Hamlet's heroine, Ophelia In Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, technically, there is no heroine. But the female character who comes closest to qualifying for the role is not Gertrude, whose sinful past prevents this, but rather Ophelia, the play's "universal victim." She is truly a good and honest person, even though she is a victim of her father, her brother and her boyfriend. Harry Levin, in the General Introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare, elaborates on the special kind of prose the playwright uses with Ophelia when she suffers from her madness. :Although there is no invariable rule, comic scenes are often in prose, while tragic scenes are usually in verse. Yet some of the most tragic scenes, particularly those performed by Ophelia and Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene, are found in that special kind of distracted prose that Shakespeare reserved for moments of mental distraction, when fragments of repressed emotions re-emerge from the unconscious . (11) Shakespeare's use of distinctive language is a consideration regarding Ophelia. Another is his victimization. Gunnar Boklund in “Hamlet” carries out a partial analysis of the character of Ophelia in Shakespeare's tragedy, Hamlet: The only character who is presented almost entirely as a victim is Ophelia, victim of the king's fear and curiosity, of his servility father and of the fundamental indifference towards him, Hamlet's misunderstanding of the situation and brutal treatment towards him, and finally his fatal blow through the tapestry in the wardrobe scene. His madness is, in my opinion, a purely pathetic element in the play. In the world in which Hamlet has been forced to act, there seems to be no room for passive, obedient innocence. He is crushed and perishes. (123)The p...... middle of the sheet......: Madness is his only safe refuge.” Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardò. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from “Hamlet”: a user's guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996. Pitt, Angela. "Women in Shakespeare's Tragedies." Readings on tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Excerpted from Shakespeare's Women. Np: np, 1981.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.htmlWard & Trent, et al. The Cambridge history of English and American literature. New York: Sons of G. P. Putnam, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.htmlWilkie, Brian and James Hurt. “Shakespeare”. Literature of the Western world. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.