hamletzbible-blog

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New blog post on Ophelia giving away / hanging up coronets (little crowns) on a tree - instead of hoarding or killing for a crown, the status quo in Denmark/Norway

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Unlike Claudius—who ignored qualms of conscience to murder his brother and usurp the throne—Ophelia’s relationship to her conscience is more healthy, rich, and self-directed.  Claudius just doesn’t get it, so he needs Hamlet to catch his conscience in The Mousetrap, [1] which reenacts Claudius poisoning his brother and wooing his victim’s wife. Hamlet says playing holds a mirror up to the age [2], and he uses the playlet to hold a mirror up to Gertrude and Claudius, showing what they’ve done. But Ophelia gets it, and doesn’t need someone to hold up a mirror for her conscience. She chooses her own songs, stories, and allusions to reflect upon her sadness and conscience. [3] She knows her father died, but doesn’t know that Hamlet killed him thinking it was Claudius. She sings songs of mourning for perhaps her father and/or the dead king [4], songs of her own choosing. Ophelia knows Hamlet made to her “almost all the holy vows of heaven” [5] perhaps the equivalent of a handfast wedding, valid in Norway in Shakespeare’s lifetime [6]. She had rejected Hamlet in obedience to her father [7], and in turn, Hamlet rejected her [8]. After her father’s death, perhaps there is no longer a barrier to her relationship with the prince, and to Hamlet fulfilling his vows to her. But Hamlet is on a sea voyage, and perhaps Ophelia realizes she is pregnant with his child (or figuratively pregnant with wishful thinking?). So she sings a Valentine song about an unfaithful lover who promised marriage but did not keep his promise [9], a song of her own choosing. When Ophelia says, “They say the owl was a baker’s daughter” [10], she references a folktale retelling of the gospel tale of the Rich Man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31); but instead of a rich man, it is the baker’s daughter who is ungenerous with a beggar. Ophelia seems to be catching her own conscience for having obeyed her father and rejected Hamlet, who had begged for her love [11]. She says, “God be at your table” [12], a reference to the two disciples who recognize Jesus at table in the person of a stranger (Luke 24:13-35), rather than rejecting the stranger like the rich man or baker’s daughter. Better to welcome the stranger than neglect the beggar. She knows her brother and father had made her feel that she and Hamlet were not a good match [13], like the false steward who stole his master’s daughter [14] in a Ben Jonson play subplot in Shakespeare’s time.  She distributes flowers and herbs, each with meanings, to catch the consciences of members of the court [15].

Ophelia had witnessed Hamlet’s use of the playlet to catch the consciences of Gertrude and Claudius [16], but in 4.5, she improves on Hamlet’s lesson, catching her own conscience and those of the court in the arts of song and story.

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From Ophelia's POV, if being true to vows matters to Hamlet, & if Hamlet was rightful heir who should be king instead of Claudius, Ophelia should be queen ("Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?"), & acts like one in her 4.5 mad scene, stealing the show, interrupting Gertrude - and Claudius repeatedly. The men see only madness.

Shakespeare

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To parley, or not to parley?

Thoughts on the two occurrences of parley/parle in Hamlet, in relation to Ophelia and Polonius, and to Francisco and Bernardo...

(with thanks to @CassidyCash)

Blog post

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What if Gertrude lied about how Ophelia died?

Part 18: What if Gertrude lied about Ophelia’s death? In Part 16, I considered that Gertrude’s story might be true. But what if she lied? What might motivate the lie, other than murder? (See parts 2 and 3) How might we best understand such a lie? And how might our judgment of Gertrude, harsh or merciful, reflect back on us? New blog post.

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PART 17: Ophelia's "Owl" and "False Steward" Allusions: Why in that order?

I realized that it may actually matter that Ophelia's allusion to "the owl was a baker's daughter" comes before "the false steward that stole his master's daughter."

I think Ophelia is taking [the mote of dust] from her own eye before taking [the plank] from the eyes of her brother and father (false-stewards).

[Yes, this labeling reverses the traditional order of plank and mote, but the reversal seems relevant to Ophelia and her family.]

But for all of that to make sense, one has to understand both the "owl" and "false steward" allusions…

…and how Ophelia may see herself in them…

...and also the biblical advice about taking the plank from one's own eye before the mote of dust from a neighbor's - a passage to which Horatio alludes briefly (ironically?) in 1.1: "A mote it is to trouble the mind's eye."

Blog post explains:

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To Elizabethans, preparing to die a “good death” involved

1. generosity;

2. repentance;

3. seeking God’s favor;

4. contemplating God at the moment of death.[1].

Shakespeare shows that Ophelia’s death not only conforms to all of this, but that she is a priestess [2], mourning in song, offering prayers, flowers, symbolic advice, and blessings.

1. GENEROUS: Ophelia sings of her father’s death [3], and of the loss of Hamlet’s love [4], generously expressing grief that others avoid.

She prays, [5];

sings, blesses[6];

bids Claudius “God [yield] you” [7];

bids Gertrude that her true love will be a pilgrim [8];

speaks of transformation [9];

bids “God be at your table” [10].

In place of communion, she gives symbolic flowers [11].

Instead of hoarding a crown, she crowns willow branches “coronets”

An “envious” [12] willow branch will betray her and break.

2. REPENT: “THE OWL WAS A BAKER’S DAUGHTER”:

Folktale retelling of the gospel tale of the Rich Man and Lazarus:

A baker’s daughter is changed into an owl for being ungenerous with a beggar, Jesus in disguise.

- Ophelia is like baker’s daughter, ungenerous with Hamlet.

- Perhaps Ophelia regrets her treatment of Hamlet? [13]

3. GOD’S FAVOR: “THE FALSE STEWARD STOLE HIS MASTER’S DAUGHTER” [14]:

Steward steals daughter while master is at war. When daughter falls in love years later, steward claims she is unworthy of a match above her station. In fact, she is worthy by her birth.

- Ophelia may realize: her brother and father were false stewards.[15]

4. CONTEMPLATING GOD AT DEATH: According to Gertrude, Ophelia dies like a mystic, fearless, “incapable of her own distress”: she “chanted” religious songs.[16]

Perhaps she doesn’t struggle in the water out of faith that whatever happens is for the best? (“The readiness is all”?)

Mystics can be considered crazy, misunderstood, slandered. So Shakespeare follows Ophelia’s death with misunderstandings of the gravediggers and “churlish priest” who can only imagine her death as suicide.[17]

If Gertrude’s account is not fiction, this is how we might read Ophelia’s death.

[Notes at blog post:]

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Critics, readers, and viewers today may think of Ophelia’s suffering very differently than did devout Christians in Shakespeare’s time, who were encouraged to view suffering as a sign of God’s favor. Blog post Notes and image credits at the blog

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Ophelia, Hamlet, and Thirteen ways of looking at madness in #Shakespeare's #Hamlet ...with a nod to Wallace Stevens’ poem title. Part 13 in a series on #Ophelia with 1922 John Austen illustrations and links to other parts in the Ophelia series

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Too many critics assume that Ophelia’s madness is merely an inability to deal with emotions, mostly about her father and Hamlet.

Too few consider that it may have been as much, or more, caused by a startling epiphany about Denmark’s corruption, understanding it perhaps even better than her father.

A tendency to keep Ophelia out of politics, like keeping women out of voting booths?

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Excerpts from Elaine Showalter, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism,”

and some observations…

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Ophelia as mad rogue fool-queen regent

in Hamlet's absence. "Marry a fool."

Ophelia, another fool buried in Yorick's grave.

Francisco, first on stage, named after Francisco of Assisi, "God's fool."

Foolery. Blog post.

#Hamlet #Shakespeare

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#Hamlet 5.1 gravedigger banter helps us view “churlish priest” critically: “The crowner hath sate on her…” Satisfied themselves on her. Necrophilia joke. Screwed her over.

#Shakespeare #Ophelia

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Ophelia's Long Purples

On Ophelia's “...long purples, That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.” (4.7) Purple penises? A woman who in another time might inflate condom balloons? Suicidal?

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In Act 1, scene 3, Ophelia tries to get in a few words with long-winded brother Laertes and father, Polonius.

Hamlet had made her “almost all the holy vows of heaven” [1]: She could be the next queen of Denmark.  

Laertes suspects Hamlet may be tempted to use her, then need to marry someone else to secure a treaty [2]. But the play offers no impending treaty-marriages, or that Hamlet would take love lightly: He wants to return to university in Wittenberg. Laertes wants to return to France where his father suspects he will be “drabbing” (whoring), and where Ophelia suspects he will be a hypocrite, not heeding his own advice.

Polonius similarly suspects bad intentions of Hamlet [3]. As key advisor to the king, doesn’t that make him a valid authority? Or just his job to be suspicious?

HONOR THY FATHER

The English church would cite the Bible’s 5th commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother” (Ex 20:12).

BE SUBJECT TO HIGHER POWERS

But Hamlet is next in line to the throne. The church in Shakespeare’s time repeatedly stressed duty to obey political authorities [Rom 13:1-2].

If Hamlet becomes king after Claudius, isn’t he a “higher power”? Perhaps Ophelia feels she may have a greater obligation to obey Hamlet than to obey her father?

WRITTEN ON THE HEART

Ophelia wanted to believe Hamlet’s love tokens [6]. The Christian tradition had long taught that God’s law is written on human hearts [7] and on consciences [8]. If Ophelia doesn’t listen to her heart, will she go mad like King Lear, rejecting the daughter nearest his heart, Cordelia?

SET THE WORD ITSELF AGAINST THE WORD

For Ophelia, these conflicting bible passages may be (as Richard II says)  “set the word itself / Against the word…” (5.5.12-14) 

Ophelia: “I do not know, my lord, what I should think” (1.3.113).

Ophelia has not yet fallen in the brook (4.7), but her confusion in 1.3 already foreshadows her drowning.

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/07/part-5-ophelia-drowning-in-conflicing.html

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Ophelia wronged by monarch, inquest, & doctor ("churlish priest") - misrepresentation of the mystery of Ophelia's death is in part a matter of bearing false witness(important in Shakespeare's Bible-reading culture)- in part a matter of following the money as David Bevington noted...- blog post https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/07/part-4-ophelia-wronged-by-monarch.html

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Some thoughts on female agency for Gertrude and Ophelia, discerning differences between adaptations or interpretations, and the danger of misreading “here’s what REALLY happened”... Including Grace Tiffany’s poem, “Gertrude and Ophelia,” used by permission.