I was actually expecting Ophelia appeared yesterday like how I knew Candeloro's existence from the fanart first. Guess the artist was waiting for the name before drawing it.
There's alot of undercurrent of old german literature in Madoka Magica, I wonder if there was a specific reason as to why they chose Ophelia for the name.
If anybody can enlighten me on this, I will give you all my internets.
Well the famous Ophelia in literature is the one from Hamlet, a potential wife of his. She ends up killing herself by drowning, and it's a famous death represented in various paintings, probably most famously (or at least to me, since my friend's mom has a copy in her house) is the Millais one.
Her drowning could link to Sayaka's water theme, that she went where Sayaka was (in her mermaid form, in water) but drowned in the process. Also Ophelia is linked to regret and, I think, unrequited love. As for the tendency for German literature references in Madoka, aren't they all (or almost all) from Goethe's Faust? The reason for that seems to be the obvious one; that they're both about making a deal with a devilish character that doesn't give you the whole story, with the deal heavily stacked in his favour.
Teclo said: Well the famous Ophelia in literature is the one from Hamlet, a potential wife of his. She ends up killing herself by drowning, and it's a famous death represented in various paintings, probably most famously (or at least to me, since my friend's mom has a copy in her house) is the Millais one.
Her drowning could link to Sayaka's water theme, that she went where Sayaka was (in her mermaid form, in water) but drowned in the process. Also Ophelia is linked to regret and, I think, unrequited love. As for the tendency for German literature references in Madoka, aren't they all (or almost all) from Goethe's Faust? The reason for that seems to be the obvious one; that they're both about making a deal with a devilish character that doesn't give you the whole story, with the deal heavily stacked in his favour.
Wow, that makes alot of sense, and yes, most of the story is based on Goethe's Faust. In fact, the very first image in the entire anime is witch runes for "Prologue im Himmel", which was the beginning of Faust. I'm actually reading it because of this anime, and I'm certain there are no characters named Ophelia in Faust, which is why I asked about Ophelia. Thank you Teclo
