Ophelia has been a source of inspiration for countless artists over the years and each artist chooses to represent Ophelia in a different way. In the John Everett Millais painting, Ophelia is portrayed as a young women. This painting of Ophelia most represents the Ophelia in the actual play. They have the most similarities. In the painting, Ophelia is drowning in a lake which she also does in the play as well. If you look closely in the painting, it looks like Ophelia is slowly dying at no fault of her own. She looks helpless and innocent.

Elaine Showalter writes, there can be Hamlet without Ophelia, but there is no Ophelia without Hamlet. Perhaps if Hamlet had never told her any of the things that he did while he was upset, Ophelia would not have died the way she did. She became crazy because of Hamlet while on the other hand, Hamlet was not even concerned about her. He was completely focused on his father's death. Shakespeare intended for Ophelia to be entirely dependent on Hamlet. Per haps he intended for her to be portrayed this way in order to demonstrate how women were dependent on men in that time period. Or, he may have wanted to show how love makes you do crazy things which in Ophelia case she did.