RW4 see attachment

Make a follow-up of a student's weekly discussion and respond with your opinion regarding to her post

------You don't have to post this in APA format necessarily, it's just giving feedback to the student .

Chaya Lederman

Sir John Everett Millais's  Ophelia, inspired by Shakespeare’s Ophelia from  Hamlet, is an oil painting created in 1851-1852 in Surrey, England.  Sir John Everett Millais was an English painter born in 1829. Millais wanted to paint Ophelia to show how the act of dying could be beautiful. In Shakespeare’s  Hamlet, Ophelia goes mad after discovering her lover Hamlet has killed her father (Sir John Everret Millais, Bt, n.d.). Ophelia drowns to death after falling in a stream. Mallais depicts this scene from  Hamlet that was generally censored. This scene was rarely acted out in the play, it was considered indecent (Roussillon-Constanty, 2019). 

 

Sir John Everett Millais was part of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood movement that diverged from the Renaissance movement. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood were fascinated by depictions of love and death, and focused attention on Realism in nature (Art Term, n.d.). The Pre-Raphaelites also veered towards a more spiritual and religious view (Martin, 2018). Millais observed and perfected the nature surrounding Ophelia but found himself hyper fixating on all aspects of the background. Millais maintained realism throughout his paintings by painstakingly considering every detail (Epstein-Nord, 2018). He created the image of Ophelia last. 

 

Ophelia is seen laying face up in the stream, eyes and mouth open. Her palms are extended to the sky, and she holds flowers in her right hand. As explained by Sir John Everret Millais, Bt (n.d.) the plants and flowers surrounding Ophelia are symbolic. The roses in the stream and on the grass hint Ophelia’s brother Laertes who referred to her as “Rose of May’. The willow and daisies refer to love, hurt, and naivety (Sir John Everret Millais, Bt, n.d.). The violets are associated with her loyalty and death at a young age.     

 

 

References:

 

Art Term. (n.d.). Tate.  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pre-raphaeliteLinks to an external site.

Epstein-Nord, D. (2018). George Eliot and John Everett Millais: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Realism.  Victorian Studies, 60(3), 361-389.

Martin, F. D. (2018).  Humanities through the Arts (10th ed.). McGraw-Hill Higher Education (US).

Roussillon-Constanty, L. (2019). Tracing Ophelia from Millais to Contemporary Art: Literary, Pictorial and Digital Icons.  Cahiers Victoriens & Edouardiens, 89, 1-12. 

Sir John Everret Millais, Bt. (n.d.). Tate.  https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-ophelia-n01506Links to an external site.