Part 51: Ophelia & Transformations of Suicide in Hamlet
After Hamlet wishes that God had not made laws against suicide, he later feels called by heaven and hell to avenge his father’s death [2], a kind of suicide mission. If he kills Claudius as God’s vengeful scourge [3], Hamlet may be hell-bound. He later realizes: it may be more damnable not to kill him, and for Claudius to cause Denmark further harm [4]; Hamlet may not survive, but his death might be transformed by a higher purpose.
Ophelia’s is the first alleged suicide, in 4.7, transformed by her own madness in 4.5 [5] and by Gertrude’s account in three ways:
1. She says it was caused by the breaking of an “envious sliver” of willow [6], envious that it had no crowns like other willow branches (envious, like Claudius of his brother’s crown and wife).
2. Gertrude implies that, in the water, Ophelia seemed to surrender to the unfolding will of God [7].
3. Her account may be merciful fiction: Gertrude asks listeners to accept it on faith, no eyewitnesses named. [8]
These are remarkable transformations, not death in despair but caused by larger political forces, accepted and transformed in faith.
As Jeffrey R. Wilson notes, both Laertes and Hamlet, grieving at Ophelia’s grave, brag that the earth should be piled on them with Ophelia, a kind of death-wish and suicide contest [9].
I have argued that by the last scene, Gertrude probably suspects a poison cup [10]. Gertrude may accept many possibilities:
- She will die.
- She will test the cup for her son.
- Drinking the suspected poison cup may mouse-trap Claudius, helping to expose him as murderer.
Bonus: Her drinking the cup pricks Laertes’ conscience to confess and name Claudius as to blame [11].
This transforms Gertrude’s drinking of the cup from suicide to a death with greater purposes.
For not repenting, perhaps Claudius is the most suicidal, untransformed to greater purpose, sabotaging his prospects for eternal life and heavenly crown? [12]
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Some may say:
“But the play is not about what happens in an after-life! It’s about who lives, who dies, who suffers, who finds ways to prevail, in *this* life!”
- But in fact, this is not true: In Claudius’ prayer scene, he knows he could repent of his murder and be saved, or cling to his crown and queen, and be damned. The play is *very much* about a murderous Claudius who believes in and chooses eternal damnation.
As noted last week, Patrick Gray claims that the greatest tragedy for Shakespeare is the failure to repent [13]. This is not only true in light of loss of heavenly rewards that some seek by faith, but also the loss to human communities, regardless of the question of any afterlife.
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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] Regarding not mere variations but transformations of suicide: Such transformations make sense in light of Ophelia's quote at 4.5.48-49, "we know what we are but / know not what we may be," and in light of Shakespeare's love for Ovid's Metamorphoses. Also see Jeffrey R. Wilson, “Hamlet Is a Suicide Text—It’s Time to Teach It Like One,” September 28, 2020, https://www.zocalopublicsquare.org/2020/09/28/hamlet-suicide-contagion-teaching-shakespeare/ideas/essay/ accessed 6/24/2024. Wilson offers rich reflections on a variety of suicide-themes from personal experience and from the play; although I disagree with some of his interpretations of the text, his essay is a good one to consider.
[2] Regarding Hamlet's wish that "the everlasting" had not "set its cannon 'gainst self-slaughter," see 1.2.135-6. Regarding Hamlet believing that heaven and hell had commissioned him to avenge his father's murder, see 2.2.613.
[3] 3.4.196. Usually in the biblical sense, a “scourge” is a person who does evil, or punishes, but whom God uses for God’s own purposes. The scourge, as an evil-doer whose evil acts are used by God, would normally not be among the “saved” who gain a heavenly reward.
[4] 5.2.77-80: HAMLET: And is ’t not to be
damned
To let this canker of our nature come
In further evil?
[5] In nine of my previous blog posts especially (with may debts to others), I reflect on how Ophelia is transformed in her madness and seems to gain new agency and spiritual richness, challenging the court:
[5.1] Part 43: Ophelia's Owl and Hamlet's Mousetrap (cont.) - April 30, 2024:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/04/part-43-ophelias-owl-and-hamlets.html
[5.2] Part 42: A Living Mousetrap: Ophelia's Owl - April 22, 2024:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/04/part-42-living-mousetrap-ophelias-owl.html
[5.3] Part 25: Ophelia's Self-Catching Conscience in the Mirror of her Arts - November 28, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/11/part-25-ophelias-self-catching.html
[5.4] Part 23: Queen Ophelia and the male gatekeepers defining her madness - November 14, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/11/part-23-queen-ophelia-and-male.html
[5.5] Part 21: Ophelia's Bonny Sweet Robin: Tricksters who Redistribute Agency - October 31, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/part-21-ophelias-bonny-sweet-robin.html
[5.6] Part 17: Ophelia's "Owl" and "False Steward" Allusions: Why in that order? - October 03, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/part-17-ophelias-owl-and-false-steward.html
[5.7] (With thanks to John Yamamoto-Wilson:) Part 15: Ophelia's Suffering: Chastened, Chosen, Beloved of God? - September 19, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/09/part-15-ophelias-suffering-chastened.html
[5.8] Part 11: "Mad" Ophelia grasps "tricks i' th' world" and Denmark's corruption - August 22, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-11-mad-ophelia-grasps-tricks-i-th.html
[5.9] Part 9: Ophelia, "mad rogue" court fool - August 08, 2023:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/08/part-9-ophelia-mad-rogue-court-fool.html
[6] 4.7.197-198.
[7] 4.7.202-205.
[8] People in Shakespeare's time had a great deal of anxiety about suicide, because if one's death was judged suicide by a coroner's inquest, one could not be buried in a church graveyard, with church rites, and would be considered damned, and feel the condemnation of one's community. But like Ophelia whose fall into the brook, in Gertrude's account, was caused by crown-envy (implied: of Claudius, of larger political actors in her life), the actions of monarchs of the time undoubtedly caused many people to despair, and perhaps drove some to suicide - which the crown and its church would prefer to blame on the individual's despair rather than the effects of government policies and actions.
On Gertrude's account as possible fiction, see previous blog post, “Part 28: Ophelia saved by faith alone, or by Gertrude's work of mercy?” - January 16, 2024: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/01/part-28-ophelia-saved-by-faith-alone-or.html
[9] 5.1.263-266, 296-301.
[10] See previous blog post, “Part 35: Why Gertrude likely suspects a poison cup (Interlude D.2),” March 11, 2024: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/03/part-35-why-gertrude-likely-suspects.html
[11] 5.2.344-351.
[12] One need not believe in an afterlife to recognize that Claudius believes, and that in the prayer scene (3.3.40-103), he rejects his chance at heaven in favor of retaining his crown and queen, which he obtained by murdering his brother, King Hamlet.
[13] See last week’s blog post, “Patrick Grey on Shakespeare, Christianity, and Aristotle's Poetics,” June 18, 2024: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/06/patrick-grey-on-shakespeare.html
See also: Interview / Audio Episode: 425. Patrick Gray on Shakespeare
Podcast series / Renaissance and Reformation in Britain
https://historyofphilosophy.net/transcript/shakespeare-gray
IMAGES: By John Archibald Austen, 1922, “for an edition of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, published by Selwyn and Blount, London, 1922” (as cited by Folger); Images public domain via https://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/austen/z.htm
IMAGE Left: https://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/austen/14.jpg
IMAGE Middle: https://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/austen/04.jpg
IMAGE Right: https://www.fulltable.com/vts/aoi/a/austen/07.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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