Part 57: My favorite things about Ophelia

My favorite things about Ophelia?

1. By obeying her father too much, she demonstrates the failure of over-valued Elizabethan parental [and political] authority, but also displays heroic patience and self-control.

2. She calls out the potential hypocrisy of her brother.

3. She understands (although her father and brother do not) that “almost all the holy vows of heaven” from Hamlet are most probably a marriage betrothal, and that she could be Denmark’s next queen.

4. She reveals her love for Hamlet even while giving back his love poems, obeying her father.

5. She talks back to Hamlet in the nunnery scene and at “The Mousetrap” play, bold to act this way with the prince.

6. She uses coded meanings of flowers to criticize her king and queen.

7. She sings a bawdy song, perhaps mourning her unspent virginity like Jephthah’s daughter, or mourning the loss of Hamlet as lover, expressing disappointment at being denied access to Hamlet by her father, and then by Hamlet as well.   

8. She thinks of a folktale about an owl that was a baker’s daughter to better understand her relationship to Hamlet in his time of need, and to explore regret. The baker’s daughter is changed to an owl: Owls are living mouse-traps.

9. She thinks of a common play sub-plot to understand better how her father and brother acted as false stewards, denying her a possible marriage to Hamlet.

10. She is generous with floral crowns (coronets), while others are greedy about crowns.

11. She says “God be at your table,” perhaps an Emmaus allusion.

12. She pays attention to everything: To Hamlet, to hypocrisy, to Hamlet’s vows, to “The Mousetrap,” and to all that others say to her. She takes in dangerous information, and it poisons her.

13. She bravely mourns the loss of her father and Hamlet in song.

14. She is not afraid to shut up Claudius when he misreads her in her “mad” scene, and corrects him: It’s not all about the loss of her father, but also about Hamlet’s unfaithfulness to his vows to her. She stands in her power, like a queen.

Studying her has only made me like her more.


IMAGES:
The image is the collage from the index to the series, found here; the images in the collage are from many of the blog posts in the series, each of which gives credit for the images:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html



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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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My current project is a book tentatively titled Hamlet’s Bible, about biblical allusions and plot echoes in Hamlet.

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https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2019/12/top-20-hamlet-bible-posts.html

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