History Characters / Ophelia

* HeroesWantRedheads: She has red hair and Hamlet is certainly attracted to her.

** Rosemary "for rememberance", with Ophelia adding "I hope you remember". It can be inferred Ophelia hopes Gertrude remembers the close and loving relationship they once shared until Claudius ruined things.

* CaringGardner: She has a fascination with plants. She's kept potted plants on her bedroom windowsill since she was a child (her collection has grown substantially over the years), weaves flowers into her hair and demonstrates knowledge on plants and their properties and/or symbology, such as correctly identifying a flower as poisonous belladonna and her distribution of flowers and herbs based on what they symbolise. Her interest in gardening and nature helps underline her as nurturing and kind-hearted.

* MarryForLove: He expresses a desire to marry Ophelia out of love, but says [[SubvertedTrope he can't]] because she's not nobility or royalty; while he personally couldn't care less about her lack of wealth and social standing, he knows his father wants him to become king and would never approve of him choosing someone like Ophelia as his future queen. [[spoiler: After his father dies and Claudius becomes king instead, he decides [[DoubleSubverted "screw it"]] and marries Ophelia in secret]].

* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: While he's quite as bad about it as he is the play (where he's also doing some of it intentionally as opposed to just being ignorant), Hamlet gives Ophelia some pretty mixed signals early on. He enthusiastically courts her, culminating in him kissing her at a ball. However, Ophelia learns the next day that Hamlet is heading back to university soon and never thought to mention it. He tries to explain he intended to say goodbye but wasn't sure how, kisses Ophelia... then tells her he could never marry her because she's common. Ophelia is pretty annoyed by it and is cold towards him afterwards, even when he apologizes. She realizes Hamlet ''does'' genuinely care for her when she learns he's held onto her ribbon all this time.

->'''Portrayed by:''' Creator/NaomiWatts; Anna Rust (young)

* SomeoneToRememberHimBy: [[spoiler: {{Implied|trope}}. In the end, Ophelia is shown to have a young daughter, with the implication that she is her child with Hamlet, conceived on [[WeddingEnhancedFertility their wedding night]].]]

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: In ''Hamlet'', Polonius comes across as quite [[OverprotectiveDad controlling]] of Ophelia (though how much of a jerk he is depends on the adaptation; in some he's just overprotective, in others he's an outright ControlFreak). Here, he is more considerate, open-minded and gives her a lot of freedom. While he's misguided at times, he does want Ophelia to be safe and happy more than anything. Polonius also doesn't use his daughter to spy on Hamlet here; Claudius is the mastermind of this ploy, with Polonius reluctantly going along with it and even trying to talk Claudius out of it to the best of his ability.

* MeaningfulName: Her name may be inspired by Mechtild of Magdeburg (also spelt as Mechthild), a 13th century German Christian mystic who wrote several books on the subject and joined the Beguines (a semi-monastic religious order of women active from the 13th to 16th centuries).

* TheWomanWearingTheQueenlyMask: Defied. After decades of this, Gertrude is sick of never being able to put her own desires first and of being neglected by her husband, simply because she's the queen. After her husband dies, she throws caution out the window and marries Claudius, her brother-in-law whom she has come to love and supports him being elected king over her son. This doesn't end well for anyone.

* ShippingTorpedo: He cautions Ophelia against getting involved romantically with Hamlet, even expressing mild horror over the rumors Hamlet "no longer sees [her] as a child". Ophelia's response is to roll her eyes and state "I ''am'' no longer a child". Laertes indicates he's worried that Hamlet will only break her heart and ruin her reputation due to him being too far above their station to consider marrying her. Ophelia tells Laertes he has nothing to worry about she "want[s] nothing to do with [Hamlet]", although not long after Laertes leaves for university she [[BlatantLies quickly rekindles her romance with the prince]].

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Of his own doom. He had gone to see Gertrude to apologize and persuade her not to cast away Ophelia, after she had inadvertently offended the queen. As a result, he's in the wrong place at the wrong time, and gets killed by Hamlet. This has the knock-on-effect of dooming Hamlet and Polonius' own son as well.

* MissingMom: Ophelia's mother died when she was very young. This is part of the reason Gertrude takes her on as her one of her ladies, as Polonius admits he's clueless as to how to raise a girl.

* DeterminedWidow: [[spoiler: Even after Hamlet's death (whom she was married to), Ophelia is resolved to keep living life to the fullest, making a long and arduous trek alone across the countryside to reach safety. The final scene also shows her to be a loving mother to their daughter]].

* BearerOfBadNews: He's the one who comes to tell Ophelia her father is dead. She immediately knows something is wrong and initially fears Hamlet has been killed attempting to assassinate Claudius, only for Horatio to tell her that Hamlet is still alive, but her father is dead. Ophelia then assumes Claudius killed him, only for Horatio to [[FromBadToWorse reluctantly clarify]] that ''Hamlet'' was responsible.

* {{Guile Hero}}ine: Especially in the climax, where she [[spoiler: convincingly [[ObfuscatingInsanity feigns madness]] as part of a scheme to fake her own death and inform Gertrude that her husband is not as innocent as she believes]].

* [[LikeASonToMe Like a Daughter to Me]]: Gertrude views Ophelia as something of a surrogate daughter; she took her in and raised her to be a lady after learning her mother died, and tends to favor her above the other ladies (at least at first).

* PlayingGertrude: Actually averted in this case; Naomi Watts was 48/49 years old during filming and Hamlet's actor George [=MacKay=] was 25 (making for a 24 year gap). In fact, Gertrude being an older woman with an adult son is a source of angst for her in the story.

* {{Wicked Step|mother}}father: Claudius technically becomes this to his nephew Hamlet after marrying his mother. He barely hides his contempt for Hamlet, enjoys humiliating him, intentionally drives a wedge between Hamlet and his mother, and eventually plots his murder.

* BadLiar: She repeatedly does a poor job of lying to or misleading other people, especially when directly confronted. She becomes flustered and awkward, and either tells easily-disproven BlatantLies (with her body language and tone of voice giving her away) or quickly throws in the towel. It's indicated to be a a side-effect of her tendency to speak her mind and not hide herself; Hamlet says he admires Ophelia's honesty considering he's surrounded by a whole court of deceivers, although it causes huge problems when Claudius catches her in lies. [[spoiler:She ''is'' able to convince almost everyone she's gone insane, including a lot of improvisation, although interestingly, besides acting in a deranged manner, everything she ''says'' is the truth in [[BrutalHonesty one way]] [[ExactWords or another]]]].