Maiden of fate : representations of Ophelia from the 18th until the early 20th century

This thesis examines how Ophelia was represented by different painters due to different causes that are present in the drama with special focus on the different approaches to her madness and death. I will prove that different painters approached her figure in different ways depending on whether the painters considered Ophelia's death, her madness or her relationship with the other characters in the drama important. Through comparative analyses of the paintings I will show that although Ophelia was represented differently depending on what the painters considered important to show, her inner self can be found and this makes us discover the same girl in every single work. In the discussion part I will group the paintings that were made of Ophelia into six categories, depending on what the painters considered important to represent. These six groups are the following: innocent, girlish Ophelia, saintly Ophelia, purposeful Ophelia, nymph-like Ophelia, visibly insane Ophelia and sexually frustrated Ophelia.