Representing Ophelia Elaine Showalter Essay

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A Psychoanalytic Perspective: "Man and Wife Is One Flesh": Hamlet and the Confrontation with the Maternal Body / Janet Adelman.

A Deconstructionist Perspective: Hamlet: Giving Up the Ghost / Marjorie Garber.

In their article and revisions, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism,” from Shakespeare and the Question of Theory, edited by Patricia Parker and Geoffrey Hartman, the authors, being feminist critics, defend Ophelia and criticize the way she is treated and undermined as a minor character.

The role of Ophelia in the play Hamlet is underappreciated and over criticized due to her developed psychosis following her rejection by Hamlet.

However, Ophelia’s role is more than just a sexual arousal for Hamlet and psychosis for psychiatrist and specifically male critics to examine.

Scholars and critics throughout history have turned Ophelia into “an insignificant minor character” (Elaine Showalter). Shakespeare has given Hamlet a back story while the reader has no clue what Ophelia’s past is like.

This edition of Shakespeare's classic play presents the 1974 text edited by G.

Blakemore Evans from The Riverside Shakespeare (complete with footnotes, glosses, and textual notes) along with five critical essays - newly commissioned or revised for a student audience - that read Hamlet from five contemporary critical perspectives.

She has been defended by feminists and criticized by many who believed she was mad.

In their article and revisions, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism,” from Shakespeare and the Question of Theory, edited by Patricia Hamlet, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the 16th century, has been subject to evaluation for centuries. The psychology of each character has been examined.