The scene depicted is from Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act IV, Scene vii, in which Ophelia, driven out of her mind when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet, falls into a stream and drowns:

There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

   Shakespeare was a favourite source for Victorian painters, and the tragic-romantic figure of Ophelia from Hamlet was an especially popular subject, featuring regularly in Royal Academy exhibitions. Arthur Hughes exhibited his version of her death scene in the same year as this picture was shown (Manchester City Art Gallery).

   Millais began the background in July 1851, at Ewell, Surrey. In accordance with the aims of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, he painted with close observation of nature. Millais quickly found, however, that such intense study was not without problems, and was moved to remark in a letter to Mrs Thomas Combe,

My martyrdom is more trying than any I have hitherto experienced. The flies of Surrey are more muscular, and have a still greater propensity for probing human flesh ... I am threatened with a notice to appear before a magistrate for trespassing in a field and destroying the hay ... am also in danger of being blown by the wind into the water, and becoming intimate with the feelings of Ophelia when that Lady sank to muddy death, together with the (less likely) total disappearance, through the voracity of the flies ... Certainly the painting of a picture under such circumstances would be a greater punishment to a murderer than hanging.
(J.G. Millais I, pp.119–20)

   The figure of Ophelia was added afterwards. The model, Elizabeth Siddal, a favourite of the Pre-Raphaelites who later married Rossetti, was required to pose over a four month period in a bath full of water kept warm by lamps underneath. The lamps went out on one occasion, causing her to catch a severe cold. Her father threatened the artist with legal action until he agreed to pay the doctor's bills.

   The plants, most of which have symbolic significance, were depicted with painstaking botanical detail. The roses near Ophelia's cheek and dress, and the field rose on the bank, may allude to her brother Laertes calling her 'rose of May'. The willow, nettle and daisy are associated with forsaken love, pain, and innocence. Pansies refer to love in vain. Violets, which Ophelia wears in a chain around her neck, stand for faithfulness, chastity or death of the young, any of which meanings could apply here. The poppy signifies death. Forget-me-nots float in the water. Millais wrote to Thomas Combe in March 1852: ‘Today I have purchased a really splendid lady's ancient dress - all flowered over in silver embroidery - and I am going to paint it for “Ophelia”. You may imagine it is something rather good when I tell you it cost me, old and dirty as it is, four pounds’ (J.G. Millais I, p.162).

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      《奥菲莉娅》取材于莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》：丹麦王的弟弟克劳狄斯为谋取王位与王后通奸，用毒药毒死国王，国王的阴魂向儿子哈姆雷特诉说自己被害真相。帮助谋害国王的御前大臣有一子一女，女儿奥菲莉娅很受哈姆雷特喜爱，却受到御前大臣万般阻拦，并继续作恶，后被哈姆雷特发现刺死，女儿闻讯后病了，整天唱着古怪的歌到处游荡，尔后不幸落水淹死。

      米莱斯选择了奥菲莉娅编的花圈，刚要挂上树枝而跃落水中的情节。莎士比亚的原文是这样描写的：“她的衣服四散展开，使她暂时像人鱼一样漂浮在水上，她嘴里还断断续续地唱着古老的歌谣，好像一点不感觉到处境险恶，又好像她本来就是生长在水中一般。”米莱斯选择了悲剧中唯一的一段平静、超脱的情节。画家在此表现了人间最美丽的景色。那些布满在水边的小花，仿佛使人闻到她散发出芳香的气息，溪水在静静地应着奥菲莉娅歌唱；她终于摆脱了这罪恶深重的尘世，漂向无忧的净境。画面上没有悲剧气氛，为了描绘自然环境，画家多次实地写生。为了画出奥菲莉娅在水中的效果，他曾置一大玻璃池让模特儿西达尔躺在水中。画家以极工细精湛写实技巧和神奇的画境创造，震惊了当时的英国画坛和观众。