Part 47: Ophelia's “O” and the Virtues of Nothingness

Ophelia in Hamlet represents a paradox about both the injustice and virtue of nothing, emptiness, poverty:

Ophelia is an intelligent young woman [1], lectured, silenced [2], taken for granted [3], told what to do, where to go [4], and whose death is linked to crown-envy [5], a cautious way for Gertrude to blame the envious actions of Claudius for Ophelia’s death.

When Hamlet makes bawdy remarks at the playlet, “The Mousetrap,” Ophelia says, “I think nothing” [6]. In Elizabethan slang, women have “nothing” between their legs, while men have a “thing.”[7]

“Nothing” is a theme in other Shakespeare plays:

- A self-centered Richard II, losing his throne, says, “I must nothing be” [8].

- King Lear wants his favorite daughter Cordelia to be best at expressing her love for her father, but she refuses to play the game. Lear tells her “Nothing can come of nothing” [9]. By the end, Lear will be emptied and learn poverty.

Many world religions emphasize the virtue of humility and spiritual poverty, including Christianity in Shakespeare’s England:

- “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matt 5:3 [10]

- “For whom emptiness is possible, everything is possible.” - Nagarjuna [11]

Lewis Hyde notes:
“The gift moves towards the empty place. [12]

Ruskin claimed Ophelia’s name means “serviceableness” [13], like what Mary says to Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation: “Behold the servant of the Lord” [14].

But Ophelia’s name also suggests “O-love,” or love of nothing, emptiness, humility.[15]

The ghost says he was guilty of “foul crimes” [16], and that the poison made his sin “lazar-like” [17], alluding to the gospel tale of the leper Lazarus, neglected by the rich man.[18]

But if the ghost is at least in purgatory, and Claudius hell-bound like the rich man, Ophelia's "nothing" is on the side of the heaven-bound beggar Lazarus.[19]

If the long arc of the universe bends toward justice, it bends toward Ophelia.
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Postscripts:

1. Gertrude's tale of the circumstances of Ophelia's drowning, with its emphasis that it was an accident, followed by Ophelia singing "snatches of old lauds" (4.7.202, religious songs), emphasizes that Ophelia died a death of faith in whatever might come, not a death of despair. Such faith would require an emptying of all selfish expectation.

The fact that there were no eyewitnesses mentioned in Gertrude's tale requires a leap of faith of the listener: As in the gospel tale of Thomas "the doubter," we might recall the summary of the lesson: "Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe." Such faith requires surrender, relinquishing of control, emptying, openheartedness.

2. In a comment on LinkedIn on this post, Federico LaSalla comments,
"HAMLET (SHAKESPEARE), THE NAME OF OPHELIA, AND POSSIBLE REFERENCES TO THE HISTORICAL-POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EUROPE AT THE TIME, LOADED WITH EXPECTATIONS ON THE PART OF THE "PEOPLE" OF THE SOLAR: THEATER (ASTRONOMY) AND METATHEATER (PHILOSOPHY).

GEOCENTRISM AND HELIOCENTRISM.
ACCEPTING AS HYPOTHESIS THAT THE NAME OF OPHELIA ("O-phelia" = "Peri-helium", around and close to the Sun) is formally close to the name of APHELIUS ("A-phelion" - far from the Sun), is it  not better to think and place the figure of the Hamlet Ophelia in the horizon of cosmological discussions linked to the centrality of the Sun in the Universe (following the work of Copernicus, Kepler, and Giordano Bruno) and to the theological-political concerns linked to the consonance with the apocalyptic expectations of era (Tommaso Campanella and "la CittàdelSole") and to the widespread reference to the figure of the prophet Elijah)?!"

(PF NOTE: Recall what Hamlet says to Polonius in 2.2, like a court fool, prodding him about his fears of an unwed Ophelia becoming pregnant:
"Let her not walk i’ th’ sun. Conception is a
blessing, but, as your daughter may conceive,
friend, look to ’t." [2.2.201-203])



NOTES: All references to Hamlet (and other Shakespeare plays) are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online versions: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

[1.a.] Ophelia is intelligent enough to notice her brother’s possible hypocrisy in 1.3 when, after he advises her to resist Hamlet and preserve her chastity, they both know he will be heading off to France where he might be less than chaste (1.3.49-55);
to know that Hamlet’s vows to her may set her up to be Denmark’s next queen (1.3.122-123);
to push back at least at first against her father’s dismissal of Hamlet’s love for her;
and intelligent enough to know Hamlet’s denials of his love for her in 3.1 are suspicious in light of how, earlier, he convinced her of his love (3.1.126).
Earlier in this series, as many others have done, I explored how her madness in 4.5 also demonstrates Ophelia’s intelligence:

[1.b.] On her self-scrutiny in “the owl was a baker’s daughter,” see: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/part-17-ophelias-owl-and-false-steward.html

[1.c.] On her scrutiny of her family in “it was the false steward that stole his master’s daughter,” see: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-false-steward-that-stole-his.html

[1.d.] On her political awakening and intelligence in “tricks in the world,” see: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-11-mad-ophelia-grasps-tricks-i-th.html

[1.e.]On her cleverness as “mad” volunteer court fool, see: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-9-ophelia-mad-rogue-court-fool.html

[2] She is lectured by her brother about chastity and Hamlet’s unavailability (1.3.6-48); lectured by her father who suspects selfish intentions on Hamlet’s part (1.3.95-144), both of whom lecture more than listen; she is silenced at the end of her father’s lecture (1.3.144), and again after her father and Claudius eavesdrop on her conversation with Hamlet (“How now, Ophelia? / You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said; / We heard it all.” 3.1.192-194). Claudius tries to speak for her in her madness, attributing it merely to the loss of her father, and she interrupts him twice to correct him (4.5.50-71).
See also  Robert Crossley, "The Silencing of Ophelia," Hudson Review Feb 2024, https://hudsonreview.com/2024/02/the-silencing-of-ophelia/
https://hudsonreview.com/authors/robert-crossley/

[3] Polonius assumes that he can use his daughter as bait without first asking her consent, taking her for granted: “At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.” 2.2.176.

[4] Polonius telling Ophelia what to do, where to go, what emotion to project: 3.1.48-52.
Ophelia, of course, is told what to do and where to go until her “mad” scene, in which she acts both as a kind of court fool (as previously stated) and, if Hamlet is the rightful heir, an unacknowledged queen regent in Hamlet’s absence.

[5] 4.7.197-198. On the personification of the crown-envious willow sliver, also see previous my post of March 6, 2024: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/03/part-34-interlude-d1-why-gertrude.html

[6] 3.2.124. “Nothing” is a word Shakespeare uses about 590 times according to OpenSourceShakespeare, most famously perhaps in the title of one of his comedies, Much ado about Nothing.
Also note that Hamlet repeats Ophelia’s “nothing” (3.2.128) and later says Claudius is “A thing […] of nothing” (4.2.28-30). See previous blog post from 21 August 2017: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2017/08/a-thing-of-nothing-shakespeare-anatomy.html

[7] Elaine Showalter and others have similarly linked Ophelia’s “O” to sex and anatomy:
“…Deprived of thought, sexuality, language, Ophelia’s story becomes the Story of O--the zero, the empty circle or mystery of feminine difference, the cipher of female sexuality to be deciphered by feminist interpretation. (284) Elaine Showalter, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism,” in the Norton Hamlet, ed. Robert S. Miola, 2011, W.W. Norton and Company. 281-297.
See also: Story of O, French erotic novel by Anne Desclos, involving the debasement, sexual slavery, and suicide of a woman called “O.”

[8] Shakespeare, Richard II, 4.1.210. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/richard-ii/read/4/1/#line-4.1.210

[9] “Nothing will come of nothing.” King Lear, 1.1.99. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/king-lear/read/1/1/#line-1.1.99
Ancient Greeks believed “Creatio ex materia,” that creation was made from pre-existing material, while Christians (except some, for example Mormons) believe God created everything out of nothing, “Creatio ex nihilo.”

[10] See also the following from the Gospel of Luke: “But when you are invited, go and recline in the lowest place [at table], so that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you, Friend, go up higher.” Luke 14:10 (MKJV).  

[11] After the teachings of the Buddha himself, the writings of Indian philosopher Nagarjuna, Mahāyāna Buddhist, are often considered among the most important Buddhist writings.

[12] Hyde continues: “As it turns in its circle it turns towards him who has been empty-handed the longest, and if someone appears elsewhere whose need is greater it leaves its old channel and moves toward him. Our generosity may leave us empty, but our emptiness then pulls gently at the whole until the thing in motion returns to replenish us. Social nature abhors a vacuum.
Lewis Hyde (2009). “The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World”, p.29, Vintage.
One might also note: The emptiness and humility required in Christianity, Buddhism, and gift economies may be related to the Christian idea of the empty tomb: The point is that the emptiness is a mystery. The Jesus the disciples knew in life is not to be found in a place of corpses, but still in some mysterious way still alive inside of them, and also in strangers.

[13] John Ruskin, Victorian critic: See Murray J. Levith, What’s in Shakespeare’s Names, 1978, Archon Books: “Ruskin took Ophelia’s name to mean ‘serviceableness.’ The Greek ophéleia for ‘use, help, support’ is perhaps the word he had in mind” (52). See also Francis Griffin Stokes, Who’s Who in Shakespeare, 1924, 1989, Crescent Books: “Ruskin, Munera Pulveris (1872), p.126, maintains that ‘Ophelia, serviceableness, the true lost wife of Hamlet, is marked as having a Greek name by that of her brother Laertes,’ and adds that its meaning is alluded to by him in the words ‘a ministering angel’” (237).

[14] Luke 1:38. Previous to Mary’s reply to the angel, Gabriel had said something similar to what Nagarjuna said about the endless possibilities of emptiness: “For with God shall nothing be impossible.” (Luke 1:37).

[15] The O is empty, "nothing," but so is the womb; Christian doctrine says God created the universe out of nothing. Also note that if the name of Marlowe’s character from Dr. Faustus, Mephistopheles, is said to mean “not-Faustus-love”; by the same standards, O-phelia suggests O-love, or Nothingness-love, love of emptiness, humility, endless possibility.  

[16] 1.5.17.
See also the larger context of lines 14-18 of the same scene:
“I am thy father’s spirit,
Doomed for a certain term to walk the night
And for the day confined to fast in fires
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away.”

[17] 1.5.79. For more on the implications of the ghost's allusion to Lazarus,
see these two posts:
[17.b.] 8 January 2018 post: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-ghost-of-lazarus-haunts-hamlet.html
[17.c.] 2021 series: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/02/new-series-on-rich-man-lazarus.html

[18] Luke 16:19-31, read in Shakespeare’s England every First Sunday After Trinity Sunday, and also read every 5 March, 4 July, and 30 October as the second lesson for Morning prayer.

[19] Laertes (5.1.251-252)) tells the “churlish” priest that his sister will be “a ministering angel” in heaven (like Lazarus with Abraham), while the priest “liest howling” (like the rich man, looking up from hell to see Lazarus). See also my 23 March 2021 blog post on Ophelia as one of various Lazarus-like beggars in the play: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/03/ophelia-in-13-as-beggar-lazarus-part-6.html

[20] Martin Luther King, Jr., inspired by an 1852 sermon by Theodore Parker, a contemporary and supporter of John Brown in the US Civil War era.  
King: “the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Parker: "You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe, the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. But from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice."
https://exhibits.tufts.edu/spotlight/john-brown-tufts/about/theodore-parker


IMAGE: Sketch (of Ophelia?) by Paul Falconer Poole (1806–1879) in the Tate Collection of the National Gallery (Image released under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED): https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/poole-sketch-ophelia-n05761
Via Wikipedia: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Paul_Falconer_Poole_%281807-1879%29_-_Sketch%2C_%28%5EOphelia%29_-_N05761_-_National_Gallery.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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