Claudius poured poison in his ear and made it look like he was stung by a snake. When she dies, Gertrude reports her death to Claudius and Laertes. While gathering flowers next to a brook, a branch Ophelia uses to. A person in her right mind, having fallen . Did she commit suicide because she . Hamlet however doubts the actuality of the ghost and is confused on whether it was the spirit of his late father or just an evil spirit. Hamlet did not actually hold Ophelia under the water. Updated on July 23, 2019. It has orders for the King of England to kill Hamlet as soon as he reaches England. It also made Hamlet consider suicide, and undergo moments of self doubt and betrayal from Queen Gertrude. Hamlet writes a new letter requesting that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern be killed as soon as they reach England. This death announcement is considered to be one of the most poetic death announcements in literature. The death allowed Claudius, King Hamlet's brother to take the throne and the Queen's hand only shortly after, causing Hamlet to hate both of them. The picturesqueness of the passage in which [Ophelia's death] is announced may cause it to serve well as material for treatment by Millais in a picture full of imaginative suggestion as well as of detailed nature-study; but such descriptive value as . On the other hand, Hamlet is influenced by the urge to avenge his father's death which further aggravated by the appearance of his father's ghost that asks him to kill Claudius (Johnson 265). Gertrude also recounts Ophelia's death in one of Shakespeare's most beautiful, heartbreaking, and poetic speeches. Not only does Shakespeare's Ophelia display all of these symptoms, the change that . Hamlet: Branagh's Ophelia and Showalter's Representing Ophelia Ophelia falls to the floor, her screams contrasting eerily with the song pieces she uses as . by unleashing the chain of deaths whose corpses litter the play" (Ghose 1004), and that Ophelia's death is not actually suicide but was caused by Hamlet. Hamlet tries to find out who the grave is for and reflects on the skulls that are being dug up. It is clear that Ophelia is grieving over the death of her father, Polonius, when Horatio says "She speaks much of her father, says she hears" (Shakespeare IV 4-5), but a secondary cause of Ophelia's madness . The combination of her former lover's cruelty and her father's death sends Ophelia into a fit of grief. She is driven mad when her father, Polonius, is murdered by her lover, Hamlet. A funeral procession approaches. Even though Ophelia's madness was partly caused by Hamlet's rejection and his debate over suicide, it had many factors. What does Gertrude reveal about Ophelia? Queen Gertrude's Account of the Death of Ophelia From Shakespeare's Hamlet: A New Commentary by Wilbraham Fitzjohn Trench. Gertrude could have not known the whole truth when she reported to Laertes and Claudius. Answer and Explanation: Ophelia goes mad in Hamlet because her father, Polonius, was murdered by Hamlet. "There is a willow grows aslant a brook That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. Death permeates "Hamlet" right from the opening scene of the play, where the ghost of Hamlet's father introduces the idea of death and its consequences. Killed by Hamlet while Polonius is hiding behind an arras spying on Hamlet and Gertrude. At Ophelia's funeral, Gertrude says that she had hoped Ophelia would be Hamlet's wife. Ophelia's singing . The whole play is one giant decision for Hamlet on whether or not he should commit suicide. Hamlet finds the letter from his uncle to the King of England and reads it. Hamlet's disgust with women's lustful behavior originates from his mother's choices and sadly gives way to the idea that all women are lustful and cannot control their sexual desires. Laertes and Polonius' misreading of Hamlet's love for Ophelia rests on several suppositions: first, the claim that it is a mere dalliance, on the grounds that a marriage with her would be beneath his station (on the contrary, Gertrude, in mourning her death, had always thought she would be Hamlet's wife, 5.1.237): second is Polonius . "In her wanderings we hear from time to time an . Hamlet and Laertes have been at odds for much of the play over both Hamlet's treatment of Ophelia and because of Hamlet's murder of Polonius, but Ophelia's death near the end is presented as . Soon after King Hamlet's death, Claudius married Gertrude and became the new king. He declares his father to be many times Claudius' superior as a man. Or Shakespeare decided to up the ante on Hamlet's guilt. He reminds her that she is the mere daughter of the King's advisor and that he is the Prince. In a bold new production, the director Robert Icke finds resonances in Shakespeare's canonical play which make it feel made for this moment. Their relationship is very tragic, and he becomes crazy from the pressure and guilt. The cause of Ophelia's death is widely debatable; did she commit suicide because she was mad and upset about how everyone she loved mistreated her, or was her death a terrible mishap? . What is the story of Ophelia? She dies while still very young, suffering from grief and madness. If Ophelia had for some odd reason decided to kill herself by jumping into the brook, she wouldn't have brought the branch down with her. As well as the death of polonius which cause the fair Ophelia's suspicious "death". Ophelia's darling Hamlet causes all her emotional pain throughout the play, and when his hate is responsible for her father's death, she has endured all that she is capable of enduring and goes insane. Beginning with Ophelia's suicide and ending with Hamlet's at the very end of the play, suicide is a continuing action. The passing of Ophelia is a tragedy because she does nothing deserving of death, she is merely used for other people's personal gain. what does hamlet say the sound of cannons mean. Hamlet's madness came first from seeing the ghost of his father. In Act Four she spirals into madness and dies under ambiguous circumstances. When Ophelia's father, Polonius, is killed by Hamlet in Act 3, sc. Hamlet stabs him thinking it's Claudius, but doesn't really care that he got the wrong guy. Wittenberg. Her brother Laertes leaves the family to go to France, after warning Ophelia not to fool around with Hamlet. The nature of Ophelia's death makes the situation even more tragic: an apparent suicide. The rest is open to interpretation. The deaths of King Hamlet, Polonius, Ophelia, Claudius, and even his own have very different effects on the outcome of the play. Ophelia's father had recently been killed by Hamlet in a terrible accident, and she has now gone mad, singing nonsense songs and giving people flowers that she has picked from the garden. He is a man with no concern on how he's treating a woman, that he once loved. After Hamlet kills Polonius, he tests Queen Gertrude to see if she knows about the murder of his father and both he and . The ghost represents a disruption to the accepted social order - a theme also reflected in the volatile socio-political state of Denmark and Hamlet's own indecision. She is used as a ploy by her father to test Hamlet's maddness. Gertrude tries to soothe Ophelia after Hamlet accidently murders her father and she becomes enraged. The last member of Polonius' family to die is Laertes, Ophelia's brother and Polonius's son. what is hamlets first soliloquy about. How does Hamlet cause the death of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? Soon after, Hamlet mistakenly kills Polonius. But when the Ghost of his father reveal to Hamlet, He came to know that his father was murdered by his uncle Claudius who poured th . Gertrude, though similar to Ophelia in some ways, is an extremely complex character. His inner conflict and obsession with revenge played a roll in his mental state. By Rebecca Mead. The people of Denmark were told that Hamlet's father die by the stinging of a serpent while sleeping in his garden. Ophelia is a character in Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. Hamlet accuses Ophelia of deception saying "I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. Shakespeare allows for the cause of Ophelia's death to be unclear; whether she climbed the tree to commit suicide or it was an accident is not known. In the midst of her inner turmoil, her depression worsens as she learns that Hamlet, the man she loves departs to England. 4, Ophelia loses touch with reality. This is what the whole play is about and is why Shakespeare wrote on the subject to begin with because of its controversial issues. Ophelia enters singing fragments of songs about . A Analysing Character: Ophelia's Madness S ince the first staging of Hamlet, the very name of Ophelia has become nearly synonymous with that form of female madness that was once termed "melancholia" and marked by a nostalgic state of depression, a dissociation from reality, and a self-destructive drive. In the begining of the play Ophelia knows that Hamlet loves her yet decides to keep her distance because her brother tells her to. His inner conflict and obsession with revenge played a roll in his mental state. The cause of Ophelia's death has been debated over the years. By Rebecca Mead. But if we take that position - that she killed herself - Ophelia might have done so because her father has recently been murdered by Hamlet, her brother is off in France, she is living in Hamlet's family's castle and there. But even in her insanity she symbolizes, to everyone but Hamlet, incorruption and virtue. The queen starts her description of Ophelia's death with a tree, a willow tree to be exact, rooted down the soils of earth, and penetrating many layers to form a solid entity "There is a willow grows askant the brook" (4.7, 190). King Hamlet was killed in a malice way by, Claudius, his own brother. Queen Gertrude's actions have caused Hamlet to see all women in a different light because she has taken away his innocence and love for women. Ophelia's tragedy lies in the way she . Hamlet curses his mother for being responsible for his inability to love Ophelia. A court gentleman reports that Ophelia has become pitiably insane. He was so tied up and focused on planning a perfect revenge that he did not noticed he was also in danger. Conclusion The relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia is certainly one of the most tragic aspects of the play and full of bitter irony. Gertrude describes how Ophelia fell into the river while picking flowers and slowly drowned, singing all the while. That ought to make a person really nervous when they see a ghost and the ghost says that you have to kill the king. The ghost represents a disruption to the accepted social order - a theme also reflected in the volatile socio-political state of Denmark and Hamlet's own indecision. The ghost of his father told him that Hamlet needed to avenge his death by killing Claudius.