In Real Life, of course, mental illness is rarely pretty. But in fiction, there's just something about a lovely young woman, often with long, disheveled hair, running around babbling lyrically about the strange visions flashing through her deranged mind, singing creepy little rhymes, scattering flowers and occasionally bashing people's heads in. If a male character is shown the same way, odds are good he's very feminine and delicate-looking anyway. Examples of The Ophelia include: