The art of suicide

 

Why live a life
That's painted with pity and sadness and strife
Why dream a dream
That's tainted with trouble and less than it seems
Why bother bothering
Just for a poem or another sad song to sing
Why live a lie
Why live a lie

Juliet de Emilie Autumn

Shallott de Emilie Autumn

Psychologist, Mary Pipher, attributed the name of her 1994 #1 New York Times best selling book, Reviving Ophelia, to Shakespeare's Ophelia. In her book, Pipher examines the troubled lives of the modern American adolescent girls. Through her extensive clinical work with troubled young women, Pipher takes a closer look at the competing influences that lead adolescent girls in a negative direction. For example, Pipher attributes the competing pressure from parents, peers, and the media for girls to reach an unachievable ideal. Girls are expected to meet thing goal while still holding on to their sanity. These pressures are further complicated when young women undergo physical changes out of their control, like the biological developmental changes in puberty. Shakespeare's Ophelia was thought to be going through erotomania; however, Ophelia and Pipher's patients display many of the same characteristics. Pipher believes the Ophelia of Shakespeare's era was entirely misunderstood, much like the girls in her book. In order to understand the complex mind of an adolescent, one must look at the woman from a holistic perspective in order to gain a greater understanding of her outlook on life. 

(Wikipedia)

De http://samuraichopstick.deviantart.com/art/Ophelia-82826320

Bellísima representación de Ophelia encontrada en http://loscuatroelementos.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/ophelia/

Las Ophelias de J. W. Waterhouse

Another of Waterhouse's favorite subjects was Ophelia; the most famous of his paintings of Ophelia depicts her just before her death, putting flowers in her hair as she sits on a tree branch leaning over a lake. Like The Lady of Shalott and other Waterhouse paintings, it deals with a woman dying in or near water. He also may have been inspired by paintings of Ophelia by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Millais. He submitted his Ophelia painting of 1888 in order to receive his diploma from the Royal Academy. (He had originally wanted to submit a painting titled "A Mermaid", but it was not completed in time.) After this, the painting was lost until the 20th century, and is now displayed in the collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber. Waterhouse would paint Ophelia again in 1894 and 1909 or 1910, and planned another painting in the series, called "Ophelia in the Churchyard".
Waterhouse could not finish the series of Ophelia paintings because he was gravely ill with cancer by 1915. He died two years later, and his grave can be found at Kensal Green Cemetery in London.