History Main / TheOphelia

* [[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]] [[http://www.people.nnov.ru/thedoors/wilderness2.htm wrote a poem]] in tribute to Brian Jones, guitarist for Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}, which compared him to Ophelia; Jones had drowned in a swimming pool.
** Morrison himself counts, as a rare male example.

* Ophelia from ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', the TropeNamer. She starts out the play as a proper young lady, obedient to her father, even when he tells her she must end her relationship with Prince Hamlet, which means a lot to her. When Hamlet begins to fake his antic disposition (or actually go nuts, depending on your reading), Ophelia bears the brunt of his crazy behavior, which includes verbal abuse both public and private. Hamlet then kills Ophelia's father, and her sanity decays quickly. In a chilling scene, she walks around the King, Queen, and her own brother, without recognizing any of them, but strewing flowers[[note]]in performance the flowers are sometimes depicted as weeds, or as figments of her imagination[[/note]], singing, and sobbing. A little later, the Queen enters with a report of Ophelia's death by drowning, saying she was so distracted that she didn't even realize the danger when she fell into a river and sank. But the men who dig her grave darkly assert she was DrivenToSuicide. Ophelia remains a popular figure for art, poetry, and reinterpretation.
** 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 flowers she names have dangerous medical properties, hinting at [[MySecretPregnancy another]] [[GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion hidden plotline altogether]].
* In ''Theatre/KingJohn,'' also by Creator/WilliamShakespeare, Constance reads like a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], but she precedes the writing of ''Hamlet'' by two years. Constance suffers the loss of her little son, Arthur, and everyone around her says she is mad. But when Constance enters the stage, she sharply rebukes that she is still completely sane, that if she was mad, she wouldn't feel each grief as keenly as she does. Stephen Greenblatt hypothesizes that Constance's monologue is based on Shakespeare's grief over the death of his son.

* Diva from ''Anime/BloodPlus'', who also happens to be the BigBad. A good example is a scene where she's seen giggling, dancing and prancing around in a cute and very princessy gown, [[LettingHerHairDown with her hair down]] and [[DoesNotLikeShoes lacking footwear]]... and then she [[spoiler:captures her twin sister and rival Saya and almost kills her.]]

It's difficult to pin down the appeal of this trope. Perhaps a strange young maiden communing with nature harkens back to earlier figures like [[OurNymphsAreDifferent nymphs]] or pagan witches. Perhaps there is an underlying fetish at the thought that a crazy girl might be [[CrazyInTheHeadCrazyInTheBed awesome in the sack]]. Or perhaps there's something endearing to men about cradling a girl in your arms and [[{{Moe}} protecting her]] from the demons in her own head.

* ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.'s]]'' Alma appears to have many Ophelia-esque aspects, particularly in ''Project Origin''. She is shown singing in several hallucinations, and in the prequel videos she dances around a doctor who she's been gleefully [[MindRape mindraping]]. Water shows up often in her hallucinations, which makes sense, as, like Ophelia, she drowned to death (in her case, in amniotic fluid). And her hair in her "child" form tends to be wild and frazzled.

* Penny from ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars: Days of Ruin'' vacillates between being an Ophelia and being AxCrazy, mainly depending on the wishes of her stuffed Mr. Bear.

* ''Literature/DragonBones'' has the protagonist's mother. Her abusive husband, and (maybe) life in the HauntedCastle Hurog caused her to drug herself with herbs, but she's [[CloudCuckoolander not really there]] when she didn't take something, either. She's fond of her garden and flowers, and occasionally says something that makes sense in a weird way.

** [[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.]]

In RealLife mental illness is rarely pretty, but in fiction, there's just something about a lovely young woman, often with [[MessyHair long, disheveled hair]], running around [[TalkativeLoon babbling lyrically]] about the strange visions flashing through her deranged mind, singing [[IronicNurseryTune creepy little rhymes]], [[FlowerMotifs scattering flowers]] and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick occasionally]] [[AxCrazy bashing people's heads in.]]

It's difficult to pin down the appeal of this trope. Perhaps a strange young maiden communing with nature harkens back to earlier figures like [[OurNymphsAreDifferent nymphs]] or pagan witches. Perhaps there is an underlying fetish at the thought that a crazy girl might be [[SexGoddess awesome in the sack]]. Or perhaps there's something endearing to men about cradling a girl in your arms and [[{{Moe}} protecting her]] from the demons in her own head.

** 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./

* In the 2003 anime version of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'', [[spoiler:Rose Thomas]] is either drugged or hypnotized by [[spoiler:the BigBad Dante]]. In addition to [[BreakTheCutie the other terrible events]] that traumatized her, this makes the poor woman nearly catatonic, vacant, and either completely still or dancing. [[spoiler:But she gets better.]]

* ''LightNovel/GroundControlToPsychoelectricGirl'' has Erio, Makoto's cousin who believes she is an alien. In the first few episodes she spoke in CreepyMonotone and she overall has NoSocialSkills. [[spoiler:It's revealed that her believing she is an alien started after she turned up after having been missing for six months the previous years. Erio has no memories of what happened while she was missing.]]

* ''Manga/{{X1999}}'':

* 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-fitting white 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 -- her flowers cause other [=hIEs=] to go insane.

* ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''. Kaname acts like this during her Whispered moments, including hallucinations and self-inflicted ClothingDamage.

* An AxCrazy and openly villainous version is [[spoiler:Crimson Miroku]] from the ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' [[Anime/SakuraWarsTV TV series]]. After [[spoiler:Sumire kills her and Satan Aoi brings her BackFromTheDead]], she appears in front of the main cast with her clothes loose, [[LettingHerHairDown her long hair down]], and only being able to speak a MadnessMantra: "[[spoiler:Sumire]], [[spoiler:Sumire]]... I want your life... I'll take your life..."

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Feferi from ''Fanfic/{{Hemostuck}}''. A very beautiful [[FishPeople seadweller]] who spends her days singing to herself, swimming, and having a somewhat tenuous grasp on reality.
* In the ''Fanfic/PonyPOVSeries'', Diamond Tiara's mother Golden Tiara - a.k.a. "Screwball" - is like this, a former BlitheSpirit whose mind broke years ago under the pressure of cutthroat high society. However, we later learn that there's a [[TheMadHatter lot]] more [[TheDeterminator to]] [[MamaBear her]]...
* Syaoran in "Fanfic/ShatteredSecrets" is a male example of this trope - and lacks most characteristics of a {{Bishounen}}, to boot.
[[/folder]]

The Victorians fell crazy (so to speak) in love with this trope and Ophelias in the form of wronged maidens and deranged brides go pirouetting and flower-strewing through art, poetry and literature of the period while the "mad scene" for the soprano heroine became a staple of opera. Insanity was linked to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria female sexuality and desire for independence.]] In fact, psychiatrists at that time used to encourage female patients in madhouses -- especially if they were youthful and pretty -- to dress the part and carry sheaves of flowers.

* Reol has this image in [[White Midnight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVIvnYFsfXM]] as she dresses in white, wanders around, and seems completely oblivious to the world around her while displaying her trademark ThousandYardStare.

* Rennala from ''VideoGame/EldenRing''. Once the greatest sorceress in the Lands Between, a massive TraumaCongaLine involving her husband leaving her for Marika (and turning his wedding gift from her into a symbol of loyalty to his new wife, for shame), her daughter Ranni committing suicide ([[BodyBackupDrive sort of]]), and her children fighting each other in a ruinous civil war has completely broken her. The first phase of her boss fight consists of you beating up her students that are casting a shield around her, then beating her up when it breaks, while she barely seems to be aware of your presence. The second phase has you deal with an illusion of her in her prime conjured by Ranni as a sort of automated defense system. Once you're done with that, the real one will forget you ever attacked her and will happily offer to respec your stats or change your appearance.

* Creator/RachelWeisz 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.

* Renalla from ''VideoGame/EldenRing''. Once the greatest sorceress in the Lands Between, a massive TraumaCongaLine involving her husband leaving her for Marika (and turning his wedding gift into a symbol of loyalty to his new wife, for shame), her daughter committing suicide, and her children fighting each other in a ruinous civil war has completely broken her. Her boss fight is against her students and an illusion of her in her prime conjured by Ranni, while she barely even seems to notice you're trying to kill her, and after the fight's over, has completely forgotten that you attacked and greets you normally.

* ''Literature/TheWarlordChronicles'' takes a moment out of deconstructing the Myth/KingArthur mythos and pulling it into TheDungAges to deconstruct this trope in the person of Olwen the Silver, an insane {{Cloudcuckoolander}} first used by Merlin, (her etheral beauty, a little paint and special effects convinced people that she was a spirit and Merlin was summoning the old gods back to Britain) and later by Merlin's KnightTemplar former pupil Nimue.

* ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'' gives us Basil, a cute and pretty blond who wears flowers in his hair and knows about flower language. [[spoiler:Mari's death broke him, leading him to believe Sunny was possessed. He eventually goes completely insane and becomes a shut-in, possibly killing himself, and attacking Sunny and accidentally stabbing his eye should Sunny stop him.]] The only thing preventing him from being a textbook example is that he's [[GenderInvertedTrope a guy]].

* ''VideoGame/{{OMORI}}'' gives us Basil, a cute and pretty blonde who wears flowers in his hair and knows about flower language. [[spoiler:Mari's death broke him, leading him to believe Sunny was possessed. He eventually goes completely insane and becomes a shut-in, eventually killing himself and, if Sunny tries to stop him, attacking Sunny.]] The only thing preventing him from being a textbook example is that he's [[RareMaleExample a guy]].

Maybe this particular cutie was just [[BreakTheCutie broken particularly hard]], maybe it was [[IllGirl an illness]] or maybe she was born that way, but the result is the same, a tragically beautiful, ethereal waif who's mad as a box of frogs. Her beauty is an important point here, underlining her fragility and the sadness of her fate. She usually talks in [[CrypticConversation riddles]] and [[RhymesOnADime rhymes]], can be sad or joyfully happy [[MoodSwinger (or switch between these states)]]. Her mind may be so far gone that [[InsaneEqualsViolent she's likely to murder people]], but she'll always have clear skin while doing it; at other times, though, her madness may allow her to retain childlike innocence, resulting in her being [[LoonWithAHeartOfGold more kindhearted and compassionate than the "normals"]]. Sometimes, too, she has [[WaifProphet important knowledge]] the sane may lack, in which case she'll often have [[CassandraTruth terrible trouble]] getting anyone to listen (a classical example of MadOracle). The original [[TheCassandra Cassandra]] from ''Literature/TheIliad'' was often depicted as a bit of an Ophelia.

** One of these is [[spoiler:the legal wife of [[HeroicBastard Shiho's]] DisappearedDad, Masakazu Ogata, a sickly and sad lady who is often alone at her BigFancyHouse. Her son Kyousuke tells Shiho that she is "a little mentally unstable", implied to be a consequence of Ogata's constant womanizing on top of ''already'' being an IllGirl. This is confirmed when, after seeing Shiho, Mrs. Ogata tries to kill herself; for worse, when Shiho and Kyosuke try to aid her, she mistakes her for Shiho's mother Sayuri (the better known of Ogata's flings) again and begins to insult and threaten her. (Though she later comes to her senses, realizes the mistake and asks Shiho who she ''actually'' is.)]]

* [[Music/TheDoors Jim Morrison]] [[http://www.people.nnov.ru/thedoors/wilderness2.htm wrote a poem]] in tribute to Brian Jones, guitarist for Music/TheRollingStones, which compared him to Ophelia; Jones had drowned in a swimming pool.

* Delirium from ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'' is sometimes portrayed this way.

* ''VideoGame/[[OMORI]]'' gives us Basil, a cute and pretty blonde who wears flowers in his hair and knows about flower language. [[spoiler:Mari's death broke him, leading him to believe Sunny was possessed. He eventually goes completely insane and becomes a shut-in, eventually killing himself and, if Sunny tries to stop him, attacking Sunny.]] The only thing preventing him from being a textbook example is that he's [[RareMaleExample a guy]].

Morrison himself counts, as a rare male example.

* ''VideoGame/OMORI'' gives us Basil, a cute and pretty blonde who wears flowers in his hair and knows about flower language. [[spoiler:Mari's death broke him, leading him to believe Sunny was possessed. He eventually goes completely insane and becomes a shut-in, eventually killing himself and, if Sunny tries to stop him, attacking Sunny.]] The only thing preventing him from being a textbook example is that he's [[RareMaleExample a guy]].