Ophelia: Shakespeare was favoured by Victorian painters, and the tragic-romantic figure of Ophelia from Hamlet was especially popular. The young girl is driven mad when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet and suffering from grief and madness succumbs to death. This painting required Elizabeth to pose for four months in a bath of water kept warm by lamps underneath which caused her ill health and the resulting threat of legal action against the artist by her father. The background of the painting was started first and in aim with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of artists, the close study of nature was incorporated. The plants in the painting have much symbolic significance. Roses near Ophelia's cheek and dress, and on the bank, may connect with the name her brother gave her, 'rose of May'. Willow, nettle and daisy are associated with forsaken love, pain, and innocence as well as the pansies which refer to love in vain. Violets, which Ophelia wears in a chain around her neck, stand for faithfulness, chastity or death of the young, and her body lies surrounded by Forget-me-nots floating in the water.
