While reading Act 1, Scene 3 of “Hamlet”, I made my first
impression of Ophelia. My first impression of Ophelia is that she respects her
brother, father, and their opinions, but at the same time, she has opinions of
her own. Many people view Ophelia as a very mild character, who has no say and
listens to the people above her. In my opinion, I think that Ophelia actually
has some strong opinions, and despite how her father and brother are warning
her about Hamlet, she respects their thoughts but keeps what she wants in mind.
She is still listening to what they say, but she does not live her life and
make all of her personal decisions solely based on what they think. Portrayals of Ophelia in Hamlet
After
watching the portrayal of Ophelia by Mariah Gale in the movie Hamlet, I was pleased, but also
disappointed by the performance. I think that she did a great job showing that
Ophelia is actually opinionated, especially when she discusses how Laertes is
being somewhat hypocritical because he is being selfish and leaving to go to
France. When she says “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 (1.3.51-55), I think it was a little too over the top. Ophelia has her
opinions about what to do, but based on my observations and impression of
Ophelia, she would still listen and respect what her family is saying. Instead, the actress,
from the very beginning of the scene, made it obvious that she did not care
about what her family is saying, and she used a sarcastic tone throughout the
whole scene.
I think that in Hamlet,
directed by Franco Zeffirelli, Helena
Bonham Carter did a great job of portraying Ophelia. Ophelia is a very hard
character to portray because there is really no way to perfectly portray her;
there is no right or wrong way. We do not have an exact understanding of her
character, and everyone is going to have different opinions about how she
should be played. I think that Carter did a great job of portraying Ophelia
because she had a good balance of caring about what her family thinks and
keeping in mind her own opinions. I could tell that she was still respecting
their opinions about Hamlet, but at the same time, she also maintains her own
thoughts about Hamlet.
Hey Sydney!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I completely agree with what you said about Ophelia. She is very respectful in that she keeps her feelings to herself but at the same time has opinions of her own. I feel that most girls, and even boys her age will agree with their parents or older sibling for that matter just to satisfy them. Then they will go off and abide by their own rules as if nothing was just said to them. I can tell you this is the case with my brother and sister. It drives me nuts! I guess thats better than them arguing with me about it. Anyway, I also agree with you on how Ophelia was portrayed in both movies. She is definitely a tough one to play and I agree with what you said. In the book, it seems that Ophelia keeps her opinions to herself when being instructed by her father where in one of the movies she is portrayed as rude and selfish. I love all your ideas and thoughts. Keep it up!!
Maddy
Sydney--
ReplyDeleteWow, what a fantastic post. Such an insightful analysis of Ophelia's character. I particularly enjoyed the comment about balance-- there definitely needs to be a very methodical correspondence between her opinionatedness and her complacence. I agree with your statement that Mariah Gale might have overdone Ophelia's boldness to the point where she was almost insolent-- definitely not what Shakespeare was trying to convey. And as for Helena Bonham Carter, I am also very impressed with her performance to say the least-- even though, as you stated in your post, there really is no right or wrong way to portray Ophelia. Again, what a sensational blog post.
-Eliana TR