Analysis of Hamlet
Type of Work
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.......Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy. A tragedy is a dignified work in which the main character undergoes a struggle and suffers a downfall. In Shakespeare's plays, the main character of a tragedy is usually a person of noble heritage. A flaw in his personality, sometimes abetted by fate, brings about his downfall. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is also sometimes characterized as a revenge play in the tradition of the Roman playwright Seneca (4 B.C.-65 A.D.)
Key Dates . Date Written: 1599-1601 Publication Dates: (1) 1603 as part of the First Quarto, a pirated, unreliable version; (2) 1604-1605 as part of the Second Quarto; (3) 1623 as part of the First Folio, an authorized collection of all of Shakespeare's plays except those of questionable authorship.
. .......The main setting is Elsinore Castle in eastern Denmark, on the Øresund strait separating the Danish island of Sjælland (Zealand) from the Swedish province of Skåne and linking the Baltic Sea in the south to the Kattegat Strait in the north. Elsinore is a real town. Its Danish name is Helsingør. In Shakespeare's time, Elsinore was an extremely important port that fattened its coffers by charging a toll for ship passage through the Øresund strait. .......Modern Elsinore, or Helsingør, is directly west of a Swedish city with a similar name, Helsingborg (or Hälsingborg). Within the city limits of Elsinore is Kronborg Castle, said to be the model for the Elsinore Castle of Shakespeare' play. Construction on the castle began in 1574, when Shakespeare was ten, and ended in 1585, when Shakespeare was twenty-one. It is believed that actors known to Shakespeare performed at Kronborg Castle. Other settings in Hamlet are a plain in Denmark, near Elsinore, and a churchyard near Elsinore. Offstage action in the play (referred to in dialogue) takes place on a ship bound for England from Denmark on which Hamlet replaces instructions to execute him (see the plot summary below) with instructions to execute his traitorous companions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and on a pirate ship that returns him to Denmark. .
. Protagonist: Hamlet Antagonist: Claudius Foils of Hamlet: Laertes, Fortinbras, Polonius
Hamlet: Son of a murdered Danish king (who was also named Hamlet) and nephew of the present king, Claudius. Hamlet suffers great mental anguish over the death of his father, the marriage of his mother to the suspected murderer (Claudius), and the clash between his moral sense and his desire for revenge against his father's murderer. To ensnare the killer, Hamlet pretends madness. Some Shakespeare interpreters contend that he really does suffer a mental breakdown. Hamlet is highly intelligent and well liked by the citizens, although at times he can be petty and cruel. Claudius: The new King of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle. He becomes king after Hamlet's father, the previous king, is found dead in his orchard. Hamlet suspects that Claudius murdered him. Gertrude: Queen of Denmark, Hamlet's mother, and widow of the murdered king. Her marriage to Claudius within two months after the late king's funeral deeply disturbs Hamlet.
Ghost of Hamlet's Father, old King Hamlet.
Polonius: Bootlicking Lord Chamberlain of King Claudius. Ophelia: Daughter of Polonius. She loves Hamlet, but his pretended madness—during which he rejects her—and the death of her father trigger a pathological reaction in her. Horatio: Hamlet's best friend. Horatio never wavers in his loyalty to Hamlet. At the end of the play, he recites immortal lines: "Good night, sweet prince, / And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!" (5. 2. 304-305). Laertes: Son of Polonius, brother of Ophelia. Circumstances make him an enemy of Hamlet, and they duel to the death in a fencing match at the climax of the play. As a man who reacts to circumstances quickly, with a minimum of reflection on the meaning and possible outcome of his actions, Laertes contrasts sharply with the pensive and indecisive Hamlet and, thus, serves as his foil. Rosencrantz, Guildenstern Courtiers and friends of Hamlet who attended school with him. They turn against him to act as spies for Claudius and agents in Claudius's scheme to have Hamlet murdered in England. Hamlet quickly smells out their deception and treachery. Marcellus, Bernardo: Officers who are the first to see the ghost of Hamlet's father. Francisco: Another officer. Voltimand, Cornelius, Osric: Courtiers who bear messages for the king. Osric informs Hamlet of the fencing match arranged for him and Laertes. Reynaldo: Servant of Polonius.. Fortinbras: Prince of Norway, who is on the march with an army. In battlefield combat (referred to in the play but not taking place during the play), old King Hamlet slew the father of Fortinbras and annexed Norwegian territory. Fortinbras seeks revenge. Players: Actors who arrive at Elsinore to offer an entertainment. Hamlet directs one of them, called the First Player, to stage a drama called The Mouse-trap, about a throne-seeker who murders a king. Hamlet hopes the play will cause Claudius to react in a way that reveals his guilt as the murderer of old King Hamlet. As the play unfolds on a stage at Elsinore, the actors are referred to as the following: ........ Prologue: Actor presenting a one-sentence prologue to the play. ........ Player King: Actor portraying the king (whom Hamlet refers to as Gonzago, the Duke of Vienna). ........ Player Queen: Actor portraying the queen (whom Hamlet refers to as Baptista, the Duchess of Vienna). ........ Lucianus: Actor portraying the king's nephew and his murderer. Clowns (Gravediggers): Two men who dig Ophelia's grave. Yorick: Court jester of old King Hamlet. He amused and looked after Hamlet when the latter was a child. Yorick is dead during the play, but his skull,which a gravedigger exhumes in Act V, Scene I, arouses old memories in Hamlet that provide a glimpse of his childhood. The skull also helps to develop Hamlet's morbid preoccupation with death. Minor Characters: Captain, English ambassadors, lords, ladies, officers, soldiers, sailors, messengers, attendants.
Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...© 2003 .
..............A little month, or ere those shoes were old ..............With which she follow'd my poor father's body, ..............Like Niobe1, all tears:—why she, even she— ..............O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason, ..............Would have mourn'd longer—married with my uncle, ..............My father's brother, but no more like my father ..............Than I to Hercules: within a month: ..............Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears ..............Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, ..............She married. O, most wicked speed, to post ..............With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! (1. 2. 151-161)
The words incestuous sheets in Line 161 reflect the belief, prevalent in Europe at and before Shakespeare's time, that marriage between in-laws—Claudius had been Gertrude's brother-in-law before he married her—was a form of incest. .......As a first priority as king, Claudius prepares to thwart an expected invasion of Norwegian troops under Prince Fortinbras, the son of the Norwegian king slain in battle years earlier by old King Hamlet. Fortinbras apparently has a double goal: to avenge the death of his father (old King Fortinbras) and to win back territory lost to the Danes. .......In the meantime, Hamlet's best friend Horatio tells the young prince the amazing story of the ghost. He says two guards, Bernardo and Marcellus, have reported seeing on two nights an apparition of old King Hamlet on the battlements of the royal castle. On the third night, Horatio says, he accompanied the guards and himself saw the apparition. .......''I will watch to-night,'' Hamlet says (1. 2. 260). .......Another young man at Elsinore—Laertes, son of the king's lord chamberlain, Polonius—is preparing to leave for France to study at the University of Paris. Before debarking, he gives advice to his sister, Ophelia, who has received the attentions of Hamlet from time to time, attentions that Ophelia apparently welcomes. Laertes advises her that Hamlet's attentions are a passing fancy; he is merely dallying with her.
- For Hamlet and the trifling of his favour,Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood,A violet in the youth of primy nature,Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,The perfume and suppliance of a minute; No more. (1. 3. 8-13)
- Neither a borrower nor a lender be;For loan oft loses both itself and friend,And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.This above all: to thine ownself be true,And it must follow, as the night the day,Thou canst not then be false to any man.Farewell: my blessing season this in thee! (1. 3. 82-88)
Be thou a spirit of health or a goblin damn'd Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell, Be thy interests wicked or charitable, Thou comest in such a questionable shape That I will speak to thee. (1. 4. 46-50).When Hamlet questions the Ghost, it says, "I am thy father's spirit, / Doom'd for a certain term to walk the night" (1. 5. 16). The Ghost tells him to revenge a "foul and most unnatural murder" (1. 5. 31) committed by Claudius. According to the Ghost's tale, Claudius poured a vial of poison extracted from a plant (probably henbane2, also called hemblane, ) into old King Hamlet's ear while the king was asleep, robbing him, "of life, of crown, of queen" (1. 5. 83). Claudius had committed the murder when King Hamlet had sin on his soul, the better to send him to the fiery regions of purgatory3. .......Hamlet makes Horatio, Bernardo, and Marcellus swear on the hilt of his sword (where the handle and a protective bar intersect, forming a cross suitable for oath-taking) never to reveal what they saw. While attempting to verify the ghost's story, Hamlet tells the others he will pretend to be mad, putting on an "antic disposition" (1. 5. 194). .......It is Ophelia, Hamlet's beloved, who first reports that Hamlet has been acting strangely. She tells her father, Polonius, the nosy lord chamberlain, that Hamlet had burst in upon her while she was sewing. His face white, his eyes crazed, he took her by the wrist, peered into her eyes, then left the room. Polonius runs to King Claudius and repeats Ophelia's report. Claudius suspects there is something sane and threatening behind Hamlet's strange behavior. So he directs two school acquaintances of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to watch the prince to find out the truth. .......When roving actors come to Elsinore to entertain, Hamlet engages them to stage a play, which he calls The Mousetrap. In the play, a throne-seeker uses poison to murder a king named Gonzago. Claudius's reaction to the play will reveal his guilt, Hamlet believes, "For murder, though it have no tongue, will speak / With most miraculous organ" (2. 2. 427-428)—and thus confirm that the ghost was indeed telling the truth. .......Meanwhile, Fortinbras sends word that he will not make war on Denmark if King Claudius allows him to march through the country to invade Poland. Claudius agrees. .......After Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to fathom the meaning of Hamlet's "madness," Claudius and Polonius secretly observe Hamlet conversing with Ophelia. During the conversation, Hamlet rejects and insults Ophelia as his "madness" apparently worsens. His words deeply wound her, and there is a question whether he is transferring to poor, frail Ophelia the loathing and anger he feels toward his mother for her marriage to Claudius. Claudius, unsure whether Hamlet pretends insanity to disguise a scheme or is really mad, decides to rid the court of his unsettling presence by sending him to England on a contrived political mission. There, while conducting the court's business, he will be murdered. .......While the actors present the play, they stage a murder in which an actor pours ''poison'' into the ear of another actor playing Gonzago. The scene so unnerves King Claudius that he rises and ends the play abruptly. His reaction convinces Hamlet of Claudius's guilt: He killed Hamlet's father; there can be no doubt of it. .......Later, Queen Gertrude reproves Hamlet for upsetting Claudius by staging the play. Hamlet in his turn rebukes her for her hasty marriage. Polonius, meanwhile, has positioned himself out of sight behind a wall tapestry (called an arras) to eavesdrop. When Hamlet sees the tapestry move, he stabs through it and kills Polonius, thinking he is Claudius..After Hamlet discovers his fatal mistake, the ghost reappears to remind Hamlet of his duty. When Hamlet speaks with the apparition, Gertrude cannot see the ghost and concludes that her son is indeed insane. Later she tells Claudius that Hamlet, in a fit of madness, killed Polonius. .......Claudius sends Hamlet to England with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who carry sealed papers ordering Hamlet's execution after the ship's arrival. At sea, Hamlet discovers the papers in a sealed packet while Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are sleeping and writes a new commission ordering the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, then re-seals the papers and places them in the packet. The next day, pirates attack the ship, and Hamlet escapes and hitches a ride with them back to Denmark. When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern arrive in England and present the sealed papers, they are executed. .......Meantime, Ophelia, distraught over her father's death and the apparent loss of Hamlet's love, drowns in a brook—at first floating until her clothing, heavy with water, pulls her down. She apparently committed suicide, or was her death an accident—or the work of a sinister hand? .......After Hamlet meets up with Horatio, they pass through a cemetery where two men are digging a grave. The first gravedigger sings as he digs and throws out a skull. Shocked, Hamlet tells Horatio, "That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once; how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain's jaw-bone, that did the first murder!" (5. 1. 34). The man continues to dig and throws out another skull. Hamlet says, "There's another; why may not that be the skull of a lawyer? Where be his quiddities now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures, and his tricks? why does he suffer this rude knave now to knock him about . . . ?" (5. 1. 40). After Hamlet strikes up a conversation with the gravedigger, that latter tells him that the second skull was that of Yorick, old King Hamlet's jester when Hamlet was a child. Holding the skull, Hamlet recites a short speech about Yorick that underscores Hamlet's preoccupation with death. .......A funeral procession approaches. Hamlet is unaware that the body being borne aloft is Ophelia's. It is she who will be lowered into the grave. When Hamlet sees her face, and when Laertes sees the face of Hamlet, the two men grapple, tumbling into the grave. Laertes means to avenge the death of his father, Polonius, and his sister, Ophelia. Attendants part them, and Hamlet declares,
I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers Could not, with all their quantity of love, Make up my sum. (5. 1. 155-157).......Later, in secret, Laertes and Claudius plot against Hamlet and poison the tip of a sword Laertes is to use against Hamlet in a fencing match designed as an entertainment. For good measure, Claudius prepares poisoned wine he will offer Hamlet during the match. Osric, a courtier and messenger of the king, informs Hamlet of the details of the match—although, of course, Hamlet is unaware of the deadly plot against him. .......During the competition, Hamlet performs brilliantly, and Claudius offers him the cup of wine. But Hamlet and Laertes fight on. Meanwhile, Gertrude takes the cup, telling Hamlet, "The queen carouses to thy fortune" (5. 1. 224) and, before the king can stop her, she drinks the wine. .... Laertes grazes Hamlet with the poisoned rapier,4 breaking his skin and envenoming his bloodstream. Swords wave and poke wildly, and the fencers drop their weapons and accidentally exchange them. Hamlet then wounds Laertes with the same poisoned rapier. Both men are bleeding. A short while later, the queen keels over. To divert attention from the drink and himself, Claudius says Gertrude has fainted from the sight of blood. But Gertrude, drawing her last breath before dying, says, "The drink, the drink; I am poison'd." .......Everyone now knows that Claudius had offered Hamlet poisoned wine. .......Before Laertes dies, he reconciles with Hamlet and implicates Claudius in the scheme to undo Hamlet. Hamlet then runs Claudius through. As Hamlet lies mortally wounded, Prince Fortinbras arrives at Elsinore with his army after his conquest of Poland. Hamlet tells Horatio that he wishes the Crown of Denmark to pass to Fortinbras. Then Hamlet dies. Ambassadors from England arrive to report the deaths of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Horatio announces that he will inform the world of the events leading up to the deaths of Hamlet and the others. While soldiers bear off the bodies in a solemn procession, canons fire a salute.
Themes
. Hesitation: Hamlet has an obligation to avenge his father’s murder, according to the customs of his time. But he also has an obligation to abide by the moral law, which dictates, “Thou shalt not kill.” Consequently, Hamlet has great difficulty deciding what to do and, thus, hesitates to take decisive action. In his famous critiques of Shakespeare’s works, Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) has written:
He [Hamlet] is all dispatch and resolution as far as words and present intentions are concerned, but all hesitation and irresolution when called upon to carry his words and intentions into effect; so that, resolving to do everything, he does nothing. He is full of purpose but void of that quality of mind which accomplishes purpose. . . . Shakespeare wished to impress upon us the truth that action is the chief end of existence—that no faculties of intellect, however brilliant, can be considered valuable, or indeed otherwise than as misfortunes, if they withdraw us from or rend us repugnant to action, and lead us to think and think of doing until the time has elapsed when we can do anything effectually.
Inherited Sin and Corruption: Humans are fallen creatures, victims of the devil’s trickery as described in Genesis. Allusions or direct references to Adam, the Garden of Eden, and original sin occur throughout the play. In the first act, Shakespeare discloses that King Hamlet died in an orchard (Garden of Eden) from the bite of a serpent (Claudius). Later, Hamlet alludes to the burdens imposed by original sin when he says, in his famous “To be, or not to be” soliloquy, that the “flesh is heir to” tribulation in the form of “heart-ache” and a “thousand natural shocks” (3. 1. 72-73). In the third scene of the same act, Claudius compares himself with the biblical Cain. In Genesis, Cain, the first son of Adam and Eve, kills his brother, Abel, the second son, after God accepts Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. Like Cain, Claudius kills his brother, old King Hamlet. Claudius recognizes his Cain-like crime when he says:
O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse5 upon ’t, A brother’s murder. (3. 3. 42-44)
In Act V, the second gravedigger tells the first gravedigger that Ophelia, who apparently committed suicide, would not receive a Christian burial if she were a commoner instead of a noble. In his reply, the first gravedigger refers directly to Adam: "Why, there thou sayest: and the more pity that great folk should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more than their even Christian. Come, my spade. There is no ancient gentlemen but gardeners, ditchers, and grave-makers: they hold up Adam’s profession" (5. 1. 13). After the gravedigger tosses Yorick’s skull to Hamlet, the prince observes: “That skull had a tongue in it, and could sing once: how the knave jowls it to the ground, as if it were Cain’s jaw-bone, that did the first murder!” (5. 1. 34). All of these references to Genesis seem to suggest that Hamlet is a kind of Everyman who inherits “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”—that is, the effects of original sin. Sons Seeking Revenge: Young Fortinbras seeks revenge against Elsinore because King Hamlet had killed the father of Fortinbras, King Fortinbras. Hamlet seeks to avenge the murder of his father, King Hamlet, by Claudius, the king’s brother and Hamlet’s uncle. Laertes seeks revenge against Hamlet for killing his father, Polonius, the lord chamberlain. Deception: Deception makes up a major motif in Hamlet. On the one hand, Claudius conceals his murder of Hamlet’s father. On the other, Hamlet conceals his knowledge of the murder. He also wonders whether the Ghost is deceiving him, pretending to be old King Hamlet when he is really a devil. Polonius secretly tattles on Hamlet to Claudius. Hamlet feigns madness. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern pretend to have Hamlet’s best interests at heart while attempting to carry out Claudius’s scheme to kill Hamlet. After that scheme fails, Claudius and Laertes connive to kill Hamlet during the fencing match. However, that scheme also goes awry when Gertrude drinks from a poisoned cup prepared for Hamlet. Ambition: Claudius so covets the throne that he murders his own brother, King Hamlet, to win it. In this respect he is like Macbeth and Richard III in other Shakespeare plays, who also murder their way to the Crown. Whether Claudius’s ambition to be king was stronger than his desire to marry Gertrude is arguable, but both were factors, as he admits to himself in Act III, Scene III, when he reflects on his guilt: “I am still possessed / Of those effects for which I did the murder, / My crown, mine own ambition and my queen. . .” (60-61). Loyalty: Hamlet is loyal to his father’s memory, as is Laertes to the memory of his father, Polonius, and his sister, Ophelia. Gertrude is torn between loyalty to Claudius and Hamlet. Horatio remains loyal to Hamlet to the end. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, school pals of Hamlet, betray Hamlet and spy on him. Mischance, Coincidence, and Serendipity: Hamlet “just happens” to kill Polonius. Pirates “just happen” to rescue Hamlet. Hamlet “just happens” to come across Ophelia’s funeral upon his return to Denmark. Hamlet and Laertes “just happen” to exchange swords—one of them with a poisoned tip—in their duel. Gertrude “just happens” to drink from a poisoned cup meant for Hamlet. Fate, or unabashed plot contrivance, works its wonders in this Shakespeare play. Christ-like Hamlet: Hamlet is like Christ, George Bernard Shaw has observed, in that he struggles against the old order, which requires an eye for and eye, as Christ did. Madness: Madness, pretended or real, wears the mask of sanity. In his attempt to prove Claudius’s guilt, Hamlet puts on an “antic disposition”—that is, he pretends madness. But is he really mentally unbalanced? Perhaps. Serpentine Satan: Imagery throughout the play dwells on Satan’s toxic influence on Elsinore and its inhabitants. Particularly striking are the snake metaphors. It is the venom of a serpent (in the person of Claudius) that kills old King Hamlet. Claudius, remember, had poured poison into the king’s ear as reported by the Ghost of the old king: While “sleeping in mine orchard,” the Ghost says, “A serpent stung me” (1. 5. 42-43). It is a sword—a steel snake, as it were—that kills Polonius, Hamlet, Laertes, and Claudius. (The sword that kills Hamlet and Laertes is tipped with poison.) Moreover, it is a poisoned drink that kills Gertrude. As for Ophelia, it is poisoned words that kill her. The word poison and its forms (such as poisons, poisoner, and poisoning) occur thirteen times in the play. Serpent occurs twice, venom or envenom six times, devil nine times, and hell or hellish eleven times. Garden (as a symbol for the Garden of Eden) or gardener occurs three times. Adam occurs twice. Ambiguous Spirit World: In Shakespeare’s time, ghosts were thought by some people to be devils masquerading as dead loved ones. Their purpose was to win souls for Satan. It is understandable, then, that Hamlet is reluctant at first to assume that the Ghost on the castle battlements is really the spirit of his father. Hamlet acknowledges his doubt at the end of Act II:
The spirit that I have seen May be the devil: and the devil hath power To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhaps Out of my weakness and my melancholy, As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me to damn me. (2. 2. 433-438)
Empty Existence: Time and again, Hamlet bemoans the uselessness and emptiness of life. He would kill himself if his conscience would let him. He considers taking his life, as his “To be, or not to be” soliloquy” reveals. But as a Roman Catholic, he cannot go against the tenets of his religion, which forbids suicide. ..
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. .......The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel, can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The climax in Hamlet occurs, according to the first definition, when Hamlet satisfies himself that Claudius is indeed the murderer of his father—thanks to Claudius's guilty response to the players' enactment of The Mouse-trap (The Murder of Gonzago). According to the second definition, the climax occurs in the final act during and just after the sword fight, when Laertes, Gertrude, Claudius, and Hamlet die.
How Old Is Hamlet?
.......Early in the play, Shakespeare suggests that Hamlet is in his teens or perhaps about twenty. But in the churchyard in Act V, Scene I, the first gravedigger—holding up the skull of the late King Hamlet’s jester, Yorick, who was Hamlet’s childhood baby sitter—says that “this skull hath lain you i’ the earth three-and-twenty years” (5. 1. 73) Hamlet’s age when Yorick died was about seven. Do the math and you discover that Hamlet should be about thirty. .......What’s going on? Probably this: In a quarto edition of the play published in the early 1600s, the gravedigger says Yorick has been dead for only twelve years, which would make Hamlet about nineteen. Here is the line spoken by the gravedigger in that edition: “Here’s a scull [skull] hath bin here this dozen yeare [year].” However, in the 1623 folio edition of the play, Yorick has been dead for twenty-three years, as stated by the gravedigger. Apparently, the eleven-year discrepancy between the two editions was the result of an editing error. What it all means is that Hamlet is only nineteen or twenty.
The Women in Hamlet: Shrinking Violets
.......Shakespeare’s plays are well populated with strong women who lead or influence men. Examples are Portia (The Merchant of Venice), Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra), Volumnia (Coriolanus), Queen Elinor and Constance (King John), and Beatrice (Much Ado About Nothing). However, in Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia are both weaklings who are dominated by men. .......In Act I, Scene II, Hamlet, deeply disturbed that his mother (Gertrude) has married Claudius a short time after the death of old King Hamlet, says, “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (150). Hamlet well realizes that fickle Gertrude wants, needs, requires marriage—impropriety notwithstanding—to satisfy her desire for attention. As the new Mrs. Claudius, she is totally submissive to the king's will; to offer an original thought that might offend him is out of the question. Ophelia also keeps her place. Like Gertrude, she is totally dependent on a male—in her case, her father. Even though she loves Hamlet, she agrees to help her father spy on Hamlet. When Laertes returns to Elsinore from France, she says, “I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.” In other words, Ophelia herself withered; her spirit died.
The Meaning of "To be, or not to be"
source: www.cummingsstudyguids.net
