George Sand et le troisième sexe

In Indiana (1832), George Sand makes many overt and disguised references to Shakespeare's Ophelia. Ironically, however, the "feminine" and tragic voice echoed most often in Indiana is that of Hamlet himself. What factors might have provoked Sand, a self-styled spokesperson for the oppressed woman of the nineteenth century, to choose Hamlet, rather than Ophelia, to represent the mal de vivre of her time? Why does Hamlet seem to her a more fitting symbol of feminine oppression? This study examines the problem of speech and silence as it is articulated in Indiana and other of Sand's works. In particular, it considers why Sand identifies with Hamlet while she pleads the cause of the marginalized woman, a displacement that effectively silences Shakespeare's heroine. (In French) (AG)