Custom Written Essays: Contrasting Gertrude and Ophelia of Shakespeare

Contrasting the Ladies in Hamlet How can anyone view or read the Shakespearean tragedy of Hamlet without observing an obvious differentiation between the characters of the two feminine characters? And save, not all critics agree on heretofore the most big features of this contrast. Quite opposite the criminality of the kings wife is the naturalness of Ophelia this view is generally expressed among Shakespearean critics. Jessie F. ODonnell expresses the total whiteness of the heros girlfriend in Ophelia, originally appearing in The American Shakespeare Magazine O broken lily how shall one rightly enshroud of her love cabless, her gentleness and the awful pathos of her fate? Who shall dare to hint that she was not altogether faultless? One feels as if wantonly crushing just about frail blossom in criticising so beautiful a creation, yet such is my thankless task. To my mind, Ophelia has been much over-rated by writers on this play of Hamlet, and when unsheathed of the g lamor of Shakespeares magic verse and the lenient tenderness we break down always to the dead . . . she will be found a simple, modify girl, pure and delicate as a snowflake . . . . (241) Contradicting ODonnells view is some evidence that Ophelia is not innocent in her alliance with the protagonist (West 107). Moral concerns are in the forefront of any handling about dissimilarities between the queen and the lord chamberlains daughter. John capital of Delaware Wilson highlights moral differences in What Happens in Hamlet His Hamlets mother is a criminal, has been inculpatory of a sin which blots out the stars for him, makes life a bestial thing, and even infects his very blood. She has committed incest. Modern readers, living i... ...nd Notes on Shakspere and Other slope Poets. London George Bell and Sons, 1904. p. 342-368. http//ds.dial.pipex.com/thomas_larque/ham1-col.htm ODonnell, Jessie F. Ophelia. The American Shakespeare Magazine, 3 (March 1897), 70-76. Rpt. in Wome n variation Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ed. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts. untried York Manchester University Press, 1997. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos. West, Rebecca. A Court and World Infected by the Disease of Corruption. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 1957. Wilson, John Dover. What Happens in Hamlet. New York Cambridge University Press, 1999.