Style {in}Sight: Ophelia, you warm my heart

Ophelia is a fictional character in Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, who is also the love interest of Prince Hamlet himself. Hamlet woos her over with his courtship and love letters, but soon becomes distrusted by Ophelia's father, Polonius, who later spies on the prince.

Polonius orders Ophelia to return Hamlet's love letters and forbids her to see him. While all of this is going on, King Claudius (Hamlet's stepfather) becomes entangled in a concocted scheme set up to expose him as the murderer of the previous king (Hamlet's real father). As part of his scheme, Hamlet pretends to be insane.

Ophelia is driven over the edge when Hamlet kills her father for spying. She becomes increasingly distraught, sings lewd songs in public, and scatters flowers about. Her actions make people fear she is going mad. One day, she walks along a river and drowns, and it's unclear whether her death is an accident or suicide. Ophelia is emotionally damaged by the men in her life. She is not strong enough to stand up to either her father or her lover. Her frailty and innocence work against her as she cannot cope with the unfolding of one traumatic event after another.

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Alexandre Cabanel

Fire With Fire, circa 1986 with Virginia Madsen and Craig Sheffer. Virginia's character is mesmerized by an Ophelia portrait on her school wall and oftentimes lays in the lake, portraying the character while taking photos of herself. The entire movie is available to watch on Youtube, here is Part 1.