Part 55: Ophelia's Overlapping Biblical allusions and plot echoes

Many biblical allusions (or biblical plot and theme echoes) associated with Ophelia overlap in her character. All of these were well-known in Elizabethan times. (Not an exhaustive list):

1. Hebrews 12: 6-11 (suffering as a sign of God’s love for the “chosen” who will be “saved).[1]

2. JACOB, ESAU, AND RACHEL (lower right): the “double blessing” for Laertes, and the frustration of Hamlet and Ophelia’s hopes for a match, point to the bible tale of how Jacob wins the birthright by deceit, Esau gets the second blessing, and Jacob’s hopes to marry Rachel are at first frustrated.[2]

3. SALOME (top left): Claudius wants Ophelia and her brother Laertes to dance to his tune and serve his purposes: He uses Ophelia a bait to spy on Hamlet, and Laertes as co-conspirator to to kill Hamlet, who protests the incestuous marriage. Salome danced pleasingly for her stepfather, Herod Antipas, who offered almost any reward. His wife, Salome’s mother (divorced wife of his brother) told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist (top left), who had condemned their marriage as biblically incestuous.[3]

4. VIRGIN MARY AT ANNUNCIATION (top center): Polonius wants Ophelia to be reading a book when Hamlet sees him, making her look like popular images of Mary reading psalms at the Annunciation [4].

5. SUSANNA AND THE CORRUPT ELDERS (top right): Polonius and Claudius spy on Ophelia and Hamlet, bending the scene from an Annunciation echo toward an echo of Susanna [5] from Daniel. In that tale, a married and virtuous Susanna, bathing in her garden, is accosted by two “judges” who want to lay with her. If she will not, they will say they found her with a lover. Shakespeare’s twist: Ophelia is in fact meeting with a beloved Hamlet, and she collaborates with the spies.

6. EVE, TEMPTRESS (bottom left): Hamlet loves and finds Ophelia attractive, but his father seems to be in purgatory, so he struggles to resist his feelings. In the same scene, Hamlet views Ophelia as an Eve, who tempted Adam, and as a "painted lady" condemned in homilies of the time.[6]

7. RICH MAN AND BEGGAR LAZARUS: Ophelia’s line, “They say the owl was a baker’s daughter” (bottom center), refers to a folktale version of the Bible tale of the beggar Lazarus: Ophelia may see herself as like the baker’s daughter who turned Hamlet away like a beggar in his time of need.[7.a.,b.,c.,d.,e.]

8. JUDAS commits suicide in remorse for betraying Jesus, the most prominent biblical tale of suicide for Elizabethans [8]. Ophelia seems to express remorse for having obeyed her father and turned Hamlet away (see # 7, above).

These are in addition to
9. the explicit idea of Ophelia as a Jephthah’s daughter [9.a.b.c.d.] and
10. allusions mentioned last week [10].

Bible tales familiar to Shakespeare's time not only served as a religious-cultural backdrop, but also informed his use of their plot elements and themes, and prepared audiences to consider questions raised by his plays.


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] One example of a biblical allusion already covered in this series is Hebrews 12: 6-11, suggesting that Ophelia’s suffering is a sign of her having been chosen by God (among the saved). I am grateful to John R. Yamamoto-Wilson for his discussion of this Christian idea of suffering in his book, Pain, Pleasure and Perversity: Discourses of Suffering in Seventeenth-Century England.  
See “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

[2] These details about a second blessing for Laertes and frustrated hopes for a marriage between Ophelia and Hamlet are not found in Shakespeare’s sources such as Saxo Grammaticus and Belleforest.
See previous 4-part blog series, which began with the following post:
“Laertes' ‘double blessing’: Echoes of Jacob, Esau, & Rachel in Hamlet, part 1,” August 02, 2022:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/laertes-double-blessing-jacob-essau-and.html

[3]  See previous post: “IN HAMLET, DO LAERTES & OPHELIA ECHO SALOME?” October 22, 2018:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/10/in-hamlet-do-laertes-ophelia-echo.html
Laertes describes some of his actions as “obsequious” and seems easily bent to the will of Claudius as a kind of sycophant to the king who calls him “dread lord” in 1.2., and Hamlet refers to Ophelia, and women, and how they “amble” and “jig,” a dance reference that is otherwise out of context, but hints at Hamlet’s misogyny, that perhaps all women dance like Salome and then ask for the heads of those prophetic souls who are critical of the current regime.  

[4] See previous post:
“Neglected Religious and Political Meanings of the Annunciation Allusion in Hamlet 3.1” - December 07, 2021:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/12/neglected-religious-and-political.html
Also see:
“Ophelia's Prayer Book & the Annunciation of Mary,” May 07, 2019
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/05/ophelias-prayer-book-annunciation-of.html

[5] See previous post: “Suzannah & the Elders: Ophelia, Eliz I, & the Nunnery Scene,” February 05, 2019:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/02/ophelia-elizabeth-i-suzannah-jephthahs.html

[6] See the story of Eve and the serpent in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3. On official Elizabethan homilies that mention painted ladies, see previous post: “Hamlet Nunnery Scene Haunted by Homily VI, Book 2, & Lazarus (part 14),” May 25, 2021:
 https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/05/hamlet-nunnery-scene-haunted-by-homily.html

[7.a.] Earlier in the play, Ophelia resembles the beggar Lazarus, begging for affirmation from brother and father and approval for her relationship with Hamlet.
See previous blog post:
Ophelia in 1.3 as the Beggar Lazarus (part 6),” March 23, 2021: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/03/ophelia-in-13-as-beggar-lazarus-part-6.html

[7.b.] By obeying her father in rejecting Hamlet, Ophelia may feel regret and seems to express this in part with her “owl” reference, the folktale version of the gospel tale of the rich man and Lazarus.
See previous post:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-ghost-of-lazarus-haunts-hamlet.html

[7.c.] For more specifically on the owl and be baker’s daughter:
“Owl & Beggar Lazarus at Baker's Door in Hamlet 4.5 (part 11)”
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/04/the-begggar-lazarus-at-bakers-door-in.html

[7.d] On Ophelia’s reference to “the false steward who stole his master’s daughter,” note that the idea of the steward is a key gospel parable reference. Also see previous blog post:
“Ophelia: ‘The false steward that stole his master's daughter,’” January 14, 2019:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-false-steward-that-stole-his.html
- Ophelia may consider her brother and father as false stewards for making her feel she was not worthy of a match with Hamlet. The “false steward” who discourages a true love match is a repeated Elizabethan theme that also shows up in other Shakespeare plays.

[7.e.] On both allusions and one way they may interact, see previous blog post:
“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

[8.a.] In Matthew 27:3–10, Judas hangs himself; in Acts 1:18, Judas uses the 30 pieces of silver received for betraying Jesus to buy a field, and he falls or throws himself headlong, bursts open, and his intestines spill out.

[8.b.] Ophelia later sings of Hamlet as a Valentine who betrayed her. On Ophelia’s Valentine song, see previous blog post: “ST. VALENTINE, OPHELIA, & CLAUDIUS in HAMLET,” February 14, 2018: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2018/02/st-val-claudius-hamlet-ophelia.html

[8.c.] Ophelia’s death may be a suicide, although Gertrude’s account may be a fiction of mercy to spare her a suicide’s burial. See previous blog post:
“Part 18: A mote in Ophelia’s eye met with Gertrude's merciful fiction?” - October 10, 2023: https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/part-18-mote-in-ophelias-eye-met-with.html  
 - How might well-known Judas-suicide tale inform our understanding of Ophelia's actions?
Ophelia may feel that, in agreeing to help her father and Claudius spy on Hamlet, she betrayed him, like Judas did Jesus, so this biblical echo may reinforce the idea of Ophelia drowning herself out of regret, like that she seems to express in her mention of "the owl was a baker's daughter," one who was ungenerous with a beggar at her father's door.
- But this conflicts with Gertrude’s account. This conflict may not be easily resolved.

[9.a.] Hamlet is very explicit about singing a few lines from a popular song to Polonius about Jephthah and his daughter, in 2.2.427-444. See previous blog series on Polonius and Jephthah:
“J.G. McManaway: 'Ophelia & Jephtha's Daughter'” - December 29, 2020:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2020/12/jg-mcmanaway-ophelia-jephthas-daughter.html
“I'm grateful to Saoirse Laaraichi, [...] for noticing and mentioning the Q1 stage direction, ‘Enter Ofelia playing on a Lute, and her haire downe singing’ (2766.1) [...]. This may have portrayed Ophelia in a manner consistent with artistic renderings of Jephthah's daughter and her friends, playing musical instruments to greet her father's return, or with their hair down, accompanying Jephthah's daughter to spend two months in the mountains "bewailing" her virginity (mourning that she had never known marriage and motherhood).”

[9.b.] This next post explored the Jephthah / Jephthah’s daughter allusion more thoroughly through art:
“What Might Art Remind Us About Jephthah, Polonius, & Ophelia?” - January 05, 2021:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/01/what-art-might-remind-us-about-jephthah.html

[9.c.] This next Jephthah post explored the theme of prostitution in the Jephthah tale and in Hamlet, Polonius, and Ophelia:
“Jephthah & Polonius: What’s prostitution got to do with it?” - January 12, 2021:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/01/jephthah-polonius-whats-prostitution.html

[9.d.] Ophelia and Jephthah’s daughter are not the only women in Shakespeare and his references to other literature who are women sacrificed to the ambitions of men (such as Iphigenia and Polyxena). This was explored in this next post:
“What's Jephthah to Hecuba, or She to Him?” - January 19, 2021:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2021/01/whats-jephthah-to-hecuba-or-she-to-him.html

[10] Last week’s post dealt with biblical allusions in Ophelia’s replies in 1.3 to her brother’s advice:
“Part 54: Ophelia, like Jesus, preaching against hypocritical libertines (deconstructed?)” - July 16, 2024:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2024/07/part-54-ophelia-like-jesus-preaching.html


IMAGES:
TOP LEFT:
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist,
16th century (from a Doria original executed around 1515).
Titian (Italian, c.1487/90-1576). Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California, USA.
Public domain, via https://www.nortonsimon.org/art/detail/F.1965.1.066.P

TOP MIDDLE:
Annunciation, between 1489 and 1490. Sandro Botticelli  (1445–1510). Uffizi Gallery. Public domain via
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Botticelli%2C_annunciazione_di_cestello_02FXD.jpg

TOP RIGHT:
Susanna and the Elders, circa 1610. Artemisia Gentileschi  (1593–1653).
Schloss Weißenstein. Public domain via
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Susanna_and_the_Elders_(1610),_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg

BOTTOM LEFT:
Fall and expulsion from paradise of Adam and Eve, circa 1509. Michelangelo  (1475–1564).
Sistine Chapel ceiling fresco. Public domain via
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Expulsion_del_para%C3%ADso.jpg

BOTTOM CENTER:
The Owl, by 1863. Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1838–1904),
preraphaelitepaintings.blogspot.com. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Il_Barbagianni_The_Owl_by_Valentine_Cameron_Prinsep.jpg

BOTTOM RIGHT:
Francesco de Rosa (Pacecco de Rosa), “Meeting of Jacob and Rachel”
L-R: Shepherd with beard and flute; Jacob in gold and red; Laban, his father-in-law to be; Rachel, the younger sister; and Leah, the older sister.
ca. 1630-50, oil on canvas. Pinacoteca della Città Metropolitana di Bari. Photo by Sailko. Creative Commons. Image via Wikimedia commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_de_rosa_detto_pacecco,_incontro_di_rachele_e_giacobbe,_1630-50_ca.,_01.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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