No Shit Shakespeare — Hamlet Analysis - Did Ophelia Kill Herself?

Hamlet analysis - Did Ophelia kill herself?

the-mindpalace:

Okay, this subject has been bugging me so I really need to talk about it somewhere. The question is, did Ophelia kill herself? There are reasons both for and against it. (But mostly against)

From the way the queen tells the story of her drowning it doesn’t sound like speculation- I took a couple minutes to translate the queens story into my own words. She basically says that There’s a willow that grows near the brook by which Ophelia was making garlands of flowers. When Ophelia climbed up the tree to hang her garlands a branch broke, which sent her and her garlands into the water. Her clothes floated up and kept her from drowning at first, as she sang bits of old tunes, seemingly not aware that she was in any danger at all or that she was a creature of that element. Eventually, her clothes are weighed down by the water and she was pulled down to muddy death. Clearly the queen had seen it all happen since it was such a detailed story. She even mentions what kinds of flowers Ophelia was using for her garlands in the original script. But, if the queen was watching it happen, why didn’t she mention trying to make contact with/save Ophelia? Is it possible that Ophelia did commit suicide but the queen made up the story in order to lessen the pain on her brother?

In addition, it is also possible that the queen’s story was true and that is was originally an accident, but what if after she falls she is aware of the danger, but doesn’t think life was worth fighting for anymore, and therefore doesn’t struggle? Or do we brush off her in-compatibility of recognizing danger as a result of her madness? I could go into specifically why Ophelia went mad, but that’s going to take a little bit more research.

A good question, and one for which there is no straight answer. The queen has a very eloquent and picturesque image of what has happened to Ophelia, but that’s no guarantee in Shakespeare that she was there to see it. There are a number of reasons for this speech being as it is:

1. Because Ophelia’s death wasn’t shown on stage, Gertrude’s poetic retelling creates a picture for the audience much the way a flashback would in a film.

2. Because the queen is grieved: whether or not he heard it from report, it could be that the story has already been distorted and she is already glamorising/beautifying something.

3. Because it’s a cover-up. By saying that Ophelia was ‘incapable of her own distress’ (4.7.178), the queen suggests that Ophelia didn’t commit suicide, and therefore that she can have a Christian burial. The very poetic imagery may be a cover for something less savoury. Indeed, the priest in Act five, scene one suggests that there has been such a cover-up: ‘Her death was doubtful, / And that but great command o’ersways the order, / She should in ground unsanctified have lodged’ (5.1.194-6). In other words, the church has been commanded by the king to bury someone in hallowed ground that they would otherwise refuse to bury there. And even though Laertes isn’t happy with the ‘maimèd rites’ (5.1.186) of the burial, but he doesn’t contest the priest on that point.

The gravediggers query this too: ‘Is she to be buried in Christian burial, when she wilfully seeks her own salvation?’ (V.i.1-2; ‘Salvation’ is a malapropism for ‘damnation’), nd again: ‘If this has not been a gentlewomen, she should have been buried out o’Christian burial’ (V.i.20-1), and the underscoring of inequality in the chruch in Denmark: ‘The more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even-Christian’ (5.1.22-3).

It is very likely indeed that Ophelia did kill herself willingly. And the burial itself has political motives if Claudius is trying to get Laertes on his side. This is a very complicated play.

In any case, the queen is not a reliable narrator. She may not have been there, and the story may serve more than the purpose of narrative, but she is the only one that suggests Ophelia died in an accident amidst an overwhelming amount of evidence to the contrary