Part 34: Why Gertrude personifies the envious sliver of willow (Interlude D.1)

The fact that Gertrude personifies the sliver of willow that sends Ophelia to her death is curious and deserving of more attention.

She says an envious sliver breaks [1], sending Ophelia into the water — meaning that it was not Ophelia’s choice to set in motion the events that would lead to her drowning, but that these were caused by an act of envy by something outside herself.

Why envious? Envious that it was not given a floral crown (“coronet”) [2] like other branches.

Tree branches or slivers can’t feel envy, so Gertrude’s personification of the sliver as “envious” implies a belief that human envy was ultimately the cause of Ophelia’s drowning.

Who in the play was envious of another’s crown?
- Primarily Claudius, who poisoned his brother, usurped the throne and stole his brother’s wife.[3]

Ophelia had bestowed crowns on branches and triggered the envy of one “sliver”; she could have been Hamlet’s wife and borne him another heir, helping to bestow that heir’s crown.

What does this envious willow sliver do?
- It breaks, bringing itself harm, so that in the process, it can send Ophelia to her death for not giving it a crown.

How does this analogy apply to Claudius?
- The envious Claudius brought moral and spiritual harm to himself by poisoning his brother, King Hamlet, taking his throne and wife, and lying about it, breaking a list of biblical commandments.

(“Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends; they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.” [4])

Gertrude does not merely offer poetic description of Ophelia’s death: She expresses awareness that the death should not be viewed too narrowly as suicide, but rather, as having been caused by the murderous and usurping actions of an envious Claudius. (Gertrude may also suspect that Claudius arranged the drowning death of Ophelia — but this may be too literal, “to consider too curiously to consider so.” [5])

Why doesn’t Gertrude explain this more plainly?
- Perhaps she knows she must speak cautiously if hinting that her new husband’s envy caused destructive effects that included the madness and drowning of Ophelia?
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POSTSCRIPT:
It is amazing, how many teachers, students, and scholars (including me) are or were inclined to give little attention to Gertrude's remarks about the sliver of the willow that breaks, due to envy that other branches of the willow were given crowns, but it was not.

This detail of the envious sliver is important for a number of reasons:
- Note that to be safe, Gertrude may likely have had to prefer understatement if speaking figuratively about the envy of Claudius, her new husband, who had killed his brother and taken his crown and wife out of envy.
- This understatement may help keep her safe from Claudius temporarily, but it also contributes to the likelihood that scholars might pay little attention to the reference to the "envious sliver."
- Yet this is very important, because if we assume Gertrude is simply being poetic in describing Ophelia's death, then we risk assuming Gertrude is frivolous in her poetic use of language rather than dead serious.

Scholars who prefer Gertrude to be rather "stupid" (as even one feminist scholar calls her*) - and surprised at the poison cup in the final scene - might be among those who neglect more careful attention to the detail of the envious sliver.

* In her book, "Shakespeare and the Nature of Women," Juliet Dusinberre writes, "Gertrude is not guileful, [....] She is a stupid, straightforward woman of blunted sensibility." (p.218, 2nd edition)
- It may be that Dusinberre's opinion of Gertrude is too static, glimpsing her as she views and comments upon "The Mousetrap" playlet, and without considering her possible character arc.
- It may also be that this opinion of Gertrude is more influenced by productions of the play that portray her as stupid, rather than by the details of the texts.

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

[1] 4.7.98. Catherine Loomis notes,

Possibly referring to The Shepherd’s Calendar and its elaborate dissection of the branches of envy? One sliver of it:
“The .viii. branch of Enuy. Excusation.

By wordes.

Which be doubtful hauing double vnderstanding

Manifestly and which they know to be false

Seking occasion to hide the euill dede.”

See Early Modernists discussion group, Facebook, Mary 7, 2024, with permission.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/340700132679654/posts/7342934342456163/?comment_id=7344548355628095&reply_comment_id=7348302511919346&notif_id=1709937200987595&notif_t=group_comment_mention

[2] 4.7.97.

[3] More broadly:
- The dead King Hamlet was also envious of Old Fortinbras, egged on by “emulate pride” (likely implying envy), and killed him in single combat, winning the lands that had been Norway’s. This would later continue to have harmful effects, of which the sentinels are aware in the first scene of the play.
- Some might claim that Prince Hamlet wanted revenge for his father’s murder only because the prince was envious of the crown that went to his uncle instead of to him (although other critics note what they perceive as a surprising lack of envy or scheming on Hamlet’s part for the purpose of stealing the throne from Claudius for his own sake, claiming the prince seems only to want to end the corruption that the marriage of the murderer Claudius to Gertrude has brought to the throne).

[4] Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (with thanks to Dr.Arzu Ateş for bringing this to my attention.

[5] 5.1.212-13.


IMAGES:
L: Willow photo by Demeester, used under  the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Via Wikipedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bourgoyen_knotted_willow_and_woodpile.jpg

R: Illustration of the 'Mousetrap' scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1897, by Harold Copping  (1863–1932). Public domain via https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harold_Copping-_Hamlet_PlayScene_1897.jpg

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

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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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