The extent to which Hamlet feels betrayed by Gertrude is far more apparent because of Ophelia's presence. Hamlet's feelings of rage against his mother can be directed toward Ophelia, who is, in his estimation, hiding her base nature behind a guise of impeccability, just as is Gertrude. Through Ophelia we witness Hamlet's evolution, or de-evolution into a man convinced that all women are whores; that the women who seem most pure are inside black with corruption and sexual desire.
And if women are harlots, then they must have their procurers. Gertrude has been made a whore by Claudius, and Ophelia has been made a whore by her father. Hamlet is not in the room but it seems obvious from the following lines that he has overheard Polonius trying to use his daughter's charms to suit his underhanded purposes. In Hamlet's distraught mind, there is no gray area: Polonius prostitutes his daughter. And Hamlet tells Polonius so to his face, labeling him a "fishmonger" despite the fact that Polonius cannot decipher the meaning behind Hamlet's words.
Gertrude chose a brother over a dead Hamlet; Ophelia chooses a father over a living Hamlet: both choices can be read as additionally sexually perverse in being, to Hamlet, 'incestuous' Stanton, New Essays on Hamlet To the rest of us, Ophelia represents something very different. To outside observers, Ophelia is the epitome of goodness.
Like Gertrude, young Ophelia is childlike and naive. But unlike Queen Gertrude, Ophelia has good reason to be unaware of the harsh realities of life. She is very young, and has lost her mother, possibly at birth. And of all Christian souls.
God buy you. Ophelia represents femininity in Hamlet. Hamlet acts out his aggression toward his mother on her, which finally leads to her madness. Ophelia is the princess that Hamlet is in love with and supposed to marry. After a short while, Hamlet begins to mistreat Ophelia to the extent that she loses her senses. His behavior is, in fact, a reflection of the aggression he feels toward his mother. By Marc C. Conner, Ph. Millais always painted directly from nature itself with great attention to detail.
The flowers are painted from real, individual flowers and Millais shows the dead and broken leaves as well as the flowers in full bloom. Photography was invented in , twelve years before Millais painted Ophelia. Photos were not as clear as they are today however. Millais bought two pieces of canvas for Ophelia from the art materials dealer Mr Charles Roberson on 7 June for 15 shillings. The second canvas was used to cover the back of the painting to protect it. Both canvasses were primed.
This means they were covered with a glue solution and a ground. Millais used lead white paint as a ground. He then painted a layer of zinc white to make the canvas even brighter. It is possible that at the beginning of each day Millais would mark out the area to be painted that day by covering it with white paint.
In order to make the most of the bright white ground, he would mix colours as little as possible so that they remained pure, and apply the paint in single layers.
Millais was able to buy tubes of paint mixed by art material dealers that he could use straight away. New pigments were developed throughout the nineteenth century.
Millais had a wide choice of pigments that came from minerals, precious stones, rocks, vegetables, insects and plants. Some of the new colours he used came about by the advances of modern chemistry. He used: lead white, zinc white, ultramarine ash, vermilion, chromium oxide, zinc yellow, chrome yellow, cobalt blue, Prussian blue, burnt sienna, Naples yellow, madder lake, ivory black and bone black. Our conservators at Tate, the people who maintain and conserve our works of art, have studied Ophelia closely using various techniques.
These help us understand how Millais painted. Looking at the painting under various light conditions can help us answer various questions:. In the photograph of Ophelia taken in raking light, we can see that Millais made relatively few changes to the composition.
We can also see that the surface of the paint is very smooth. What we can see clearly are the cracks in the paint that have occurred over time. These cracks are caused by the ageing of the paint and the stretched canvas. The sample is viewed through a microscope so we can see the layers of paint and the thickness of the paint.
The sample tells us that there is a layer of lead white underneath a layer of zinc white. In this picture of Ophelia taken using infrared reflectography, we can see a slight shift in the position of the weeping willow. Many paint pigments are more transparent to infra red radiation than to visible light. The greater transparency of the paint enables us to see any drawings under the paint. In this X-radiograph image, we can see that Millais did not re-use this canvas or make any major compositional changes.
X-radiograph images show obscured paint layers and changes of design that an artist has made. Millais carefully planned his work. We can see the dense metal tacks used to secure the canvas to the stretcher as well as staples used to re-attach the canvas to the stretcher after the canvas was taken off for relining. The lead white areas of the painting and the canvas weave are clearly visible as are the re-touchings that appear as black marks. Her father and brother believe that Hamlet would use her, that he would take her virginity and throw it away because she could never be his wife.
Her heart has convinced her that Hamlet loved her, though he swears he never did. To her father and brother, Ophelia is the eternal virgin, the vessel of morality whose purpose is to be a dutiful wife and steadfast mother. To Hamlet, she is a sexual object, a corrupt and deceitful lover. With no mother to guide her, she has no way of deciphering the contradictory expectations. Just like Hamlet, the medieval precept that the father's word is unquestionable governs Ophelia.
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