Ophelia Ophelia Ophelia () is a character in William Shakespeare's drama "Hamlet". She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet. As with virtually all "Hamlet" characters, Ophelia's name is not Danish. It first appeared in Jacopo Sannazaro's 1504 poem "Arcadia" (as "Ofelia"), probably derived from Ancient Greek ὠφέλεια ("ōphéleia", "help"). In Ophelia's first speaking appearance in the play, she is seen with her brother, Laertes, who is leaving for France. Laertes warns her that Hamlet, the heir to the throne of Denmark, does not have the freedom to marry
Ophelia (painting) Ophelia (painting) Ophelia is a painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais, completed in 1851 and 1852 and in the collection of Tate Britain in London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. The work encountered a mixed response when first exhibited at the Royal Academy, but has since come to be admired as one of the most important works of the mid-nineteenth century for its beauty, its accurate depiction of a natural landscape, and its influence on artists from John William Waterhouse and Salvador Dalí to