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Deathly Tranquility In Hamlet

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Deathly Tranquility In Hamlet
Tabitha Smith
Instructor: Dr. Hochmeister
English- 1302-133
30 September 2015
Homework 6: Essay Option 6
Deathly Tranquility
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross wrote, “Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.” The paintings of Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet are a classic representation of the human race’s desire for peace through death. Many versions of Ophelia through the depiction of paint can be viewed online. The Art Renewal Center Museum and The Metropolitan Museum of Art show great representations. John Everett Millais, Eugene Delacroix, Alexandre Cabanel, John William Waterhouse whose works …show more content…
Shakespeare states it thus through his character Polonius, “Affection, puh, you speak like a green girl / Unsifted in such perilous circumstance”(1.2.101). Her sheltered life filled with grandeur thoughts of love and days spent picking flowers developed within her a frailty that is exposed, not only physically, but mentally through her actions and words in Hamlet, but also through the artwork. Her skin is illustrated as smooth and pure white, indicating the absence of harsh living and a naivety. Ophelia’s face in all the artists renderings, except Ewerbeck’s, is shown as peaceful and wistful but resigned with remorse. Her worry free brow and her alabaster skin shows no blemish from the sun in each of the paintings, while John William Waterhouse’s representation exposes her mind and soul through her eyes as if they are pools of sorrow. All of the artists agree on her status by clothing her in elaborate dresses befitting her. Carlos Ewebeck’s painting stands apart from the others by portraying her with her head turned away and unclothed as if in shame. Her unadorned nakedness shows her virginity, vulnerability and great …show more content…
Delacroix’s La Mort d’Ophelie portrays the most vivid or real scenario of a death in motion but still evokes a heavy sense of peace. The depth of color and hue in each painting parallels the play in its complexity and captures the essence of tragedy through the lens of peacefulness. Death usually swallows sorrow, betrayal and even madness but in both works of art and the play, it unfolds the petals of peace and tranquility. And as Shakespeare said through Hamlet, “The rest is silence”
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