Looking at Ophelia’s Death Iconography to Understand the Uncanny in the Beautiful Dead Girl Trope

One of the most referenced plays in psychoanalysis, Hamlet has served as an example for theories proposed by the likes of Freud, Lacan, and others. While the title character generally acts as the vehicle for discussing personal conflicts—especially those concerning the mother—I argue instead that these anxieties regarding the mother are more visible through Ophelia than Hamlet. It is not her role throughout the play, however, but the way in which artists across four centuries have created a collective of images depicting her deathdeath, becoming a recognizable iconographyiconography. A popular motif today, despite its passive presence across narratives since the ancient world, the dead girl trope has become a frequent topic in media discussions since the 2010s with the seemingly unanswerable question regarding why dead women are everywhere.