Ophelia is insane, though she may still be clinging to some shred of sanity. The distribution of her flowers is an emphasis on just how crazy Ophelia has gone. She places the meanings of each upon Claudius, Gertrude and her brother Laertes. Starting with rosemary Ophelia hands Laertes his first flower. Used for remembrance, rosemary is commonly used at funerals. For Ophelia to know the meaning of the flower as it was then this signifies that she knows that her time is short. With this knowledge Laertes has to judge the sanity of his dear sister. Having a flower commonly used at funerals and Ophelia drowning shortly after leads the thoughts to the fact that there is quite the possibility that she drowned herself on purpose. This is more for her brother because she said “pray you, love, remember.” (4:5:200). No one that was also a love to her. Brushing it off as her insanity the audience sees nothing into her making such a moment of ensuring she is remembered, later pointing more to a suicide than an accident. …show more content…
Pansies held a meaning of thoughts. Ophelia with her few drops of sanity left saw through Hamlet’s play. Urging the king to think of the evil he has done would be a sly way that she covers her ill intent with the insanity. Upon the Queen she dons fennel, for flattery. This shows the respect she has for the Queen. Along with that it is a symbol of thanks after they looked upon her as a viable wife for Hamlet. She may have just been using this as a stepping stone for her next flower. The Queen was also honored with columbines. Mainly symbolizing unchastity this is a blow to the Queen’s marriage to Claudius. The lack of pause between the two is an indicator that they were for the same person. Reinforcing the thought that fennel was less for any other purpose than to soften the blow of being told via flower that people see who’s being
The violets symbolize faithfulness, but Ophelia states that they all died with her father, giving us a theory that her faithfulness in her father died with him. He may have controlled her when he was alive, but now that he is dead, he no longer has that emotional hold on her. When Ophelia dies, the Queen comes to relay the message that Ophelia has died. She states, ¨One incapable of her own distress¨(4-7-203). The Queen wants us to believe that the insanity was too much for poor Ophelia.
(Shakespeare 4.5.199-201, 204-209)” From the quote above the reader clearly starts to realize that Ophelia is giving someone flowers. As Ophelia states a flower's name she would then
Then Hamlet lies to her saying he never really loved her which made her situation worse. And she was set up to see why hamlet is acting crazy and is spied on by Claudius to see where hamlet is week. So, as you can see Ophelia is put
As the innocent victim of Hamlet’s feigned madness, Ophelia’s insanity is a product of her inability to cope with Hamlet and her father’s death. Her songs show hidden grief and sorrow; her flowers represent the fact that beneath the innocent exterior, there is a weakness or flaw in everyone. Hamlet was able to look past his grief for his father’s death, but he caused someone he loves to be in pain. Whether it is the frailty of women, sorrow, or death, anything, including love, can appear to be pleasant, but can be the ultimate cause of a person’s
This is where we first see Ophelia deteriorating a person. The next thing that drove her off a cliff was her father being murdered. Claudius said “O, this is the poison of deep grief;
The “crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples” are all very important because they are coded in flower language (169). Crow-flowers symbolize childishness and indicate the loss of Ophelia’s mature mind. The nettles represent Ophelia’s pain over losing her father, Polonius, and her lover, Hamlet. Daisies represent Ophelia’s innocence or purity (their white
Ophelia tells the King goodbye and “thank you for your good counsel”(4.5.76) through her father’s death. Polonius dying was just the icing on the cake to send Ophelia into a pit of despair. Shakespeare is trying to show exactly how
This is evidence of tension between Laertes and Hamlet and foreshadows the later confrontation between them. On the contrary, Hamlet feels romantic love for Ophelia. His love is supposedly so passionate that “Forty thousand brothers/ Could not with all their quantity of love” (V, i, 275-276) care for her as much as he does. Both Laertes and Hamlet carry their love to Ophelia’s grave. While at the grave, Laertes shows his brotherly love for Ophelia once more when he stands inside her grave and exclaims “Hold off the earth awhile,/
Hamlet views Ophelia as a naive and ignorant girl who is nothing but Polonius and Claudius's puppet. This was revealed when Hamlet said "God has given you one face and you make yourself another. . You jig and amble, and you lisp, you nickname God's creatures and make your wantonness your ignorance." (III, i, 143-146) In this quote Hamlet knows that Ophelia is spying on him for Polonius and Claudius.
Ophelia is grieving the loss of her father after Hamlet kills him. Ophelia doesn't know that Hamlet killed her father. But Ophelia has gone mad from learning about her father's death. Also, after Hamlet telling Ophelia that she needs to go to a nunnery, Ophelia is a little bit discouraged. She is discouraged because Hamlet had told her before that if Ophelia would sleep with him that they would get married.
Hamlet has come to see his mother, Queen Gertrude, and ends up stabbing Lord Polonius, which ultimately leads to his death. Lord Polonius’ final words include “O, I am slain!” Even though this provides a slight amount of comic relief to the reader, it has a reverse effect on Ophelia’s mental state. Her father’s death seems to be the potent punch in this fight because she officially goes mad after this final event. This is apparent in Scene IV Act I, when Laertes has come back to visit his sister and check on her well being.
For the duration of the play, Ophelia was portrayed as a naïve and submissive woman. Her passivity and powerlessness reinforce the voicelessness of women during the Elizabethan era. For example, “I shall obey, my lord” (I.iii.134) shows that Ophelia concedes to her father’s will, even though she believes Hamlet’s love is genuine. She is willing and expected to obey her father despite the fact that she still loves Hamlet, which emphasizes her character’s submissive nature. Furthermore, in Act I Laertes warns Ophelia that it would be shameful of her to love Hamlet, and she responds with “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as a watchman to my heart” (I.iii.45).
Her death was doubtful” (5.1.234). Queen Gertrude says this to Laertes to let him know of the news about Ophelia. Ophelia ends up going insane and committing suicide from the way Hamlet uses her and the harmful love he provides
Although her death initially seems to be like a suicide, yet it was an accident. Suicide may have crossed Ophelia’s mind, because of the state she was in and everything that has happened with the men in her life. The pain and grief she went through is something she would probably like to get rid of, and perhaps once the tree branch broke, she just gave up and didn’t decide to fight the river currents. She was likely aware that she was drowning, and didn’t fight it because it is ironically a solution to her problems; but she did not consciously think of committing
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet there are many male characters, but the only two significant female characters are Ophelia and Gertrude. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, a high ranking official in the court in Denmark who serves as a love interest and an object of desire for Hamlet, although it is often unclear which at many point during the play. Gertrude is the wife of King Claudius, the widow of the former king, King Hamlet, and the mother of Hamlet. In Hamlet the women often appear as if they do not have a significant role in the play. However, Ophelia’s interactions with Hamlet exaggerate his apparent madness and by being a foil to Hamlet.