Ophelia

Ophelia has always been up for interpretation, in the Shakespearian times Ophelia symbolised everything that is wrong with women, in the pre-Raphaelites she is symbolic of a beautiful romanticized death and in todays times she is very much up for discussion on what she represents and how that is interrupted.

I wanted to include Ophelia into my blog work as she in my opinion shows us how detrimental mental health can be, a lot of my own work is/has revolved around mental health and how I feel it should be portrayed however I want to add that historical element to my short film to show the mental health is timeless and is not a new modern fad that teenagers have picked up on.

This depiction of Ophelia death is not only symbolic of how women were thought of as being like water but romanticises her suicide into a more manageable subject for people especially in historical times to deal with.

Originally in our idea in my earlier posts we were thinking of having a lake scene but after seeing and exploring Ophelia I would like to change the shot to be similar to John Everett Millais painting not only would this be safer for us to film but we would be able to add in historical content with meaning.

Although Ophelia has no direct link with sleep paralysis the idea of vivid imagery and the romanticism is something that corresponds with the message that we are trying to convey.