endlessly reproduced and reimagined. Anyone can go and see Ophelia by John Everett Millais for free.
who painted ophelia?
Ophelia has inspired artists for centuries. Millais’s Ophelia may be the most iconic, but she has appeared in the works of Arthur Hughes, Odilon Redon, and Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, among many others. Each artist found in her story a canvas for themes of beauty, madness, silence, and transformation.
