Gruberova 2 : Aria from "Hamlet"

Gruberova ~~~

Hamlet ..... by Thomas

The Death of Ophelia

Canabel 

Millais

Waterhouse

The Fact is that I truly do not want to become Ophelia, a total tragic figure !! 

  

Inspired by Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Ophelia tragically drowns in the lake. The Pre-Raphaelites were fascinated by horticulture, so Millais recorded plants indigenous to the English countryside: a willow tree, a dog rose and a mallow sweet. Other flowers are more symbolic: roses for innocence, violets for faithfulness and poppies for death. The figure was painted separately in the studio, in a bath heated by candles. Unfortunately the ‘heating system’ broke, the model caught a severe cold, and Millais was sued by her father.

Ophelia

Of all the pivotal characters in Hamlet, Ophelia is the most static and one-dimensional. She has the potential to become a tragic heroine -- to overcome the adversities inflicted upon her -- but she instead crumbles into insanity, becoming merely tragic. This is because Ophelia herself is not as important as her representation of the dual nature of women in the play. Ophelia's distinct purpose is to show at once Hamlet's warped view of women as callous sexual predators, and the innocence and virtue of women.The extent to which Hamlet feels betrayed by Gertrude is far more apparent with the addition of Ophelia to the play. Hamlet's feelings of rage against his mother can be directed toward Ophelia, who is, in his estimation, hiding her base nature behind a guise of impeccability.
Through Ophelia we witness Hamlet's evolution, or de-evolution into a man convinced that all women are whores; that the women who seem most pure are inside black with corruption and sexual desire. And if women are harlots, then they must have their procurers. Gertrude has been made a whore by Claudius, and Ophelia has been made a whore by her father. In Act II, Polonius makes arrangements to use the alluring Ophelia to discover why Hamlet is behaving so curiously. Hamlet is not in the room but it seems obvious from the following lines that he has overheard Polonius trying to use his daughter's charms to suit his underhanded purposes. In Hamlet's distraught mind, there is no gray area: Polonius prostitutes his daughter. And Hamlet tells Polonius so to his face, labeling him a "fishmonger" (despite the fact that Polonius cannot decipher the meaning behind Hamlet's words). As Kay Stanton argues in her essay Hamlet's Whores:

Perhaps it may be granted...that what makes a woman a whore in the Hamlets' estimation is her sexual use by not one man but by more than one man.... what seems to enrage [Hamlet] in the 'nunnery' interlude is that Ophelia has put her sense of love and duty for another man above her sense of love and duty for him, just as Gertrude put her sense of love and duty for her new husband above her sense of love and duty for her old. Gertrude chose a brother over a dead Hamlet; Ophelia chooses a father over a living Hamlet: both choices can be read as additionally sexually perverse in being, to Hamlet, 'incestuous'. (Stanton,New Essays on Hamlet 168-9)

But, to the rest of us, Ophelia represents something very different. To those who are not blinded by hurt and rage, Ophelia is the epitome of goodness. Very much like Gertrude, young Ophelia is childlike and naive. Unlike Queen Gertrude, Ophelia has good reason to be unaware of the harsh realities of life. She is very young, and has lost her mother, possibly at birth. Her father, Polonius, and brother, Laertes, love Ophelia tremendously, and have taken great pains to shelter her. She is not involved with matters of state; she spends her days no doubt engaged in needlepoint and flower gathering. She returns the love shown to her by Polonius and Laertes tenfold, and couples it with complete and unwavering loyalty. "Her whole character is that of simple unselfish affection" (Bradley 130). Even though her love for Hamlet is strong, she obeys her father when he tells her not to see Hamlet again or accept any letters that Hamlet writes. Her heart is pure, and when she does do something dishonest, such as tell Hamlet that her father has gone home when he is really behind the curtain, it is out of genuine fear. Ophelia clings to the memory of Hamlet treating her with respect and tenderness, and she defends him and loves him to the very end despite his brutality. She is incapable of defending herself, but through her timid responses we see clearly her intense suffering:

Hamlet: ...I did love you once.
Ophelia: Indeed, my, lord, you made me believe so.
Hamlet: You should not have believed me...I loved you not.
Ophelia: I was the more deceived.

Her frailty and innocence work against her as she cannot cope with the unfolding of one traumatic event after another. Ophelia's darling Hamlet causes all her emotional pain throughout the play, and when his hate is responsible for her father's death, she has endured all that she is capable of enduring and goes insane. But even in her insanity she symbolizes, to everyone but Hamlet, incorruption and virtue. "In her wanderings we hear from time to time an undertone of the deepest sorrow, but never the agonized cry of fear or horror which makes madness dreadful or shocking. And the picture of her death, if our eyes grow dim in watching it, is still purely beautiful". (Bradley, Shakespearean Tragedy 132-3). The bawdy songs that she sings in front of Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius are somber reminders that the corrupt world has taken its toll on the pure Ophelia. They show us that only in her insanity does she live up to Hamlet's false perception of her as a lascivious woman. 

Much Ado About Nothing!

Much Ado About Nothing:

Benedick: Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably !

Ladies, Sigh No More.
Men, were all decievers ever.
One foot on the sea,
The other on the shore ....

Sigh No More...............

Music be the food of love~

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.~~Duke Orsino
From the Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

Duke is in love with the concept of love!
There is a difference!

I feel so sad again~~
Now emptiness prevails .

Marc Chagall 1: Chagall and Bella (A Love Story)

"Reason and love keep little company nowadays". ---William Shakespeare.
I say  if you can reason each step in your love relationship, you are not in love at all !!!!

Chagall exhibition at the Taipei Palace Museum !

Verona 2: The Legendary Balcony of Juliet's

I did try to act the scene.... O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo? —Juliet, at her window, laments that her love is Romeo, son of Montague, the enemy of her father Capulet.

On Valentine's Day: Romeo and Juliet

The Manifestication of true love that each puriest heart wish to aquire! One of my favorite play, Romeo and Juliet, and my favorite quotes:

Romeo: O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear!

Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
What ’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet. . . . swear by thy gracious self,Which is The god of my idolatry. —Juliet tells Romeo that if he must swear on something to prove he is a faithful lover, he should swear only upon himself.
My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more I have, for both are infinite.

I Romeo, Romeo, Romeo! Here's drink—I drink to thee.

Antony and Cleopatra

As devilish as platonic as she, I do love her so much...
Cleopatra:
"Give me my robe, put on my crown;
I have Immortal longings in me."

She would rather die in dignity by poisoned bite,
submerged in love, sinking in voluptuous passion,
without pearl tears, crystallized into drizzling ice...

Movie: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=HO4vYoWXG3U

Let not my love be called idoltry

She had a dream, a wish, an ideal, and that is how it begins:

Let not my love be called idoltry,

Nor my beloved as an idol show,

Since all alike my songs and praises be

To one, of one, still such, and ever so.

Fiar, kind, and true, is all my argument,

Fair, kind, and true, varying to other words.

Road to Heaven

Hamlet:

"There are more things in heaven and earth,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Dolce's most artistic work: http://www.dolcegabbanacalendar.com/

Life as a tale...

Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon stage,

And then is heard no more, it is a tale,

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.