Ophelia is a young noble woman in the play Hamlet by Shakespeare. Ophelia is the
sister to Laertes and daughter to Polonius. When we first meet Ophelia, her
family treats her like a dumb and naive woman that she is not. She actually is
smarter than what her family believes. When Laertes is lecturing her about
Hamlet, we learn that she has a mind of her own,” I shall the effect of this
good lesson keep/ As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,/ Do not, as
some ungracious pastors do,/ Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,/ Whiles,
like a puffed and reckless libertine,/ Himself the primrose path of dalliance
treads/ And recks not his own rede.” (Shakespeare 1.3.49-55). What Ophelia is
saying is she will keep his advice close to her heart, but he should put his
money where his mouth is and not be a hypocrite.
In the Zeffrelli version of Hamlet, Ophelia is portrayed as
very innocent. Also the fact that some of her lines were cut makes the audiences
believe she is thoughtless too. In act 1 scene 3 of the Zeffrelli version,
Ophelia is depicted as someone who is distant to her brother and doesn't want
to listen to him because she is getting distracted by anything or anyone around
her. Also she is showed as kind of unimportant to this the scene always being
in the background when Polonius arrives. In this version of Hamlet, Ophelia is portrayed
in a way that I did not imagine when I was reading the book itself.
Hi Annie!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with this post! The text shows us Ophelia is a clever, intelligent woman that feels she must hide it. Though, she sneaks her little attitude in places where her brother and father are too clueless to think anything of. The quote you chose displays this very well. You are also right about the video; it shows us how she acts but not her true self. The way they cut her lines does make the scene that is supposed to be about her seems like she isn’t important.
-Shelby:)
Hey Annie,
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said in your previous blog post. Ophelia is definitely portrayed as a clever noble woman who acts innocent around her father and her brother. The quote you used showed all about her secret sassy attitude and defending herself from her brothers advice when he's being a hypocrite. I also agree with the video on how her lines are cut off and her standing in the background shows she isn't as important to the father as the brother is. Overall am agreeable blog post, but read it over again there was a sentence where you put "this the" right after each other which doesn't make sense so you can correct that. Good job!
Adrianna