Part 1: The Controversy over Ophelia's Death in Hamlet

If you ask an average Shakespeare reader or viewer to tell you how Ophelia dies in Hamlet, many might say “suicide,” or “she drowns herself.”

But the play presents a controversy of at least seven interpretations of her death, ranging from accident to suicide. [1] These are represented by
1. Gertrude;
2. the king (implied);
3. the Coroner’s Inquest;
4. the Gravedigger-clowns;
5. Hamlet;
6. the “churlish priest”; and
7. Laertes.

Some of these agree more with the others, some not.

Educators often say it’s good to “teach the controversy,” so instructors might have students seek, document, and reflect on the position of each party, as well as other possibilities (with or without evidence).

1. GERTRUDE offers the earliest account of Ophelia’s death, saying Ophelia fell in the brook while decorating a willow with flowers, when an “envious sliver” of a bough broke [2]. Her garments helped her float for a while [3], but they became “heavy with their drink” and “Pulled” her “To muddy death” [4]. She says that Ophelia “chanted snatches of old lauds” (sacred songs) “As one incapable of her own distress / Or like a creature native” to water (4.7.202-5).

In light of her discussion with Hamlet in her closet, Gertrude's reference to the "envious sliver" of willow that broke (envious that it didn't receive a crown/coronet like the other branches adorned by Ophelia) may be Gertrude's way of hinting that, even if Ophelia, once in the water, did not fight to save herself, the responsibility for her death should not be laid on her own head, but rather, on those envious of the crowns of others (like Claudius). See Part 34: Why Gertrude personifies the envious sliver of willow (Interlude D.1), https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/03/part-34-interlude-d1-why-gertrude.html

Is Ophelia mad, or in mystical ecstasy, unable to comprehend the danger of her impending death? Or is she resolved that she would be happier to end her life, so she’s glad the branch broke, and and that her wet garments drag her down?

It’s a mystery, so we might do better to respect the mystery rather than pluck its heart carelessly.[5]

2. THE KING: The “churlish priest” (“Doctor”) implies that the king (or queen? or both?) pressured the coroner’s quest (“great command o’ersways the order”) to decide that she deserved Christian burial. [6]

3. THE CORONER’S INQUEST (“crowner’s ’quest” [7]) complies with the “great command” of the monarch(s).

4. GRAVEDIGGER-CLOWNS: One gravedigger jokes about how, if you go to the water, then you are guilty of suicide, but if the water goes to you, then it’s the water’s fault.[8]

5. Hamlet observes that the funeral procession seems to be for a rich person who took their own life:

But soft, but soft awhile! Here comes the King,
The Queen, the courtiers. Who is this they follow?
And with such maimèd rites? This doth betoken
The corse they follow did with desp’rate hand
Fordo its own life. ’Twas of some estate.
Couch we awhile and mark.
(5.1.224-228)

6. THE “CHURLISH PRIEST” (as Laertes calls him) [9] is the most judgmental, certain that the circumstances of her death were “doubtful” enough [10] that Ophelia should not have been buried on Christian ground, and that the king should not have meddled otherwise.[11] He seems to represent a puritan minister, more strict than the official government church.

7. LAERTES is certain that his sister will be a “minist’ring angel” like the beggar Lazarus in heaven, while the priest lies “howling” [12] in hell like the rich man who shunned the beggar. [13]

Given the range of opinions, we might find it curious that so many assume Ophelia committed suicide. Did the play fail utterly at conveying this controversy? Or is not only Denmark’s time out of joint, but our own as well, so much so that too many readers and viewers fail to notice the controversy?
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Postscript: Bridget Gellert Lyons wrote in 1977,
"Finally, [Ophelia's] death - suicide or accident - is pointedly made the subject of conflicting interpretations."
See
Bridget Gellert Lyons
"The Iconography of Ophelia,"
ELH , Spring, 1977, Vol. 44, No. 1, pp. 60-74
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/2872526
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NOTES:
[1] Jay Zysk argues that in Measure for Measure, Angelo and Isabel’s debate about the possibility of mercy and the literal sense of the law relates to the English Reformation debates about how to interpret scripture and law, and especially the Eucharistic controversy. See Jay Zysk, “John 6, Measure for Measure, and the complexities of the Literal Sense,” Chapter 3, The Bible on the Shakespearean Stage: Cultures of Interpretation in Reformation England, eds. Thomas Fulton and Kristen Poole, Cambridge University Press, 2018 (51-68).

[2] 4.7.198
All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

[3] 4.7.200-201

[4] 4.7.206-208

[5] 3.2.395-6, Hamlet: “...you would pluck
out the heart of my mystery…”

[6] 5.1.235

[7] 5.1.23. See my previous blog post about the “crowner’s quest”: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2020/08/coroners-suicide-inquest-as-crowners.html

[8] 5.1.15-21. They don’t seem to have access to Gertrude’s story of the branch breaking, making it the fault of the envious branch.  The also note how if she wasn’t a gentlewoman, she would not have been given Christian burial, and joke of how this gives “great folk” more motivation to “to drown or hang themselves” than common Christians (5.1.27-30).
See my previous blog post about the clowns joking about “great folk”: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/02/ophelias-burial-exceptions-connections.html

[9] 5.1.250

[10] 5.1.234

[11] 5.1.236-247. The priest acts like a member of an elite club who is certain that it would tarnish the reputation of all its members if lowlifes, riff-raff, and suicides were to be let in – as if God can’t handle sorting out the souls of the bodies buried in the church graveyard without his help.  

[12] 5.1.251-252

[13] See my previous posts on Ophelia as the beggar Lazarus, and the “churlish priest” as the rich man who shuns him:
Ophelia as like the beggar Lazarus:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/03/ophelia-in-13-as-beggar-lazarus-part-6.html
The “churlish priest” as like the rich man who neglected Lazarus:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/05/beggars-and-rich-men-at-ophelias-grave.html


IMAGES:
Left: “The death of Ophelia,” watercolor, Richard Westall. “Presumably a reduced replica of the painting made for Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery and engraved in 1793. Possibly the first image of this subject in English art.” British Museum, public domain via https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1901-0417-16
 
Center: Detail, “Ophelia,” John Everett Millais, circa 1851. Elizabeth Siddal (sitter). Tate Britain. Public domain via https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:John_Everett_Millais_-_Ophelia_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Right: “Ophelia,” Paul Steck, 1895. Petit Palais, Paris. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steck-paul_albertophelia.JPG


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INDEX OF OPHELIA POSTS:
My 2023 series on Ophelia, and earlier Ophelia posts:

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html
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YOU CAN SUPPORT ME on a one-time "tip" basis on Ko-Fi:
https://ko-fi.com/pauladrianfried

IF YOU WOULD PREFER to support me on a REGULAR basis,
you may do so on Ko-Fi, or here on Patreon:
https://patreon.com/PaulAdrianFried
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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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