The other day I started feeling a little melancholy. I think it was the return of the rain, or possibly the seeming end of summer, or perhaps just the general passing of time that late summer early fall always brings. Whatever it was, I felt the desire to collect some images of one my favorite literary characters, Ophelia. I have long been both fascinated and scornful of her. In a scornful period I wrote a paper for a lit class titled “Frailty, thy name is Ophelia!”. It’s rather dramatic to say, but this lady haunts me. There are so many reasons I could expound upon as to why this is, but instead I will offer some artwork…
Are you ever haunted by literary figures?
Oh my… me too! I have never actually been scornful towards her – which might be because I’m much too compassionate in general, or because I never had to write a paper about her :) – but Ophelia haunts me too. The pictures are beautiful!
Greetings,
poet
for starters: haven’t even read one word of your blog, but think it is necessary to let you know that I love everything Ophelia, was (am) thinking about naming the baby that (mixed feelings because she is so tragic). If you haven’t already, listen to Ophelia by Natalie Merchant. beauuutiful.
Kiera, my cousin!!! Welcome, yes Natalie Merchant used to be one of my favorites. I LOVED that album. She was the first “real” concert I ever went to! I think it would be awesome if you named the baby Ophelia. When I worked at the art studio there was a little girl named Ophelia who would come and paint with her mom. I thought her name was SO beautiful….
love this collection of images, stunning! i know exactly where you are coming from with this! intriguing character that she is. my own haunting character is cathy in wuthering heights, as a child when i first read the book i felt so dissapointed with her…. the innocence of youth lol
I can’t say that I have ever felt haunted by a literary character. But if you are going to be haunted by a character, Ophelia is definitely a good one.
Tree Gypsy …
great example. lovely blog. as the affinities, impressive.
The list of Ophelia, same feeling. thanks!
Thank you for stopping by Kleinebrogel! This Ophelia post was one of my favorites to put together. I’m thinking of doing a “Part 2″ with some additional images…
I wrote a paper sophomore year of highschool about how I thought Ophelia took a page from Hamlet’s book and knew her hawks from handsaws. Well done.
It is difficult to capture a literary figure in an image. Depictions of Ophelia are often poised for a portrait and do not capture her sloven, rugged madness, the ripped love for her father and possibly the loss of her purity through Prince Hamlet.
I wrote a poem inspired by Ophelia, have a look if you’d like…