Voicing Ophelia: An Analysis of Franco Ze relli’s and Kenneth Branagh’s Representation of Ophelia

This essay compares and contrasts two different performances of William Shakespeare’s Ophelia. The first performance is from Franco Zeffirelli’s filmic produc- tion, Hamlet, from 1990, in which Ophelia is played by Helena Bonhan Carter, and the second is from Kenneth Branagh’s filmic production, Hamlet,from1996, in which the role is played by Kate Winslet. The scene here foregrounded is the famous “madness scene” (4.5), which dramatizes the character’s mental break down and serves as prelude for her iconic death.