Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1921-06-03
OPHELIA.
By Miss Edna Elizabeth
Bondurant.
. O Q @ o 90 o o o o o o

A penslve, fair haired, blue eyed
girl of the North is Ophelia in the
story of Hamlet. She is the daughter
of Polaneous, Lord Chamberlain to
the King of Denmark, and has lived a
very private and guarded life until
she is brought to the Court. She is
bewildered by its grandeur and cor
ruptness. The affection Of the wicked
Queen, near whom Ophelia is placed,
for this gentle and innocent creature,
is one of those beautiful touches, one
of those penetrating glances into Sc
cret springs of natural and feminine
feelings which We find only in Shakes
pere.
Gertrude, who is not wholly aban-
doned but that there rsuains within
her heart some sense Of the virtue she
has forfeited, seems to look with q
kind, yet melancholy, conplacency on
the lovely being she has destined for
the bride of her SON.
It is the 1,elplessness Of Ophelia,
arising merely from her innocence
and pictured with out any indication
of weakness which melts MS with such
profound pity. She is very young and
neither her person nor her mind has
attained maturity. She is not aware Of
her own feelings. They are prema-
turely developed in full force before
she has strength to bear them: the
love and grief together shadow and
rend the texture Of her existence
like the burning fluid poured into q
crystal vase. she does not say much,
but what she says seems rather to
hide than to reveal her emotion. YET
we are made sure in those words
with her character and with what is
passing in her mind as if she had
thrown forth her soul with the elo-
quence Of Juliet.
Her :1eart seems to vibrate to the
passion she has inspired more con-
scious of being loved tim of loving
and yet loving in ne depths Of hsl
young heart far. m6fe than she i
loved.
When her brother warns her against
Hamlet
'For Hamlet and the trifling Of his
favor,
Hold it a fashion, and toy in the
blood,
A violet in the youth of primy
Nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, moi
lasting.
The perfume and suppliance OF
minute,
No more"
Ophelia replies with half con
seriousness,
No more but So!
Her father also scolds her on thu
same subject. In her short sentences
she uttered with bashful reluctance
the confession of Hamlet's love fol
her but no word of her love for him
The love of Ophelia, which sh'
never once confessed, is like a secre
which we have stolen from her ant
which ought to die upon our hear
as upon her own.
| We feel inclined to turn away ant
veil our eyes in pity and painful sym
patty. Her sweet mind lies in frag
ments before us-a pitiful spectacle
her wild rambling fancies and aim
less, broken speeches.
She believes Hamlet crazed, :sh
is repulsed, forsaken, and outraged
when she has bestowed her younl
heart, with all its hopes. Her fathe
is slain by her lover in fit of SUP
posed insanity. She is IN web of hor
rows and the result, her mind
hopelessly wrecked-in this state s,
takes :1er own life.
As a woman 0phelia was gentle
tender, innocent and refined. Her ns
ture rebelled against that which wa
coarse and corrupt. Anything undel
handed SIZE did not seem to undel
stand. Obedient to :,er fathers WI
she let the man she loved go; du
TO this was all her suffering an
anguish.