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

small towns Heroine, OpheliaIn Shakespeares tragedy small town there is, technically, no heroine. But the female constitution who comes closest to qualifying for the role is not Gertrude, whose sinful past precludes this, but rather Ophelia, the universal dupe of the drama. She is truly a good, upright person although she is victimized by her father, brother and boyfriend. Harry Levin, in the General Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare, elaborates on the special pattern 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. but 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 strangled emotion well up from the unconscious. (11) Shakespeares use of dist inctive 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 hero-worship and curiosity, her fathers servility and fundamental indifference to her, Hamlets misunderstanding of the situation and brutal treatment of her, and finally his fatal thrust 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 room for passive and obedient innocence. It is crushed, and perishes. (123) The p... ... Madness Her Only Safe Haven. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from Hamlet A drug users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on The Trage dies. 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/hamlet/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 Publishing Co., 1992.