sábado, 22 de noviembre de 2014

Mirroring in Shakespeare



There are some Shakespeare's works in which we can see different characters sharing life experiences, This generates characters mirroring other characters. Two cases that we have seen during the semester are Viola and Olivia in Twelfth Night, and Hamlet and Ophelia in Hamlet



In the first place, Viola and Olivia share similar characteristics: they both lost their fathers and a brother, and keep themselves apart from men by covering their beauty with a kind of disguise, but end up falling in love with someone that apparently will never correspond to their love. Even their names are anagrammatic. 



In the second place, Hamlet and Ophelia. They both suffered the murder of their fathers, became mad and finally died. Even we know very little about Ophelia apart from the relationship she has with Hamlet, as if her identity was only based on him and, once Hamlet leaves her by telling her that he doesn't love her anymore, the mirror gets empty and Ophelia has to disappear.










References: 

Takiguchi, S.; The Identities of characters and Mirror Imagery in Twelfth Night. Retrieved from  http://journal.seijo.ac.jp/gslit/student/english/pdf/eng-035-03.pdf


Showalter, E.; Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness and the Responsibilities of Feminists Criticism. (1985) 

https://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/?parent=2514&detail=2679&content=2680

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