A document in death and madness: A cultural and interdisciplinary study of nineteenth-century art song settings on the death of Ophelia

In the nineteenth century the character of Ophelia transformed from a minor role in Hamlet into one of the great muses of the Romantic period. Ophelia's rise to an archetype of feminine madness was not a result of Shakespeare's pen alone, but of the accumulation of interpretations of her character from actresses, artists, critics, writers, musicians, and social attitudes toward women. This paper focuses on nineteenth-century interpretations of her death, specifically art song.;A brief survey of the nineteenth-century European cultural and social climate pertaining to Ophelia is included in the paper: (1) Shakespeare in France and Germany; (2) Nineteenth-Century Actresses in the Role of Ophelia; (3) The Death of Ophelia; (4) Ophelia in Art; (5) Ophelia as the Feminine Ideal; (6) Ophelia: A Pathetic or Tragic Character. The bulk of the paper focuses on four nineteenth-century art songs (three French and one German) that portray Ophelia's death: "La mort d'Ophelie," by Hector Berlioz; "Herzeleid," by Robert Schumann; "La mort d'Ophelie," by Camille Saint-Saens; and "Ophelia" from Poemes d'automne by Gabriel Dupont. In addition to poetic and musical analysis, correlations are drawn between these songs and paintings depicting her passing: Sir John Everett Millais's Ophelia, 1852; Arthur Hughes's Ophelia , 1852; and Eugene Delacroix's La mort d'Ophelia , 1853.;This paper serves as a cultural and interdisciplinary musical character study of Ophelia, exploring the various interpretations of her death as a heroic transcendence, final act of rebellion, unfortunate accident, or conscious surrender to sadness and death. The reader will take away a better understanding of Ophelia and the various interpretations of the enigmatic character, which will aid artists taking on the role.