John Everett Millais Ophelia Book Review
We have previously reviewed the world famous book 1984 by George Orwell. Today we will examine another masterpiece.
Ophelia was painted by Sir John Everett Millais, a British painter. He depicted the character Ophelia from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet singing before drowning in a river in Denmark. This journey of painting, which each painter starts with a brush stroke on his canvas, is different. Some painters push the limits of their imagination, while others depict a character or event they are influenced by with their own pen. Undoubtedly, impressive works emerge. But first of all, it is necessary to know the story of the character painted in depth, because when we analyze the painting and try to understand the emotions conveyed to us, the story we learn comes into play at this very point and helps us analyze it. So we need an introduction to Shakespeare’s Hamlet and the tragic story of Ophelia, so let’s begin.
Quotes from Hamlet
Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare, written between 1599 and 1601, with tragedy as its theme. In fact, we know from the story of Romeo and Juliet that Shakespeare blends impossible love and tragedy in his works, in the same way Shakespeare makes us feel that tragedy with intense emotions in this work. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest known play and one of the most powerful and impressive tragedies in English literature.
William Shakespeare Quotes
Hamlet, the protagonist of the play, is the son of the recently deceased King Hamlet, the nephew of King Claudius, his father’s brother and successor, and a Danish prince. Hamlet is sent to Germany by his father so that he can get a good education and one day he receives the news of his father’s death. Hamlet is devastated by this news, he returns to his country as soon as he receives the news and finds his uncle Claudius in his father’s place, proclaiming himself ruler. This right belongs to Hamlet as he is the heir, but he does not dwell on this too much and concentrates on his father’s death. Moreover, Claudius has married his mother Gertrude in a hurry. One night, two Danish soldiers are standing guard on a hill when they see the king’s ghost, and they are none other than Horatio and Marcellus, two of Hamlet’s closest friends. Although at first they are surprised and frightened to see the ghost, they try to see it again, but no matter how hard they try, they cannot see the ghost. They decide to tell Hamlet about this strange situation, and when Hamlet learns what has happened, he cannot hide his astonishment and even finds it hard to believe, but he is curious himself and decides to go to that hill to find out. The next evening, without wasting time, he sets off with the soldiers.
Polonius and Ophelia
Time and time again, the king’s ghost reappears and Hamlet is left in the dilemma of whether it is a trick of his mind. But after some trial and error, he is almost certain that it really is his father’s ghost. The ghost tells him that he did not die from a snake bite, but from the plans of his uncle and mother, who had poison poured into his ear one day when he fell asleep. Hamlet is torn between the trick his mind is playing on him and whether to believe what his father’s ghost tells him. Because he does not want to blame his mother or his uncle unfairly. He thinks and thinks and finally decides to pretend to be mad for a while in the hope of finding something. It is suggested that this madness is due to the love of Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius, one of King Claudius’ aides. However, this is not the case at all. While Hamlet was struggling with completely different things in his mind at that time, Ophelia came to her father and told him that Hamlet was interested in her. Her father sends Ophelia away, saying that he does not want them to meet, that this situation is not appropriate.
John Everett Millais Ophelia Book Comments
Actually, at this point, we can say that Ophelia is a victim of some things. It’s like being used in terms of her feelings, dragging herself after a love that’s wrong, that’s not right… Because the greatest evil that a person can do for himself is to follow a cliff, knowing that he’s going to get hurt in the end. That abyss with no bottom, waiting to be pushed by someone and full of deep crevices… I think it would not be wrong to use this expression for Ophelia; throwing herself into the fire on purpose and chasing after a love that doesn’t even pay off..
Hamlet, Polonius, Ophelia
After a while, Polonius immediately wants to talk to the king because he thinks that the reason for Hamlet’s strange behavior is his daughter. The king, like everyone else, is aware of Hamlet’s strange behavior and agrees to talk to him. Polonius wants to have Ophelia and Hamlet meet and examine how their behavior is, and he consults the king about it, and of course he agrees. As much as he doesn’t want to, he thinks that the reason for Hamlet’s behavior is not because of his love for Ophelia. Because of the thoughts gnawing at his brain, he calls his closest friends to the palace and thinks of searching Hamlet’s mouth. When this fails to bring him any results, he invites Hamlet’s favorite theater actors to entertain him and arranges an entertainment.
Hamlet’s Play
Hamlet is still haunted by what his father has told him, but at the same time he continues to think that this is all a trick of his mind. He hears that a theater company is coming and decides to use this event to clear his mind. He asks the theater people to perform the play he wrote. He actually makes a very smart move. Because the play was staging the poisoning of a king, as described by his father’s ghost. Hamlet observes the king during the play and tries to find out if he really killed his father. He is not mistaken, the king has indeed killed his father. Hamlet makes sure that he interrupts the play and leaves. The king is now on the trigger, and knowing that Hamlet is a danger, he wants to send him to another country. Polonius has an idea; Hamlet will talk to his mother and Polonius will listen to them and tell the king everything, and the king agrees. Polonius hides in the queen’s room and listens to her conversation with Hamlet. After a while, an argument breaks out between them, and when he tries to help the queen, he makes a move towards her. But Hamlet knocks him down with a knife blow; Polonius can’t take it anymore and dies. The death of his most trusted man is the last straw for the king. He sends Hamlet to England and decides to kill him on the spot. Meanwhile, Ophelia, who heard that her father died because of Hamlet, has lost her mind. Her brother Leartes immediately comes to the palace and wants to avenge his father’s death. While the king is trying to calm Leartes down, he receives a letter; it says that Hamlet has returned. With this letter, the news of the suicide of Ophelia, the victim, arrives at the same time; the young girl has drowned to death.
Love in Hamlet
Delays, our ambitions, our urge to sacrifice someone in order not to taste defeat… In fact, Ophelia was not just a victim, her father Polonius had warned his daughter at first, but Ophelia did not give up her unrequited love. Hamlet, on the other hand, had already discarded Ophelia, played with her emotions to avenge his father’s death, set up his own game and easily wasted Ophelia like a pawn in that game. From Ophelia’s point of view, the man she called “my beloved” killed her father, and according to some rumors, Hamlet found out about this theater play and told Ophelia that he did not love her and deceived her. In any case, Ophelia became a victim of unrequited love, betrayal and power play. In the end, she tragically lost her sanity and brought about her own end. So the conclusion we can draw from this is that no man, I correct, no man of whom we are not sure of “his feelings and himself”, is worth beating ourselves up over, struggling for the love of someone who we know will not love us. It would be like the last struggles of a beached fish, you know the end but you knowingly sacrifice yourself. Feelings are beautiful when they are mutual, love is special when there are two people. This feeling experienced by one person and thought to be ‘love’ is not love at all. At the end of the day, it’s not worth wearing yourself out for anyone or anything. So what do we say, ‘love yourself and don’t put any person before yourself in this life.
