SOURCE: Peucker, Brigitte. “Droste-Hülshoff's Ophelia and the Recovery of Voice.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 82, no. 3 (July 1983): 374-91.

In the following essay, Peucker traces the Ophelia-type characters in works including Berta, Ledwina, and several poems. Peucker considers such figures as a type of muse or creative double for Droste-Hülshoff.

“Und sollte er auch durch Modergruft gehen; er findet sicher unsägliche Schätze.” 

—Novalis, Lehrlinge zu Sais

In the works of Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, encounters with ghosts, madwomen, sisters, doubles, and reflections abound—as they did, typically, in the works of German Romantic writers. To come to terms with a demonic double or wild self, Droste-Hülshoff often makes use of the Gothic-tinged ballad, with its customary forays into the world of ghosts. In “Das Fräulein von Rodenschild,” for instance, a self whose unnaturalness is intimately related to the curse of second sight...