Food in Hamlet by William Shakespeare Essays

She hands out a multitude of different flowers to her brother Laertes, the King Claudius, Queen Gertrude and keeps two for her self. These flowers all represent different meanings, which Debra Mancoff, scholar and author of Victorian Studieshelps uncover. “Ophelia 's offered meanings - rosemary for remembrance, pansies for thought - by matching the other flowers she mentions with traditional symbols: fennel for memory, columbine for folly, rue for mortality, the daisy for her innocence, and the withered violets for her modesty now transformed to shame” (Mancoff). Based on Mancoff’s meaning for each of the flowers, it is clear what Ophelia is trying to portray. She gives her brother the rosemary and the pansies so he would remember and think of her after she drowns to death. Claudius receives the fennel and columbines. The fennel is for the king to remember his sin of killing his brother because Hamlet’s revenge near. Columbines represent folly and they were also given to Claudius because he is foolish for killing the king, marrying his widow and crowning himself king without having any repercussions. Gertrude receives the rue representing mortality, which foreshadows her own death due to drinking from the goblet containing poison meant to kill Claudius. Finally she keeps the daisy and withered violets for herself for she is an innocent, naive girl who is abashed for losing her father to the man who holds her heart.

Ophelia sings, “There’s rue for you and here’s some for me,” (4.5.180-181). There are two meaning for the rue flower. One meaning is repentance and the other is sorrow. Ophelia calls it the, ‘herb-grace o’Sundays,’ referring to its connection with the church and penance. But rue, as Shakespeare’s audience would have known, is also known to have abortive qualities. In Shakespeare’s era, rue meant abortion, and abortion meant adultery. Ophelia tells Gertrude to ‘wear your rue with a difference’, indicating that she meant for the rue to represent regret and adultery rather than as the herb of sorrowful grace. She thinks that Gertrude must ask for forgiveness for her crime of incestuous marriage. Ophelia also keeps some rue for herself. This could be for her regret and grief for her father and Hamlet however, because rue symbolizes also remembrance and protection, this may mean that Ophelia wanted protection from

It has been suggested that Ophelia was put out to nurse, and passed her childhood in a farmhouse; but not only is there no line in Hamlet to warrant our adoption of such a theory, but the girl herself lacks the healthy practical tone of mind, the self-reliance in little things, which a rough open-air rearing would have given her. It is more probable that she grew up under Polonius’ own eye, and that with the same want of perception of character which distinguishes him in his dealings with Hamlet, while he pushed forward his independent son, he kept his gentle, timid daughter under stern control at home. (165)

William Shakespeare’s famously philosophical play Hamlet epitomizes the revenge tragedy; the play’s characters are forced to act vengefully only to result in a bloody, dismal

Far too often we see men and women with noble causes lose their motive because of their emotional behavior. Their emotions cause them to lose track. We see no finer example of a man with a noble cause whose emotions cause him to lose sight of his noble cause: the character of Laertes in the play Hamlet. Laertes has a vendetta against Hamlet for killing his father. Although Laertes meant well in avenging his father’s death, his emotional behavior overtook him in the process. If we look at other characters in the play, we find a similar struggle between a noble goal and one’s emotions. Hamlet fights the same battle as Laertes does; however, Hamlet is better able to control his emotions. To maintain a noble goal without faltering,

As she hands the queen a daisy, Ophelia also tells her that she would have given her violets if they had not withered when her father died (Shakespeare). While daisies are a symbol of false appearances, the violets are representative of faithfulness. Although there are no violets, some critics hold the view that Ophelia could have offered Horatio the violets since, at this point in the play, Horatio is the only one in whom she retains her faith. Further, despite not realizing it, Horatio also remains the only person Hamlet also has faith in and trusts (Stegner). Ophelia hands the queen some rue and keeps some herself. These are a symbol of repentance and were usually worn in the church as a way of gaining the mercy of God (Alsaif). Such symbolism, in this case, is entirely appropriate as the queen was deceitful and was not faithful towards her late husband. As such, Queen Gertrude was in undoubted need for repentance.

Hamlet embodies an empirical view of death through metaphor in the scene in which Ophelia hands out flowers. She gives none to Hamlet, as they represented faithfulness, a quality he lacks. In the final appearance of Ophelia before her death, she gifts symbolic flowers tailored specifically to each inhabitant of Elsinore’s Castle .  She hands fennel and columbine to King Claudius, symbolizing both flattery and her awareness of him as a deceived lover. She gives rue to Queen Gertrude, symbolizing bitterness and adultery. And finally, she gives to Hamlet rosemary, claiming that she actually intended to give him violets. Shakespeare writes, “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember…I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died” (Act 4, Scene 5). The disappearance of the violets intended for Hamlet not only represents Ophelia’s loss of faith, but Hamlet’s disconnect with faith as well. Hamlet’s flower is a dead violet, a dead faith in older ways of thinking about life and death that were faithful and reliant upon a higher idea of Heaven. Through the use of metaphor, Hamlet is the dead violet, a being without faith, a nihilistic and trapped individual, or perhaps, a liberated

All throughout literature and poetry the use of flowers as well as references to gardens have been common for thousands of years. These flowers are so intricately used within the writings that they tend to develop their own form of communication or language. This language that the flowers have begun to establish can be referred to as floriography which can simply be defined as communication through a variety of flowers. William Shakespeare's Hamlet, is a perfect example of the immense amount of flowers that have been used by characters to indirectly communicate their thoughts. In Hamlet, Shakespeare grasped the idea of floriography, and used it to his advantage by creating a strong motif that is centered around flowers as well as  the garden. This motif can be followed throughout the play, as it is used to develop a large amount of characterization. For Shakespeare, many ideas or thoughts couldn’t be directly said character to character, instead they were indirectly addressed through the flowers and garden. This  characterization and unique communication that is established through the garden and flowers is a very crucial aspect of the characters within the play. Shakespeare uses the garden and flower motif throughout Hamlet to contribute to the characterization of Hamlet and Ophelia.

Hamlet uses this to his advantage by quickly acting mad. Through his foolishness, he rants and raves to her, convincing her that his madness comes from her.then To Hamlet, she is a sexual object, a corrupt and deceitful lover. With no mother to guide her, she has no way of breaking the opposite expectations. But his intentions are not to actually be with her she would have to go to a nunnery because she got pregnant but was not married. As shown above Hamlet is playing with Ophelia emotions to get what he

Although Hamlet often lies to the people around him in order to deceive them of his intentions, Shakespeare indicates when Hamlet is being sincere by the use of prose; in this passage, Hamlet is speaking in prose, so he is being honest about his feelings towards Ophelia. Hamlet’s feelings for Ophelia completely change after the contagion has taken over him and causes him to act rashly. Hamlet openly treats Ophelia poorly for the majority of the play; his treatment corrupts her, and causes her to go crazy, “[Sings.] Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s day, / All in the morning betime, / And I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine, / Then up he rose and donned his clothes / And dupped the chamber door, / Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more” (IV.v. 53-60). After Polonius’s death, Ophelia bursts into the the palace singing many songs, but this song in particular is directed towards Hamlet. She is singing about her love with Hamlet, and how he stole her purity and left her alone during this horrible time of loss. In between Ophelia’s songs, Camden believes that Ophelia is depicting how she feels, “She is mad, cries ‘hem’ to clear her throat because of a feeling of choking or suffocation, beats her heart to relieve the sensation of oppression around it, weeps, prattles constantly, sings snatches of old songs, is distracted and has a depraved imagination, and ends her life by drowning” (Camden 254). Ophelia is oppressed because she is a woman living in

She reveals her true opinions of the king as she gives flowers stating, “There’s fennel for you, and columbines” (157), which represent her unfaithfulness towards the king. Although this action seems small, it clues in on her true feelings and intentions towards Claudius. She finally uses her voice as Polonius, her only constant connection to the royalty, dies. However, as she seems to lose her father, boyfriend, and brother all at once, Ophelia turns to suicide.

At first, Hamlet’s deep devoutness to Ophelia is disclosed in his love letter; he writes, “Doubt thou the stars are fire,/ Doubt that the sun doth move,/ Doubt truth to be a liar,/ But I never doubt I love./ O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art to reckon my groans, but that I have thee best, O most best, believe it” (2.2.124-130). Nonetheless, Hamlet’s misogynistic views towards women reveal that their relationship is hopeless. Ophelia’s image is essentially tarnished through Hamlet’s perception; Hamlet insinuates that Ophelia is indivisible from her melancholy. In a discussion of their past love, Hamlet exclaims, “Get thee <to> a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be/ a breeder of sinners? “ (3.1.131-132). Instead of accepting the love he had given her in the past, he requests that Ophelia go to a brothel when he says, “Get thee <to> a nunnery,” in which “nunnery” in Elizabethan slang means brothel, where she can receive limitless loveless coitus. In a way, Hamlet classifies Ophelia as a prostitute. Hamlet acknowledges to Ophelia about his love for her, “ You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so <inoculate> our old stock but we should relish of it. I loved you not” (3.1.127- 129). After Hamlet confesses that he “loved <Ophelia> not” (3.1.129), he effectively mutes

Since the King and queen have greatly conflicted his emotional state, he goes to Ophelia. He seeks refuge from his crazy life and tests her love for him by trying to initiate sexual intimacy with her. Since her father and brother had previously told her not to be intimate with Hamlet, she obeys them and rejects Hamlet, even though she has feelings for him. “My lord, be hath importuned me with love / in an honorable fashion ... I shall obey my lord”(1:4:119-120, 145). This further adds to Hamlet's mental turmoil. Later, Hamlet realizes that Ophelia has betrayed him by helping Polonius spy on him. He calls her a “Breeder of sinners” and says that neither he nor anyone else could ever love her. His emotional state causes him to lie to himself and Ophelia. With the death of her father and her broken heart, Hamlet creates emotional turmoil for her that eventually leads to her suicide. “There’s rosemary, that's for rememberance. / Pray you, love, remember. And there is pansies, / that's for thoughts”(4:5:199-201). Her suicide then further hurts Hamlet because he truly loved her. “I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers / Could not with all their quantity of love / Make up my sum”(5:1:285-287). This final emotional surge leads him to his fatal duel with

Hamlet discovers elements of false love in Ophelia as he relates her flaws with Gertrudes'. Ophelia is part of a plan to set up Hamlet which will determine whether he is truly mad in her love or otherwise. Her love is being used to play with Hamlet's emotions. "I will leave him and/ Suddenly contrive the means of meeting between him/ And my daughter" (2.2: 209-211). Polonius decides he will use Ophelia to manipulate Hamlet by getting her to resurface his feelings and repressed love for her. By setting up this meeting between Ophelia and Hamlet, Polonius has objectified her love in effort to anger Hamlet. This act goes to show that Ophelia allows her love to be used as a method to better understand Hamlet's madness. Ophelia clearly chooses to obey her father over her love for Hamlet. After learning that he was subject to Ophelia's false love, Hamlet becomes very rude in attitude towards her as he feels he has been chested. "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder/ Of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but

William Shakespeare riddled his play with small symbols that are meant to be overlooked, yet once discovered, help the reader understand what is happening and why. The apparition of Hamlet’s father is a major symbol in the play and sets it in to motion, giving hamlet a motive and the audience a sense of what is to come. The flowers that Ophelia gives to the King and Queen hint a lot about the royal couple and also give Ophelia a final statement before she dies and finally the last major symbol is the skull of Yorick, the scull is a symbol that compares Hamlet to a court jester and makes it clear exactly why Hamlet is acting mad when really he is doing undercover detective work. Ophelia, being Hamlet’s lady friend with benefits is often portrayed as a white, innocent young lady, which gives her character further meaning, rather than only being recognized as Hamlets relief of lust. She goes mad upon hearing news of the sudden murder of her father that Hamlet committed. It is at this point in the peak of her madness when she contributes important and vital symbols to the play. She hands out a multitude of different flowers to her brother Laertes, the King Claudius, Queen Gertrude and keeps two for her self. These flowers all represent different meanings, which Debra Mancoff, scholar and author of Victorian Studies helps uncover. “Ophelia's offered meanings - rosemary for remembrance, pansies for thought - by matching the other