Ophelia as an Archetype of Youthful Beauty

From early modern tragedy to Victorian visual culture, Ophelia's representation has reflected shifting paradigms of gender, aesthetics, and emotion. During the Victorian era, Pre-Raphaelite reinterpretations of this Shakespearean heroine made her into an emblem of tragic femininity. These images not only aestheticized death and idealized feminine fragility but also operated within a broader visual representation that conflated the female body with aesthetic and moral transcendence.

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Host or Publisher The Birmingham & Midland Institute