Juliet, Ophelia, and the Fates of Shakespeare’s Heroines in Pop Culture
Ay me! The course of true love never did run smooth,” says Lysander, one of four star-crossed lovers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. But are love and death really the only options? The tragic fates of some of Shakespeare’s most famous heroines, including Juliet (Romeo and Juliet) and Ophelia (Hamlet) often reflect the limited outcomes for young women in Shakespeare’s England. So perhaps we should not be surprised that so many works of popular culture (& Juliet, Taylor Swift’s ‘The Fate of Ophelia’) reimagine different endings for these characters.
Dr. Amanda Atkinson will explore family life and courtship in Shakespeare’s England, and then examine some of the various ways that artists over the years have re-written the fates of Shakespeare’s heroines, imagining the lives they never got to live.
Also, in honor of the real-life Juliet Club, which "has been handling Juliet’s mail for many years" and their book "Dear Juliet: Letters from the Lovestruck and Lovelorn to Shakespeare's Juliet in Verona," as well as the film Letters to Juliet, in-person attendees of this talk will be provided free postcards on which they can write their own "letters to Juliet."
