People get gifts all the time; it is a thing of life. Truth be told, gifts carry heavy symbolic weight. For example, the three wise men gave Christ gold for royalty, Frankincense to capture the uniqueness, and myrrh to emphasize value (Rogers). Even though these gifts seem to be given out of joy, they hold much greater meaning: being a great example of how symbolism that is behind gifts. Like the Bible and countless authors before him, William Shakespeare allows gifts to carry symbolic value within his writings, a value that an Elizabethan audience would recognize. There is something about Ophelia's gifts, in Hamlet, that draws one's attention to the insanity. Ophelia distantly says to friends and family, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; …show more content…
Ophelia walks to King Claudius, and hands him a fennel and columbines saying, "There's fennel for you and columbines" (Shakespeare). The audience in Shakespeare's time would have understood the true meaning of Fennel. In the Elizabethan time period, the showing of a fennel would automatically trigger the thoughts of flattery, male adultery, and foolishness to the people in the audience. In addition, once one picks fennel, it would wilt so quickly. In this, Ophelia knew that the new King loved flattery, but he would not notice the fact of the flower’s quick death. Even the old saying "Sow fennel, sow sorrow" (Eriksson), backs up this fortune telling. To the audience, although Ophelia is not expressing the same message, it is seen that the King will die soon just like the flower that is for him. Ophelia, by telling King Claudius about the fennel, is simply openly confessing of her upcoming suicide, without getting caught. She speaks so openly that the true words she speaks of are being overlooked. The other flower that Ophelia gifts to Claudius is columbine. Columbine is considered the flower for deceived lovers, a symbol of male adultery and faithlessness (Bethany Lutheran College). The columbine was kind of an amusing type of thing for men, which was the old double standard in those days. It was brave of Ophelia to first flatter the King and then accuse him of foolish adultery. When we remember that the King has the power to take her life at any given moment, showing the full boldness that Ophelia reveals, even at the time of Ophelia revealing her garden to the people, it is unremarkable the confessions and down talking that Ophelia does to the King. The two flowers, which are given to King Claudius, represent two-fold strength. The number two symbolizes pairs of anything (Talisman). In the circumstances that are
“Pretty Ophelia,” as Claudius calls her, is the most innocent victim of Hamlet’s revenge in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Hamlet has fallen in love with Ophelia after the death of his father. Ophelia “sucked the honey of his music vows” and returned Hamlet’s affection. But when her father had challenged Hamlet’s true intentions, Ophelia could only say: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think.” Ophelia was used to relying on her father’s directions and she was also brought up to be obedient. This allowed her to only accept her father’s views that Hamlet’s attention towards her was only to take advantage of her and to obey her father’s orders not to permit Hamlet to see her again.
Pennington, Michael. "Ophelia: Madness Her Only Safe Haven." Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of "Hamlet": A User's Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.
...She had lost her father and her lover while her brother was away for school, and she was no longer useful as a puppet in a greater scheme. Ophelia was displaced, an Elizabethan woman without the men on whom she had been taught to depend. Therein lies the problem - she lacked independence so much that she could not continue living without Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet. Ophelia's aloneness led to her insanity and death. The form of her death was the only fitting end for her - she drowned in a nearby river, falling beneath the gentle waters. She finally found peace in her mad world. That is how Ophelia is so useful as a classic feminist study - she evokes imagery of the fragile beauty women are expected to become, but shows what happens to women when they submit as such.
Ophelia died after collecting flowers from over a brook. I think that she was collecting them to distribute to the court, as she did after her father’s death. Flowers are a symbol of innocence, pure and easily destroyed. The tree she was crawling along whilst collecting these garlands was a willow, which is usually associated with weeping and grief, something we have assigned to the “watery” (perhaps with tears) character of Ophelia. The branches of a willow hang down towards the ground in a downcast fashion, indicating grief. The personification even extends to her garments that were “too heavy with heir drink.” The ...
Before she dies, Ophelia makes garlands of flowers, like a child would. "Fantastic garlands did she make/ Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples" (4.7.169-170). During this time, she is reflecting on her childhood, her innocence, and the way life was when everything surrounding her was good and u...
Ophelia is conditioned to obey Polonius and Laertes’ commands, thinly veiled as guidance for her “own good.” She is never trusted to have a mind of her own, often having her intelligence openly insulted, causing her to be dependent on the men in her life. These men exercise authority over her, patronize, and degrade her, lowering her self-esteem to a non-existent level, and leaving her a...
Ophelia, in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, represents a self-confident and aware female character. She analyzes the world around her and recognizes the multitude of male figures attempting to control her life. Her actions display not only this awareness, but also maturity in her non-confrontational discussions. Though she is demeaned by Laertes, Polonius, and Hamlet, Ophelia exhibits intelligence and independence and ultimately resorts to suicide in order to free herself from the power of the men around her.
In “The Flowers,” by Alice Walker, the flowers are used throughout the story to symbolize the beauty and naivety of childhood. In the beginning of the story the author shows the main character Myop walking down a path along the fence of her farm. Myop sees “an armful of strange blue flowers with velvety ridges…” The flowers are bright and colorful, reminding the reader of an innocent type of beauty often associated with them. This suggests the flowers were inserted in the story by Walker to reveal how young and innocent Myop appears to be. Later in the story, after Myop had discovered the dead body of a man who seemed to have been hung “Myop laid down her flowers,”. As Myop put down the flowers she was also putting down the last of her innocence.
Poor Ophelia lost everything. She lost her lover and the social position and security that would have come when she became Hamlet's wife. She lost her father and an honorable burial and her trust and respect for her Queen and King. Finally, she lost her life. The innocent destroyed with the deceitful. Perhaps Shakespeare used Ophelia's innocence to provide an even greater contrast to the deceit of the characters that engulfed her.
Two of Ophelia’s difficulties arise from her father and brother. They believe that Hamlet is using her to take her virginity and throw it away because Ophelia will never be his wife. Her heart believes that Hamlet loves her although he promises he never has (“Hamlet” 1). Hamlet: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but not the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” Ophelia: “Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Hamlet: “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock ...
After all of the torture Hamlet has inflicted on Ophelia throughout act III, scene i and ii, it comes to no surprise how broken Ophelia is when word comes out of her father 's death in scene v. She claims that nature that "...is fine in love" (line 160) has come for the things that she loves, which are Polonius and Hamlet, and that her love for both of them was so noble that she gave up her sanity for it. To clarify, Hamlet has caused Ophelia suffering by leaving her without someone to give her guidance and protection, just like how Gertrude was when Hamlet 's father died. Tragically, her loss of sanity, also leads her to end her own life. Ophelia 's suffering is quite significant to this play since it leads to Laertes 's motif of incestuous desire, as well as, how it gives further motivation for Laertes to avenge his family, thus, adding on to the theme of the nation as a deceased
... she had nothing to say to try to defend herself. Ophelia is misled by Hamlet’s affection; this shows that she was easily manipulated.
In Hamlet, Ophelia is unaware of the evil is spreading around her. She is an obedient woman, and is naive in that she takes what people say at face value, which makes her an innocent lady. "You should not have believed me, for virtue/ cannot so inculate our old stock but we shall relish of/ it. I loved you not." (III.ii. 117-119). Hamlet says these lines as a mask of his madness, but Ophelia does not understand his true motives and takes Hamlet's words very seriously to heart. The words that Hamlet says to Ophelia both confuse and hurt her greatly. Hamlet's lines are what eventually lead Ophelia to insanity, and Ophelia's insanity is what causes her death by drowning.
16[16] Persoon, James. "Shakespeare's Hamlet: the meaning of Ophelia's distribution of herbs and flowers." Explicator, v. 55, Wntr 1997, pp 70-71.
Plants arch over Ophelia’s corpse, literally “aslant” as Shakespeare intended (Act IV, scene VII), as though about to contain her with next Spring 's resurgence of life. The inclusion of pansies around her wrist, themselves signifying love in vain, are mocking, for while Ophelia and Hamlet 's doomed romance is pain enough, the visual way in which the river has engulfed her only further cements the idea of a vain loss, departing from the traditional pathos consistently seen in the depiction of beautiful young women as victims; sympathetically virtuous, pious, and likeable. Though anecdotal, many perhaps would have liked to see Ophelia metamorphose into a mermaid or an angel, something beyond her apparent entropic destiny, yet Millais refuses to gift her any of this......, implying the process of constant decay and germination is more interesting than how we would like to mystify this woman in our heads. Thus, Millais here is incredibly refreshing, bringing to light how boring and pathetic... notions of femininity