As the world crumbles around us (today it is L.A.), let us find solace and succorin art.
Ophelia
Ophelia is an 1851–52 painting by British artist Sir John Everett Millais in the collection of Tate Britain, London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river.
Theme and elements The painting depicts Ophelia singing while floating in a river just before she drowns. The scene is described in Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet in a speech by Queen Gertrude. The episode depicted is not usually seen onstage, as in Shakespeare’s text it exists only in Gertrude’s description. Out of her mind with grief, Ophelia has been making garlands of wildflowers. She climbs into a willow tree overhanging a brook to dangle some from its branches, and a bough breaks beneath her.
She lies in the water singing songs, as if unaware of her danger (“incapable of her own distress”). Her clothes, trapping air, have allowed her to temporarily stay afloat (“Her clothes spread wide, / And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up.”). But eventually, “her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay” down “to muddy death”.
Ophelia’s death has been praised as one of the most poetically written death scenes in literature.
The WLBOTT Solace and Succor
“The Lady of Shalott” by John William Waterhouse
The Lady of Shalott, an 1888 oil-on-canvas painting, is one of John William Waterhouse‘s most famous works. It depicts a scene from Tennyson’s poem in which the poet describes the plight and the predicament of a young woman, loosely based on the figure of Elaine of Astolat from medieval Arthurian legend, who yearned with an unrequited love for the knight Sir Lancelot, isolated under an undisclosed curse in a tower near King Arthur’s Camelot.
Let’s explore the relationship between “doldrums” and “horse latitudes.”
Elder G: Yes, you’re right to sense a connection between the doldrums and the horse latitudes—both are calm wind zones tied to Earth’s atmospheric circulation, especially relevant in the age of sailing ships. Here’s how they relate and differ:
The Doldrums
Location: Near the equator, roughly 5°N to 5°S.
Technical name: Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
Characteristics:
Hot, humid, with little to no wind.
Air rises due to intense solar heating, causing thunderstorms and heavy rain.
Historically notorious for stalling ships for weeks—hence the metaphorical use of “in the doldrums.”
The Horse Latitudes
Location: Around 30°N and 30°S (north and south of the tropics).
Characteristics:
Zones of high pressure and light winds.
Air descends here after rising at the equator, drying out and calming down.
Often associated with deserts (like the Sahara) due to descending dry air.
The term supposedly comes from sailors throwing horses overboard (or running out of drinking water for them) when stuck here too long during the voyage.
Connection Between the Two
They’re both part of the Hadley Cell circulation:
Warm air rises at the equator (doldrums).
It moves aloft toward the poles.
It descends at around 30° latitude (horse latitudes).
Surface winds return toward the equator as trade winds, completing the loop.
So yes, they’re connected gears in the great atmospheric machine—the doldrums the sweaty, stagnant beginning, the horse latitudes the dry, bewildered pause.
