The heroine of Hamlet, OpheliaIn Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, there is, technically, no heroine. But the female character who comes closest to the role is not Gertrude, whose sinful past prevents her, but rather Ophelia, the “universal victim” of the drama. She is truly a good and honest person, even though she is a victim of her father, brother and boyfriend. Harry Levin, in the general introduction to The Riverside Shakespeare, expands on the particular type of prose the playwright uses with Ophelia when she suffers from her madness. : Although there is no invariable rule, comic scenes are frequently in prose, while tragic scenes are generally in verse. Yet some of the most tragic scenes, notably the scenes created 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 pent-up emotion arise of the unconscious. (11) Shakespeare's use of distinctive language is a consideration regarding Ophelia. Another is his victimization. Gunnar Boklund in "Hamlet" provides 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, a victim of the king's fear and curiosity, of the servility and fundamental principles of his father. the indifference towards him, Hamlet's incomprehension of the situation and his brutal treatment of him, and finally his fatal push through the arras of the closet scene. His madness is, in my eyes, a purely pathetic element of 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 paper ......: Madness, his only refuge. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. 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. 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.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York: Sons of GP Putnam, 1907-1921; 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.