For you, and you, and you...

So, we're back to Hamlet! Joy of joys, let's go for it.

Anyone who has read Hamlet before (and probably several of you who haven't) knows that after Polonius is killed, Ophelia goes crazy. Literally crazy. However, sometimes there is method in Shakespeare's madness (as stated by my blog). So, does Ophelia actually make sense in her madness, or is it just a random babble that seemingly happens to touch on some truth?

I think the greatest way to tell is in her flower choices. I know many other people have analyzed her floral arrangements, but here's mine:

First, she gives rosemary...

Rosemary:

- symbolizes: remembrance & fidelity

- used greatly in funeral wreaths to remember those who have passed on

- also used greatly in wedding bouquets to remind couples of their vows to each other

- interesting rumor: if you touch a lover with a sprig of rosemary, they will always be faithful

Then Ophelia hands out pansies. 

Pansies:

- symbolizes: thoughts (you occupy my thoughts) & merriment

- one of the main ingredients in Celtic love potions

In "A Midsummer Night's Dream" it is shown as a love potion when "with pansy juice on her eyes, sleeping Titania fell in love with the first creature she saw when she awoke."

Next, Ophelia hands out fennel and columbine.

Fennel:

- symbolizes: foolishness & flattery 

- once fennel is picked, it wilts very quickly 

- quote: "Sow fennel, sow sorrow"

Columbine:

- symbolizes: male adultery & foolishness, ingratitude & thanklessness 

- shape of the flower imitates a Jester's cap and bells, showing the foolishness

Next, Ophelia hands out the rue.

Rue: 

- symbolized: genuine repentance & everlasting suffering

- rue has a very bitter taste

- was the major cause for abortion in its day

-tied with adultery in that it shows repentance of transgressions for women

Then, Ophelia skips over the daisy.

Daisies: 

-symbolized: innocence, purity, & forsaken love

- it is also tied to the keeping of a secret; "I'll never tell"

- Celtic legend: 

Daisies come from the spirits of children who died at birth. To cheer up the parents of these children, God sprinkled the flowers over all the Earth. This is why daisies stand for innocence.

Then, Ophelia mentions that all the violets are withered.

Violets: 

- symbolized: modesty, virtue, affection, faithfulness, & fidelity 

- used as a charm against evil because of its purity

- also shows a returning of love

      So, was Ophelia truly mad? Was she simply pretending to have lost her wits just as had Hamlet had? Was she doing this so she could confront the King and Queen without the fear of them killing her for treason? 

Is there method in her madness?

Interesting imagery...

      So this week I finished reading a Winter's Tale. It was surprising at the end, but also very nice and happy. So, thinking of the end reminded me once more of the beginning and of how different it is from the ending. Trying to make a better comparison I re-read the first two acts and pulled out the imagery and symbols used in these acts. It was no wonder that I found several images of decay and rot, but something that was surprising was a couple of references to time and shepherds, which was foreshadowing some of the aspects of the second half of the play. Here is some of what I found:

"They were trained together in their childhoods; and there rooted betwixt them then such an affection which cannot choose but branch now."   

"Yet, good deed, Leontes, I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind what lady-she her lord."

"We were as twinn'd lambs that did frisk i' the sun, and bleat the one at the other."

And then came Leontes' accusations:

    

       

"How accursed in being so blest! There may be in the cup a spider steep'd, and one may drink, depart, and yet take no venom, for his knowledge is not infected: but if one present the abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known how he hath drunk, he cracks his gorge, his sides, with violent hefts. I have drunk, and seen the spider."

"There is a sicknesss which puts some of us in distemper, but I cannot name the disease; and it is caught of you that yet are well."

    "How! caught of me! Make me not sighted like the basilisk: I have look'd on thousands, who have sped the better by my regard, but kill'd none so."


                  "For as the case now stands, it is a curse he cannot be compell'd to't - once remove the root of his opinion, which is rotten as ever oak or stone was sound."




"If it be so, we need no grave to bury honesty: There's not a grain of it the face to sweeten of the whole dungy earth."

      I found that the imagery really changes the mood of the play. The audience finds that the characters are suddenly disagreeing and they can tell not only through their darkened faces, but also through the distinct images that are being described to them. Interesting, huh?