Ophelia

Ophelia
Sir John Everett Millais

Origins

A possible historical source for Ophelia is Katherine Hamlet, a young woman who fell into the Avon river and died in December 1579. Though it was eventually concluded that she had overbalanced while carrying some heavy pails, rumours that she was suffering from a broken heart were considered plausible enough for an inquest to be conducted into whether her death was a suicide. It is possible that Shakespeare - sixteen at the time of the death - recalled the romantic tragedy in his creation of the character of Ophelia. The name "Ophelia" itself was either uncommon or nonexistent; the only known prior text to use the name (as "Ofalia") is Jacopo Sannazaro's Arcadia.

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