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J. D. Salinger's reference to Ophelia's roguish behavior


In Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield made a very trenchant observation about Ophelia and her brother Laertes and their father Polonius. While he delivers a tedious lecture, Ophelia filches her brother's dagger, plays with the back of his jerkin and is smiling like a roguish little misbehaving sister all the while their father is lessoning his son. I had never seen the Olivier version but ordered a DVD from Amazon just to find out if Salinger had noticed the behavior--and it was spot on. Ophelia traced her fingers on his back when Polonius yawned on about proper gaberdine; then grabbed Laertes bodkin which he immediately retrieved from her and finally, when on the subject of "borrowing", she put her finger into his purse so that he took her fingers out immediately but not rudely. Simmons was very artful in her acting in this scene. It makes me wonder if she improvised it all. But, check out Catcher for J.D.'s film refs. The ones I noticed where Random Harvest and Captains Courageous. But the best was Ophelia being a little minx with her brother.

The following is Holden's reaction to the Olivier film in "Catcher in the Rye".

I just don't see what's so marvelous about Sir Laurence Olivier, that's all. He has a terrific voice, and he's a helluva handsome guy, and he's very nice to watch when he's walking or dueling or something, but he wasn't at all the way D. B. Said Hamlet was. He was too much like a goddam general, instead of a sad, screwed-up type guy. The best part in the whole picture was when old Ophelia's brother-the one that gets in the duel with Hamlet at the very end-was going away and his father was giving him a lot of advice. While the father kept giving him a lot of advice, old Ophelia was sort of horsing around with her brother, taking his dagger out of the holster, and teasing him and all while he was trying to look interested in the bull his father was shooting. That was nice. I got a big bang out of that. But you don't see that kind of stuff much. The only thing old Phoebe liked was when Hamlet patted this dog on the head. She

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You take Sir Laurence Olivier, for example. I saw him in Hamlet. D.B. took Phoebe and I to see it last year. He treated us to lunch first, and then he took us. He'd already seen it, and the way he talked about it at lunch, I was anxious as hell to see it, too. But I didn't enjoy it much. I just don't see what's so
marvelous about Sir Laurence Olivier, that's all. He has a terrific voice, and he's a helluva handsome guy, and he's very nice to watch when he's walking or dueling or something, but he wasn't at all the way D.B. said Hamlet was. He was too much like a goddam general, instead of a sad, screwed-up type guy. The best part in the whole picture was when old Ophelia's brother--the one that gets in the duel with Hamlet at the very end--was going away and his father was giving him a lot of advice. While the father kept giving him a lot of advice, old Ophelia was sort of horsing around with her brother, taking his dagger out of the holster, and teasing him and all while he was trying to look interested in the bull his father was shooting. That was nice. I got a big bang out of that. But you don't see that kind of stuff much. The only thing old Phoebe liked was when Hamlet patted this dog on the head. She thought that was funny and nice, and it was. hat I'll have to do is, I'll have to read that play. The trouble with me is, I always have to read that stuff by myself. If an actor acts it out, I hardly listen. I keep worrying about whether he's going to do something phony every minute.

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