History Main / TheOphelia

* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'''s Stella Loussier blissfully dances her way through her first scene of the series... And, minutes later, [[KnifeNut shanks]] her way through the second. [[PsychopathicManchild It only goes downhill from there.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Ooku}}: The Inner Chambers'' Shige, Shogun Ienari's consort, lost all her senses after her son was poisoned and she was accused of doing so to frame O-Shiga, Ienari's concubine for it, to the point that she often mistakes Ienari for the deceased son. [[spoiler:Except it was all an act to lure her mother-in-law Harusada into a false sense of security so she and O-Shiga (who also had her child poisoned) could get their revenge on Harusada, who was the real poisoner.]]

* ''Literature/LunarChronicles'' has Princess Winter, the series' version of Snow White, who is considered the most beautiful girl on Luna, more beautiful than her stepmother Queen Levana, a kind and sweet girl who wants her people to be happy and who is a genuinely loving person, and who suffers from Lunar sickness which leaves her with horrific hallucinations (the walls bleeding, her body turning to ice, people becoming corpses...). [[spoiler: She's also worsening her sickness by not using her gift, while well aware of the consequences of continuing to avoid using her powers.]]

* Blanche [=DuBois=] in ''Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire''. Tennessee William's use of this trope is believed to be inspired by his own life. Williams was very close to his sister Rose, who was described as a "slim beauty"; she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and spent much time in mental hospitals before having a lobotomy that incapacitated her. Williams never got over it and it is believed to have played a part in his drug addiction and alcoholism.

* Susie becomes this in the second half of ''Repeat It Today With Tears'' by Anne Peile; although she chops off her RapunzelHair after being committed to a psychiatric hospital.

* In ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'', Sisi visits mental hospitals in her spare time. At one of them, a patient named Windisch proceeds to loudly claim that [[NapoleonDelusion she is the true Empress Elisabeth]] and Sisi is an impostor who should be locked up. Productions often have Windisch's long hair braided like the empress' famous RapunzelHair, with flowers to imitate the star-shaped hair decorations in the famous Winterhalter portrait, if not recreating a mad version of said portrait altogether. In the 2018 Creator/TakarazukaRevue production, Windisch carries a tattered white fan that the black-clad Empress exchanges for her black one. Elisabeth envies Windisch and wishes she could openly be TheOphelia.

** Rize Kamishiro initially looks like a ProperLady but is actually a FemmeFatale ghoul who lures men she finds attractive in with her beauty before satisfying her gluttonous nature by eating them or "scrambling their insides" with her kagune.

* In ''VideoGame/Pathologic2'', nearly all Mistresses. A Mistress is basically a hereditary {{Shaman}}, someone who has PsychipPowers and directs the town's mystical aspects. Their precognition is very real, but it means they're often distracted by events in the spirit world, develop strange habits, and have their personalities warped. (Nina UsedToBeASweetKid before her powers as a Mistress bloomed.) There have been no male Mistresses.

** There's River Tam from ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', who is also a [[CassandraTruth Cassandra]] of course, but her lyrical madness fits the trope to the letter, and Ophelia's River is even there in her ''name''. She has a [[BigBrotherInstinct faithful Laertes]] in Simon./

** You could make the argument for Faith as well, even before her FaceHeelTurn she had some serious issues, and even though some of them got resolved when she joined the Mayor, most of them got much, much worse.
** Glory's sanity stealing powers provided an entire season of these at the ready. Most notably, [[spoiler:Tara]].

* Phantom of the Opera in ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' can be interpreted as a RareMaleExample, particularly after his [[BishonenLine third ascension]], due to his Mental Pollution skill which makes him incapable of understanding or being understood by anyone without the same level of distorted mentality and penchant for singing at seemingly inappropriate times. Best exemplified with the Prison Tower Event as he sings of love and envy before disappearing after being defeated.

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' has Agnes Dowd, a woman who became pregnant after a failed affair with her boyfriend. Her parents disapproved of their relationship to such an intense degree that her father killed him in front of her eyes, driving her into a murderous rage before [[DrivenToSuicide hanging herself.]] Who do you get to hear this from? [[spoiler: Her GHOST.]]

* Creator/GilbertAndSullivan parody the type with Mad Margaret in ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'' , whom the stage directions describe as "an obvious caricature of theatrical madness." Her supposed madness does no more than make her a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} (and a sympathetic one, to boot). In the second act, she's mostly reformed but sometimes bursts into hysterical fits, which can be quieted by reminding her of the word "Basingstoke" (an English town which is noted for not being Birmingham; both towns start with the same letter as [[BedlamHouse Bedlam]], though this is not mentioned in the play).

* Parodied with Mad Margaret in ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}'', whom the stage directions describe as "an obvious caricature of theatrical madness."

* Creator/GilbertAndSullivan parody the type with Mad Margaret in ''Theatre/{{Ruddigore}}.'' Her supposed madness does no more than make her a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} (and a sympathetic one, to boot). In the second act, she's mostly reformed but sometimes bursts into hysterical fits, which can be quieted by reminding her of the word "Basingstoke" (an English town which is noted for not being Birmingham; both towns start with the same letter as [[BedlamHouse Bedlam]], though this is not mentioned in the play).

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'': Despite having an actual character named Ophelia, she isn't really this trope and is more of a mix between GenkiGirl and MagicalGirlWarrior, plus some SharedFamilyQuirks. The real Ophelia-type character is [[GenderInvertedTrope Takumi]] in the ''Conquest'' path. He is a LongHairedPrettyBoy who, in this particular path, falls into madness for several reasons: his hate and jealousy of the Avatar, his sorrow from losing his mother [[spoiler:(actually, his ParentalSubstitute)]], his InferioritySuperiorityComplex, and the depression he got from all of that. Following the water theme of Ophelia, his clothes are mostly blue and white, unlike his siblings who wear red and white - blue and white are both common color themes for water. Not to mention, the kanji for his name can be read as "ocean". Granted, he is actually [[spoiler:under a ''huge'' MoreThanMindControl state caused by a water dragon god]], but it doesn't change the fact he exhibits several archetypical traits of this trope. While both hate and sorrow are the reasons for his madness, the game emphasizes more on his hatred while fanworks emphasize more on his sorrow, perfectly depicting the "beautifully broken" trait of this trope (and sometimes reducing him ''solely'' to that). He also often babbles to himself in that path.

* Delirium from ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' is sometimes portrayed this way.
-->[Some] say that Delirium has no tragedy, but here they speak without reflection. For Delirium was once Delight. And although that was long ago now, even today her eyes are badly matched: one eye is a vivid emerald green, spattered with silver flecks that move. The other eye is vein blue. Who knows what Delirium sees, through her mismatched eyes?

* In ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'', Sisi visits mental hospitals in her spare time. At one of them, a patient named Windisch proceeds to loudly claim that [[NapoleonDelusion she is the true Empress Elisabeth]] and Sisi is an impostor who should be locked up. Productions often have Windisch's long hair braided like the empress' famous RapunzelHair, with [[FlowersInHerHair flowers]] to imitate the star-shaped hair decorations in the famous Winterhalter portrait, if not recreating a mad version of said portrait altogether. In the 2018 Creator/TakarazukaRevue production, Windisch carries a tattered white fan that the black-clad Empress exchanges for her black one. Elisabeth envies Windisch and wishes she could openly be TheOphelia.

** It should be noted that Ophelia may or may not be depicted as having actual mental issues depending on the performance. The play takes place in an environment full of censorship (the Danish court), so her behavior (just like Hamlet's) can be read as rebellion. The words she says tend to sound like nonsense to modern (and indeed, to Victorian) audiences: but they actually have meanings. To Shakespeare's audience, her behavior would have been {{Glurge}} as at one point she sings a fairly lewd song to her brother. This could either be read as evidence that she is actually crazy, or as the 17th century equivalent of IHaveBoobsYouMustObey.

* Snowdrop from ''LightNovel/{{Beatless}}'' is not technically insane, as she's an android with her own motives, but she seems designed to produce this impression -- loose dress, long hair, strong association with flowers (in addition to strewing them everywhere, she herself is named after a flower too), and a psychotic-seeming smile given the things she says and does.

* In ''Theatre/{{Elisabeth}}'', Sisi visits mental hospitals in her spare time. At one of them, a patient named Windisch proceeds to loudly claim that [[NapoleonDelusion she is the true Empress Elisabeth]] and Sisi is an impostor who should be locked up. Productions often have Windisch's long hair braided like the empress' famous RapunzelHair, with flowers to imitate the star-shaped hair decorations in the famous Winterhalter portrait, if not recreating a mad version of said portrait altogether. In the 2018 Creator/TakarazukaRevue production, Windisch carries a tattered white fan that the black-clad Empress exchanges for her black one. Elisabeth envies Windisch and wishes she could openly be TheOphelia.

** Margeurite in Gounod's ''Faust'' goes mad after falling pregnant and committing infanticide, and sings, of course, about flowers.

** To say Roberta she lost her shit following her master Diego's death is a very mellow way of putting it. Lots of guns? Check. Boiling blood? Check. Munching on stimulants like candy? Double-check. Hallucinating? Oh yes. Delusions of still serving Garcia in the middle of a gunfight? That too. And that's not even factoring in the gratuitous amounts of evil laughs and slasher smiles. She also goes around toting her weaponry and killing massive amounts of people off while looking pretty in her maid's dress. Subverted in the anime, [[AnArmAndALeg with her state]] at the end of the arc.

* Several of these appear in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'':
** [[spoiler:Ran Mouri]] spends a good part of the fourth movie, ''Captured in her eyes'', as one [[spoiler:due to a ''bad'' case of TraumaInducedAmnesia. She recovers towards the end, however.]]
** Also, a young woman mentioned in the backstory of the [[spoiler:Detectives Koshien]] arc. More exactly: [[spoiler:a mentally and emotionally unstable socialite who committed suicide via hanging herself in a room of her BigFancyHouse (nicknamed "the Lavender mansion") in an island near Fukuoka. The "young mistress"'s death was wrongfully catalogued as a murder, however, and the main suspect was her maid Kana Mizoguchi. Poor Kana was the one who fulfilled Ophelia's association with water, however, [[StartsWithASuicide having thrown herself into the sea]] after she couldn't prove her innocence.]]
** In the [[spoiler:Kimono Goddess]] case, the audience actually gets introduced to the episode via a scene in which a beautiful, sad-looking Ophelia ''[[StartsWithASuicide throws herself off a building]]'' in front of everyone in her women's college. [[spoiler:Her name was Sakurako Suzuka, and [[BrokenBird she]] [[BreakTheCutie ended up]] [[DespairEventHorizon that way]] after being framed for drug trade by two cruel {{Alpha Bitch}}es, Ema Anzai and Asuka Shibazaki, who already hated her for being a WideEyedIdealist. Five years later, Ema and Asuka would become the case's {{Asshole Victim}}s at the hands of Eri, Sakurako's estranged older sister.]]
** Maya Tachibana from the Beautiful Amnesiac Woman {{filler}} case, who has lost her memories due to injuries and acts like a textbook case. [[spoiler:Then it's subverted: she's a DarkActionGirl who has been hired to kill Kogoro by a dude that got tossed into jail and then escaped, and while her memory loss is genuine at first, she recovers her memories around halfway the episode and then pretends to still be amnesiac so she can corner Kogoro and murder him. Conan barely manages to save Kogoro and then capture her.]]

* Brittany Murphy's character in ''Don't Say A Word'' and in ''Film/GirlInterrupted''
* Rachel Weisz plays twin sisters in ''Film/{{Constantine}}'', one of whom is a sort of peripheral Ophelia - confined to a mental hospital, she commits suicide by leaping from a building, plunging through a ''roof'' and into a ''swimming pool'' (a ''cross-shaped'' one to boot) where, naturally, she can float all flowing-haired and dead. The other twin begins to manifest aspects of the trope - visions and immersion in water - without actually losing her mind.

* Kirsten Dunst's character Justine in ''{{Film/Melancholia}}'' could be a variation of this trope. She has few of the above mentioned traits, but a certain aesthetic scene in the movie is a clear reference to her. Justine is also mentally ill, but this is portrayed in a much more realistic and thus even more heartbreaking way.