"This above all: to thine own self be true." ~ Shakespeare’s Hamlet
What if Romeo and Juliet was told from Juliet’s point of view? Would many still love the tragedy just as much? Would readers still identify with the tragic star-crossed lovers? What if Shakespeare’s Hamlet was written from the perspective of a female? Well Lisa Klein answers that question in Ophelia: A Novel, which is her brilliant interpretation of Ophelia’s side of the Shakespeare’s tragedy.
The novel exposes the reader to what Klein believes happened between Hamlet, his Uncle Claudius, Ophelia’s brother Laertes, and Hamlet’s trusted advisor and friend, Horatio. Ophelia is no longer just the girl who falls in love with Hamlet the Prince of Denmark, but she is the girl who blooms into a woman under the watchful eye of the entire royal family.
All of her life Ophelia has wanted nothing more than a normal family, but since her mother died in childbirth, her father and older brother raised her. When she has the chance to go and live as a Lady of Queen Gertrude’s court she begins to see the darker side of what seemed to be the perfect family. This story tells the tale of Ophelia’s search for love, but the only results she finds are desire and heartache in the death of her husband. Unlike Shakespeare’s story, Klein does not end hers here. She takes the reader into Ophelia’s world after Hamlet’s death. The reader follows Ophelia into her new life and the love that she finds from those around her and in an unexpected place.
I believe that Ophelia: A Novel is one of the greatest reinventions of Shakespeare’s work that I have read. Reading this novel reminded of the movie, Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. Both of these works try to make Shakespeare’s work more current and up to date, which engages teenagers in the classics. Even though Klein’s work is set in the 1600’s, she creates such a realistic character in Ophelia, that she is very identifiable with today’s teens. Ophelia faces the same struggles of love, lust, and finding out who she really is, as many of today’s teens do.
Ophelia: A Novel would be a great read for young adults in grades eighth and older. The vocabulary of the novel does follow some old English writing, which may prove challenging for some readers, but for the most part, it is easy to follow. I also believe that the chapters are so well written that they leave the reader wanting to know more about what will happen next to Ophelia. As a teacher, I think this would be a great supplemental text during a unit on Shakespeare, because the initial parts of the story stay true to Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
3 comments:
It's been a really long time, but didn't Ophelia commit suicide? So is this before the time of Hamlet or an alternate story as if she didn't commit suicide?
It is a twist on the ending. It reminds me of Romeo and Juliet because she takes a poison that makes it look like she died, but it turns out that she did not. I enjoyed that element of this story.
Sounds like a very interesting book. Like you said, I think this would be a good book for a teacher to teach after reading Hamlet, does this book keep the same voice or tone of hamlet or is it written in more contempoary language?
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