Ophelia is an oil painting done by John Everett Millais around the year 1851, as part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. As we can tell from the title, the central theme of this work of art is inspired by a well known scene in the world of English literature, the drowning of Ophelia from the Shakespearian play Hamlet : driven to madness by her father’s death, Ophelia climbs on a willow branch and starts to weave flower garlands, while singing; when the branch beneath her breaks in half, she falls into the river; instead of fighting to get out, Ophelia keeps on singing, while sinking slowly in the muddy water. The play dates from the early 17th century, but the actual time period in which the action takes place is uncertain; while it’s being speculated that the writer’s source of inspiration is a Saxon chronicle from the 13th century, a chronological landmark is never mentioned in the play. First of all, we must turn our attention to the natural setting, which illustrates the attention