Part 28: Ophelia saved by faith alone, or by Gertrude's work of mercy?

Shakespeare’s Hamlet begins with Horatio acting like a doubting Thomas [1], not believing in ghosts, converted to belief after witnessing a ghost first-hand.

But unmentioned is the lesson Jesus gives in John’s gospel after Thomas comes to belief: “...blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed.” [Jn 20:29] Are we invited to wait for this other shoe to drop?

Shakespeare constructed his play so that Ophelia’s death, and Gertrude’s account of it, requires of all a leap of faith: Not seeing, but believing.

Gertrude describes it not as a death in despair, but in charity (generously bestowing crowns) [2] and in faith (chanting sacred hymns) [3] after falling in the brook by accident, not intent.[4]

In Gertrude’s account, Ophelia floats toward her death without struggle, as if to accept the risk of her own death in faith, like Hamlet: “Let be.”[5]

We have not seen her death, yet we are invited to believe.

The play invites cognitive dissonance between the expected damnation of suicides, and Ophelia’s death in faith described by Gertrude — not unlike cognitive dissonance for early Christians, between the expected curse for those accused of capital crimes and hung on a tree (Deut. 21.22-23), and claims of the saving power of Jesus, crucified under Roman rule.

Many ask: How can Gertrude relate Ophelia’s death in such detail, without having tried to save her from drowning? We are not told.

Perhaps Gertrude’s account is a fiction to spare Ophelia the indignity of a suicide’s funeral? [6]

If we are mostly suspicious (applying a "hermeneutic of suspicion"), we might claim Gertrude created a fiction about Ophelia’s death only to save her reign as Queen of Denmark by calming Laertes, already incensed.

But this might not fit the trajectory we glimpse of Gertrude’s character, scolded by Hamlet to repent [7], and expressing guilt before seeing Ophelia [8]. More likely, Gertrude’s account is something more than merely a fiction of self-interest.

English Protestants of Shakespeare’s time believed we are saved by faith alone, not works or charity. Gertrude’s account of Ophelia’s death invites a leap of faith.

Might such faith save us?

If not merely a fiction of self-interest, Gertrude may think:
If I, as a sinner, hope to be judged with mercy, I should be merciful to Ophleia and work to ensure that she is judged with mercy. [9]

Such mercy would be an act (work!) of charity — perhaps a work of faith-in-mercy.
This inspires more (rhetorical-theological?) questions:

If Gertrude’s tale is fiction, might we accept it in the same charitable, merciful spirit that Gertrude may have constructed it?

Might “works” of such charity and mercy save us?

Is it more important for Queen Gertrude to be truthful, or to be charitable, prudent, and kind?
(Is truth sometimes overrated, where works of mercy and kindness are needed?)

Does Gertrude place her faith in kindness and mercy?

If God is love, might such faith save us? [10]

https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/01/part-28-ophelia-saved-by-faith-alone-or.html


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

[1] HORATIO AS DOUBTING THOMAS: In 1.1, Marcellus notes: “Horatio says 'tis but our fantasy, / And will not let belief take hold of him” (1.1.32) regarding the ghost. Horatio was asked watch that night so that “He may approve our eyes and speak to it” (1.1.38).

Horatio the skeptic responds, “Tush, tush, 'twill not appear” (1.1.39).

The sentinel Bernardo (after St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who once preached a crusade?) [1] tells Horatio he should again let them “assail” his ears with their story so that he might believe (1.1.41-42).

But some people do not come to belief by having their ears assailed, or a via verbal crusade. They need to experience things for themselves, and perhaps witness the failure of their false assumptions. [2]

Later, when the ghost appears, Horatio quickly amends his disbelief. He comments, “Before my God, I might not this believe / Without the sensible and true avouch / Of mine own eyes” (1.1.71-73).

Much like Thomas.

Many have noticed that the skeptical Horatio is a “doubting Thomas.” For two examples, see S. Blackmore’s 1917 book,
The Riddles of Hamlet and the Newest Answers (135),
and W. Hamlin’s 2005 book,
Tragedy and Scepticism in Shakespeare’s England, 130-131 (Palgrave).

See also 2020 blog post on Horatio as doubting Thomas:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2020/01/doubt-thomas-hamlet-reduct-rabbit.html

[2] See previous blog post in this series:
 Part 26: Ophelia gives crowns instead of grasping & hoarding one
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/12/part-26-ophelia-gives-crowns-instead-of.html

[3] See previous blog post in this series,
Part 16: Ophelia, priestess and peace-parted mystic
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/09/part-16-ophelia-priestess-and-peace.html

[4] Gertrude says that Ophelia fell in the brook while decorating a willow with flowers, when an “envious sliver” of a bough broke (4.7.198).

[5] Hamlet: “The readiness is all.” (5.2.236-7)
 Hamlet: “Let be” (5.2.238)

[6] See previous blog post in this series:
Part 18: A mote in Ophelia’s eye met with Gertrude's merciful fiction?
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/part-18-mote-in-ophelias-eye-met-with.html

[7] HAMLET to Gertrude: “Confess yourself to heaven, / Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come…” (3.4.170-171)
[8] GERTRUDE: [Aside.] To my sick soul (as sin’s true nature is),
Each toy seems prologue to some great amiss.
So full of artless jealousy is guilt,
It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.
(4.5.22-25)
See also Kerri Roberts, author of Hamlet’s Hereditary Queen, who remarked in personal correspondence regarding Gertrude, “I see the sick soul speech before she sees Ophelia as guilt for her part in the death of Polonius, possibly just because her son killed him.” This is an excellent point, that although Gertrude did not personally kill Polonius, she may (like many parents) feel guilt for what her son has done (and perhaps anything she did that may have contributed to her son’s actions). Kerri Roberts book is available here:
https://www.routledge.com/Hamlets-Hereditary-Queen-Performing-Shakespeares-Silent-Female-Power/Roberts/p/book/9781032193144

[9] By judging Ophelia with mercy, Gertrude may embody a favorite Bible passage of Shakespeare about judging oneself first before judging others (Matthew 7:1-5), a passage from which the playwright borrowed references to removing the plank or beam in one’s own eye before attempting to remove the mote or speck of dust from the eye of another (see Hamlet 1.1.24: “A mote it is to trouble the mind’s eye.”), and also the idea that the measure by which we judge others will be the measure by which we ourselves will be judged, an idea present in Matt. 7:2 and in The Lord’s Prayer, said frequently in church in Shakespeare’s lifetime: “forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us.”

[10] In Shakespeare’s time, this was such a contested question, whether we are saved by “faith alone” (Luther) or at least in part by works or choices (exercise of free will) that cooperate with grace (the Catholic position). Shakespeare could not safely oppose the English Protestant position that we are saved by faith alone. But he may have carefully constructed Gertrude’s character in such a way as to imply - without being too dangerously explicit - that acts of mercy in judging others (which are the opposite of revenge) might in fact embody a kind of faith in charity, in mercy, in kindness. And if God is love (as 1 John 4:16 claims), then faith-in-love (and acting in love and mercy) might resolve a false dichotomy?

This is not to say that the idea of Catholic works did not lead to corruption: It did. It would be wrong to think that one can do evil or sinful things, and then as a rich person, attend confession and pay for indulgences to cover one’s tracks, without truly repenting of the evil. But Catholics and Protestants were so committed to their own ideological positions that many innocent bystanders became casualties in their ideological war.


IMAGES: Left (Ophelia), Right (Gertrude):

L collage, Top L:
Arthur Hughes (1832–1915)
Ophelia (circa 1851-1853). Detail. Public domain via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Hughes_-_Ophelia_(First_Version).JPG

L Collage, Top R:
Henri Gervex  (1852–1929)
Nellie Melba as Ophelia in the opera Hamlet by Ambroise Thomas [before 1910?]. Detail.
Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nellie_Melba_as_Ophelia_in_Hamlet_(opera)_-_Henri_Gervex_ON2010-03-12.jpg

L Collage, Bottom L:
Ernest Hébert  (1817–1908)
Ophelia, 19th century. Detail. Public domain via
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:H%C3%A9bert_Ofelia.jpg

L Collage, Bottom R:
Alexandre Cabanel  (1823–1889)
Ophelia, 1883. Detail. Public domain via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexandre_Cabanel,_Ophelia.JPG

R Collage, Top L:
William Salter Herrick (c.1807-1891).
Hamlet in the Queen's chamber (ca. 1857), detail.
Public domain via Folger Shakespeare Library and Luna at  blob:null/00b8a60f-9369-4ef0-a008-785f3d9f0bd0

R Collage, Top R:
Edwin Austin Abbey  (1852–1911)
The Queen in Hamlet (1895), detail.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Public domain via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abbey_-_The_Queen_in_Hamlet.jpg

R Collage, Bottom L:
Edwin Austin Abbey  (1852–1911)
The Play Scene in Hamlet (Act III, Scene 2) (1897), detail.
Yale University Art Gallery. Public domain via
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edwin_Austin_Abbey_-_The_Play_Scene_in_%E2%80%9CHamlet%E2%80%9D_(Act_III,_Scene_2)_-_1937.2171_-_Yale_University_Art_Gallery.jpg

R Collage, Bottom R:
Benjamin West  (1738–1820)
Hamlet: Act IV, Scene V (Ophelia Before the King and Queen), 1792. Detail.
Cincinnati Art Museum. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_West_-_Hamlet-_Act_IV,_Scene_V_(Ophelia_Before_the_King_and_Queen)_-_Google_Art_Project.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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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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