What happened between Hamlet and Ophelia? Quotes Where Hamlet Finds Out About Ophelia's Death

John William Waterhouse.Ophelia .1894.

A possible historical prototype for Ophelia is Katharina Hamnet, a girl who fell into the River Avon and died in December 1579. Although it was determined that she lost her balance and fell while carrying heavy buckets, there were rumors that the cause of death was an unhappy love affair that led her to commit suicide. Perhaps Shakespeare, who was 16 years old at the time of her death, remembered this incident when creating the character of Ophelia. The name Ophelia was used in literature only once before Hamlet - in the work Arcadia by the Italian poet Jacopo Sannazaro (1458-1530); it is quite probable that it was invented by this poet.


Ophelia.Konstantin Egorovich Makovsky

Ophelia first appears in the play when she says goodbye to her brother Laertes, who is leaving for France. Laertes gives her instructions about Hamlet's courtship. He warns that Hamlet, being the likely heir to the crown, is not free to marry Ophelia, and therefore his advances should be rejected. After Laertes leaves, Polonius also warns Ophelia against Hamlet, since he does not believe in the sincerity of the prince’s feelings and intentions. At the end of the lesson, Polonius forbids her to meet with Hamlet.

In her second appearance, Ophelia tells Polonius how a pale and disheveled Hamlet burst into her room and, without saying a word, grabbed her hand, then let go and, without taking his eyes off her, walked to the door. After listening to Ophelia, Polonius decides that Hamlet has gone crazy because of Ophelia’s coldness towards him. He decides to go to the king and announce that he knows the reason for Hamlet's nonsense. The king decides to test this by sending Ophelia to Hamlet and, hiding, monitor his reaction.

In the scene of Ophelia's conversation with Hamlet, which is preceded by the monologue "To be or not to be", Hamlet, annoyed that Ophelia is returning his previous gifts, feigns madness, tells her to go to the monastery and, in contrast to his past behavior towards her, behaves quite sharp. After the end of this conversation, Ophelia, turning to her father, says, “What charm has perished, the combination of knowledge and eloquence...”.

Alexandre Cabanel "Ophelia" (1883)

The next time Ophelia appears is when traveling actors are performing the play "The Murder of Gonzago" (The Mousetrap). Hamlet sits at Ophelia's feet; At first, his remarks have clear sexual overtones, but then he starts talking about women's inconstancy and his statements become more and more bitter and cynical.

Ophelia's next appearance is after Hamlet's murder of Polonius, her father. When she finds out about this, she goes crazy. She speaks in riddles and sings seemingly meaningless songs, not wanting to listen to the queen's objections.

Some time later, after Laertes and a crowd of rebels broke into the king's castle and spoke with him, Ophelia reappears, making incoherent speeches and humming something.

In act 4, scene 7, the queen, entering, announces the death of Ophelia to the king and Laertes: “...She tried to hang her wreaths on the branches; the treacherous branch broke, and the grass and she herself fell into the sobbing stream. Her clothes, spread out, carried her like a nymph; Meanwhile, she sang snippets of songs, as if she did not sense trouble or was a creature born in the element of water; this could not last, and the clothes, heavily drunk, dragged the unfortunate woman into the quagmire of death from the sounds.” This is one of the most poetic descriptions of death in English literature. The next scene involving Ophelia takes place in a cemetery, where two gravediggers are having a conversation while digging a grave for Ophelia. One of them is convinced that she committed suicide.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Hamlet and Ophelia.

The priest consecrating Ophelia’s funeral refuses to perform the full ceremony, since he also does not doubt the deceased’s suicide; he even claims that if royal power had not intervened in this case, Ophelia would have been buried in unconsecrated ground. Laertes is painfully offended by the priest’s words.

At Ophelia's funeral, Queen Gertrude places flowers on the grave and expresses regret that Ophelia did not become Hamlet's wife. Laertes jumps into the grave and, speaking of love for his sister, asks to be buried with her; Hamlet, distraught with grief, challenges Laertes, claiming that he loved Ophelia “more than forty thousand brothers.” After this scene, Ophelia is not mentioned again.

Since it is impossible to understand from the text of the tragedy whether Ophelia's death is the result of an accident or suicide, her death has been the subject of endless debate for four centuries.

John Everett Millais - Ophelia

“Ophelia” (eng. Ophelia) or “The Death of Ophelia” is a painting by the English artist John Everett Millais, completed by him in 1852. The film is based on a plot from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. This painting, exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1852, was not immediately appreciated by its contemporaries.

Ophelia was the lover of Prince Hamlet, but upon learning that he had killed her father Polonius, she went crazy and committed suicide by drowning herself in the river. As the gravediggers say in the play, “her death is dark. If it weren’t for the order from the king, she would lie in unconsecrated ground.” Millais reproduced the scene described by the Queen, Hamlet's mother. She talks about what happened as if it were an accident:

Where the willow grows above the water, bathing
In the water there is silver foliage, it
Came there wearing fancy garlands
From buttercup, nettle and chamomile,
And those flowers that he calls rudely
People, girls call with fingers
Dead people. She owns her wreaths
I thought of hanging it on willow branches,
But the branch broke. Into the weeping stream
The poor thing fell with flowers. Dress,
Spreading wide across the water,
She was held like a mermaid.

In the painting, Ophelia is depicted immediately after falling into the river, when she “thought to hang her wreaths on willow branches.” She sings sorrowful songs, half submerged in water. Her pose - open arms and gaze directed to the sky - evokes associations with the Crucifixion of Christ, and has also often been interpreted as erotic. The girl slowly plunges into the water against the backdrop of bright, blooming nature, there is no panic or despair on her face. And although death is inevitable, in the picture time seems to have stood still. Millet managed to masterfully capture the moment that passes between life and death.


Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The First Madness of Ophelia.

Gabriel Max. Ophelia.

"Gather Ye Rosebuds" or "Ophelia," by John William Waterhouse. (circa 1908)

John William Waterhouse (1849–1917)."Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May".1908

Hamlet: Act IV, Scene V (Ophelia Before the King and Queen) by Benjamin West, 1792, Cincinnati Art Museum

Arthur Hughes - Ophelia

Ernest Hébert (1817–1908).Ophelia.

Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884) .Ophélie.1881

John William Waterhouse (1849–1917).Ophelia.1889

Odilon Redon - Ophelia.

Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836–1911) .Ophelia.1890

Pierre Auguste Cote (1837–1883). Ophelia.1870

Ophelia.circa 1873.The Works of Shakspere, with notes by Charles Knight

Ophelia - George Frederic Watts.

Ophelia - Henrietta Rae.

Ophelia - Marcus Stone.1888

"Ophelia" by John William Waterhouse.

Ophelia, by Burthe (1823-1860), 1851

Pascal Adolphe Dagnan-Bouveret Ophelia.

Ophelia Paul Albert Steck

Mikhail Alexandrovich Vrubel/Mikhal Vrubel Hamlet and Ophelia 1883 Water color on paper 24*17 Russian Museum

Richard Westall's Ophelia engraved by J. Parker.1903

William Gorman Wills-Ophelia and Laertes.

Ophelia is Shakespeare's most unlucky female character. Even those who have never held a book in their hands will tell you about Juliet and Desdemona: Desdemona was loved so much that they killed her, and Juliet loved herself so much that she killed herself. And they will tell you only one thing about poor Ophelia: she drowned. That's all. Maybe, having strained their memory, someone else will add: “crazy.”

But this is not true. The story of Ophelia is no less tragic than the stories of other Shakespearean ladies, and no less mysterious. First of all, we know that Hamlet loves Ophelia only from her conversation with her father. The prince himself not only does not show any love - on the contrary, he pushes the poor thing away, showering her with almost vulgar abuse. The absurd letter that Polonius reads to the king and queen is clearly a forgery - Ophelia did not give any letter to her father and directly said that she “did not accept any more letters from him or from him.” The prince himself declares his love only while standing on the edge of Ophelia’s grave. There is no question of any serious feeling here - it seems that Polonius was right when he asserted that “these flashes do not produce heat.” In the same conversation with his daughter, he utters a strange phrase: “Don’t accept these nonsense (“pledges of heartfelt friendship”), and in future demand more expensive pledges.”

Instead of being happy for her daughter’s future and trying to get her the Danish throne, the minister and first friend of the king categorically forbids Ophelia to see Hamlet. This is more than incomprehensible, given his cunning, prudence, and hypocrisy, which he demonstrates more than once in conversations with his son, servants, and Claudius. He needs more expensive collateral than the prince’s love and his gifts - but Ophelia had something to return to Hamlet!

Hamlet's conversations with Polonius and Ophelia would be an example of the most outright cynicism, if we did not assume, even for a second, that the prince knows something that is unknown to the viewer and reader. He directly tells Polonius that “The sun breeds worms with dogs... Conceiving is a blessing, but not for your daughter.” And he does not hesitate to call the minister himself a pimp! In a conversation with Ophelia, he goes even further. “Be as pure as ice and pure as snow, you will not escape slander” - this means that he learned or heard something about her that makes him continue: “...marry a fool. The smart ones know too much what monsters you make of them.”

The prototype of Shakespeare's prince - Prince Amleth, the hero of Saxo Grammar's chronicle "History of Denmark" - crowed like a rooster and performed other absurd actions, wanting to be considered insane in order to save his life. But Hamlet just says what he thinks. He stopped pretending, threw away his courtly courtliness, and gave vent to his anger. They talk about the “imaginary” madness of Hamlet, contrasting it with the “true” madness of Ophelia. But there is no madness at all in his actions and speeches. He’s just angry, irritated – and he makes it clear to everyone why.

What about Ophelia? Rejected by the prince, whose love she hoped for as her last salvation... Scene five of the fourth act begins completely unexpectedly: the Queen does not want to see the unfortunate... “I will not accept her.” But the songs and speeches of the minister’s daughter are such that the courtier warns: “There is confusion in her speeches, but whoever hears it will find a godsend.” It is not in vain that the courtier asks the queen to accept her: it is obvious that Ophelia is looking for Gertrude. “Where is Denmark's beauty and queen?” she asks as soon as she enters the room. And then - line by line, song by song, he reveals to listeners and viewers a secret for which he will pay with his life.

At first she sings about a pilgrim, about a wanderer - perhaps referring to Hamlet, who was sent to England. The death of her father and the disappearance of the prince make her think about the shroud and the grave. But when the king appears, the theme of the songs changes dramatically. She directly and unequivocally declares her dishonor, and uses words that an obedient modest woman, let alone say out loud, in principle, should not even know.

Reluctantly, in school essays and essays it is customary to quote only the first of Ophelia’s two “obscene” songs, about Valentine’s Day. When the king tries to notice in her words “They say the owl used to be the baker’s daughter” that this is her imaginary conversation with her father, she abruptly cuts him off: “there is no need to talk about this... if you were asked what this means, tell me...” (Ophe Pray you let "s haue no words of this: but when they ask you what it means, say you this). Yes, the death of her father has only an indirect relation to this trouble of Ophelia.

The second “obscene” song, containing extremely ambiguous puns, was translated into Russian in a very streamlined manner. Moreover, these puns are hidden in the name of God! By Gis and by cock – by Jesus and by God, the names of God are replaced with obscenities worthy only of a “baker’s daughter” - a whore... It is simply impossible to translate this song without obscene expressions. If the first song begins with at least faint hints of romance in a relationship:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I'm a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine…
...then in the second song everything is said in a direct, dirty and open text: “By cock, they are to blame” - “I swear ... they are guilty!” Ophelia sings this song in the palace hall, looking straight into the face of the king and queen. Of course, they should have listened - it is not surprising that later, after listening to her innocent songs, Laertes remarks: “This nothing"s more than matter.”

Ophelia is not mad. She is in despair, in a frenzy. Like Hamlet, she has cast aside shame and decency, she is ready to tell everyone about what happened to her. What do they do with a crazy person? Both today and all centuries ago? They lock him up, tie him up, and try to treat him. In those days, all mental illnesses were explained by the intervention of evil spirits, so both a doctor and a priest were called to the patient. But no one is trying to lock Ophelia up, calm her down - by any means. Instead, the king simply orders to keep an eye on her: “Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.”

Appearing in the room for the second time, Ophelia finds herself in a more noisy campaign: Laertes, with a crowd of indignant supporters ready to crown him, bursts into the king and queen, showering them with reproaches and claims. Now the girl has flowers in her hands, and people are still arguing about the secret meaning of these flowers until they are hoarse, and they can’t come to a common opinion - there is not a single remark in the text indicating to whom Ophelia gives which flower.

“There"s rosemary, that"s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that"s for thoughts. There"s fennel for you, and columbines: there"s rue for you; and here"s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o" Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There"s a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died..." - “Here is rosemary, this is for memories; I ask you, dear, remember; but the Mother of God grass (pansy), this is for thoughts. Here's dill and doves (columbine) for you; here is the rue for you; and for me too; it is called the grass of grace, the grass of resurrection; oh, you must wear your rue with distinction. Here is a daisy; I would give you violets, but they all withered when my father died...”

Perhaps she hands the rosemary and pansies to her brother with the appropriate wish: he must understand and remember what happened. Dill is a symbol of flattery and pretense, and columbine meant betrayal in love and adultery. She probably gives these flowers to the king - twice a traitor and twice a seducer. This is confirmed by the following flower: rue, the emblem of sadness and repentance. It was also called the grass of grace (Sunday grass) because it was carried to church on Sunday by those who repented of sin. Most likely, she offers this flower to the queen, leaving one for herself: they both have something to repent of, they have the same sin, and they both sinned with the same person, but the queen must wear the rue with distinction - she married her seducer, but Ophelia does not. A daisy instead of violets... A daisy is a symbol of unhappy love, and the name of withered violets is violets, too reminiscent of violens, violence. Her father's death was violent, Ophelia tells everyone gathered in the room. The story of her unhappy love ended in violence - this is the second possible meaning of the phrase.

“Oh, you must wear your rue with distinction!” - how unpleasant this phrase must have been for the queen. No wonder she didn't want to see Ophelia! And here is a worthy ending: it is the queen who brings Laertes the news of her sister’s death. This poetic story deserves special attention.
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men"s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, while they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and inspired
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull"d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

There is a willow above the stream that bends
Gray leaves to the mirror of the wave;
There she came, weaving in garlands
Nettle, buttercup, iris, orchids, -
Free shepherds have a rougher nickname,
For modest maidens they are the fingers of the dead:
She tried to hang it on the branches
Your own wreaths; the insidious bitch broke,
Both the grass and she herself fell
Into the sobbing stream. Her clothes
They stretched out and carried her like a nymph;
Meanwhile she sang snippets of songs,
As if I didn’t smell trouble
Or was a creature born
In the element of water; it couldn't last
And the clothes, heavily drunk,
The unfortunate woman was carried away by the sounds
Into the quagmire of death.

If there is someone who observed the death of the unfortunate woman, and even retold them to the queen in such detail, then why didn’t he save her while “she sang snippets of songs” and her clothes carried her along the stream? Who stood and indifferently watched as the victim of the royal lust went down? Or is all this just a fiction, and in fact Ophelia paid for her explicit songs? And - most importantly - what actually plunged the girl into such boundless despair that her words and actions inspired those around her to think of her madness?

It is generally accepted that Ophelia's songs are about the death of Polonius. But if we at least roughly arrange the “time milestones,” then it will become clear that it was not the death of her father that plunged the poor girl into despair. It just seems that the entire action of the play spans several days; the events do not follow one another at all - the fabric of the narrative is torn, but the dates are clearly indicated. Some time passes from the first appearance of the Phantom until the wedding of Gertrude and Claudius - he has already been noticed twice by the guards who reported Horatio’s strange guest. From the wedding and the prince’s first remark “Not at all a son and far from sweet” to the production of “The Mousetrap”, two whole months pass! Considerable time also passes from the death of Polonius, Hamlet’s hasty departure to Ophelia’s illness - Laertes did not receive this news immediately, returned to Denmark from France and managed to recruit supporters... Any grief dulls over time. Even if Ophelia was the most loving of daughters, the first flash of grief should have passed by now. And why did she go with her trouble to the queen, who certainly did not kill Polonius?

The great Meyerhold, thinking about staging the play, wanted to show Ophelia pregnant in the fourth act. Oddly enough, this conclusion is very logical and suggests itself. If the cunning and dexterous minister “planted” his young daughter on the royal brother, then at least six months had passed since that time - the period when the pregnancy should no longer raise doubts in the unfortunate woman. While her father was alive, who guided Ophelia’s actions in everything, she was calm. Attempts to change the situation and escape from the snare ended in nothing. Hamlet, whose love she so hoped for, decisively rejected Ophelia. The king is only the husband of the “heiress of the military frontiers”; he will not go against his wife under any circumstances. The fate of the unfortunate woman was decided.

One would believe in Ophelia's accidental death if it were not for such a detailed story about it. Everyone believed in the girl’s madness. If a person commits suicide in a fit of madness, this is not a reason to deprive him of the right to a Christian burial. But a conversation in the cemetery between two simpletons, gravediggers, two Clowns, again introduces doubts into the picture so romantically described by the queen. According to them, “If she had not been a noble lady, she would not have been given a Christian burial.” There is no talk of madness at all. The investigator allowed her remains onto the consecrated ground: “the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial,” but the gravediggers have their own opinion on this matter. The priests, who did not want to agree with the coroner’s conclusion, had the same opinion: “her death was doubtful.” “We would desecrate the holy rite by singing a requiem over her, as over a soul who has departed in peace,” the priest categorically declares to Laertes. Everyone is sure: the raped (possibly pregnant) girl committed suicide. And if there had not been a special order “from above” - “great command o” ersways the order,” her funeral would have looked completely different: “She would have waited in the unholy land for the trumpet of judgment: in return for prayers, they would have thrown shards and stones at her.”

But then – what a bitter irony! - Now Hamlet publicly declares his great love for Ophelia. Yes, this is something that could have happened, but did not happen. He stepped on the throat of his feelings, he rejected the fallen girl, pushed her away, becoming an unwitting accomplice to her death. By killing her father, he completely ruined Ophelia's life.

It is worth noting here that Polonius’s funeral also took place in violation of rituals. This is precisely what outrages Laertes: “His means of death, his obscure funeral - No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o"er his bones, No noble rite nor formal ostentation” - “His death, the mystery of the funeral, Where the sword and coat of arms did not overshadow the bones , Without pomp, without proper ceremony." But why was the beloved and faithful minister buried in such a way? His death could not have been similar to suicide. Most likely, the corpse of Polonius was never found, although Hamlet notes - "if you are! If you don’t find it within a month, you will smell it when you go up the stairs to the gallery,” it is not indicated anywhere that the body was found. The haste and non-compliance with the rituals could have only one reason: the coffin was empty. That’s why Ophelia confuses death and death in her songs. separation, the dead and the wanderer.

“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table! - “Sir, we know who we are, but we do not know who we can become. God bless your meal!” - these words of the girl are clearly addressed to the king, and no one will call them nonsense. Ophelia knew who she was, and she knew who everyone else in the conversation was. For which she paid – with honor, good name, life. She became a symbol of confusion of feelings, love deceptions, tragic disappointments.

Ophelia?.. Laughter. Ophelia?.. Moan.
And the terrible cries of hungry crows.
Ophelia?.. Crying. Ophelia?.. Scream!
Creeping stems. Transparent spring...

Nickname Nickney Ophelia with a white wreath
Sail and swim to the lilies along the outline
Where bloodless Hamlets roam in secret
And they play the melody of delirium on the flute

It's a long way to sail to the dead in the land of the night
So that Hecate sadly extinguishes her smile
If a modest wreath sinks
Unyielding Sappho's reckless strength

Beyond Levkat sirens Feathered people
Sailors are fooled by their bird habits
And no one will return to the whirlpool
Where three gentle voices sang so sweetly...

Guillaume Apollinaire. Translation by A. Geleskul

The love story of Hamlet and Ophelia is one of the most mysterious in world literature. It is generally accepted that Hamlet sincerely loves the daughter of Polonius, and suffers because of this love, and Ophelia is just a cold frog: “yes, my prince” - “no, my prince.” But, having decided to look into this issue, I came to a conclusion that was completely unexpected. I realized that Ophelia really loves the prince, but in the play there is only one thing, one single, but significant proof.

But Hamlet... No, he doesn’t love the tender nymph at all. No, he loves a completely different person, and he loves passionately, tenderly, selflessly. Throughout the entire action of the play, this object of love seems to be hiding in the shadows of the curtains, but as soon as it comes into the light, many of the mysteries and contradictions of Shakespeare’s masterpiece are resolved. Let's try to bring this mysterious person to the forefront.

Odd love

But in order. Ophelia. She is very difficult to understand, maybe even more difficult than Hamlet with all his extravagances. In the tragedy, little attention is paid to her; her role in the development of the action is passive. Ophelia seems to be a blind instrument in the hands of Polonius, the king, and fate, while she herself does not show any will, does not make any effort. Belinsky, admiring Ophelia: “... a creature that is completely alien to any strong, stunning passion, but which is created for a feeling of quiet, calm, but deep.” Is it so?

It would seem that Ophelia's feelings are so quiet and calm that they are not easy to discern. In a conversation with her father, she tries to convince Polonius that Hamlet sincerely loves her, and she herself seems to believe it:

“He brought me quite a few reassurances
In my heartfelt feelings."
“He always spoke about his love
With excellent courtesy."
“And he sealed his speech, my lord,
Almost all the oaths of heaven.”
(Quotes from “Hamlet” translated by M. L. Lozinsky)

Ophelia, perhaps for the only time in the entire action of the play, shows persistence. She tries to convince her father of Hamlet's love. But when Polonius forbids her to meet the prince, she immediately meekly agrees. And just as obediently he becomes a tool for spying on Hamlet. Of course, this does not happen because Ophelia is spoiled. Most likely, she only lives according to the law of her time, when parents had complete power over their children. Therefore, Ophelia does not see anything reprehensible in Hamlet’s parents spying on him. At the end of the day, they want the best for their son. Yes, Polonius himself, her father, sends Reynoldo, his servant, to spy on Laertes.

Ophelia, child of the Middle Ages. According to the customs of this time, she obeys her father as her master: “I will obey you, my lord.” You can understand why Ophelia avoids meeting with Hamlet: dad ordered. You can understand why she returns his gifts, although her father did not demand it: basic decency. But the mystery lies in the words with which Ophelia accompanies her actions:

“Take it; the gift is not nice to us,
When someone who has fallen in love stops loving..."

Will he fall out of love? By order of her father, Ophelia “did not take the letters and did not allow him to come to her,” and now shifts the blame onto Hamlet himself. It is cruel for the virtuous Ophelia to treat this way a man whom she thinks has gone mad with love for her. Or does she not think so? Or will “fall out of love” be true, and Ophelia really has reasons to blame Hamlet? Doesn't he love her? More on this later, this time about the feelings of Ophelia herself.

We see no signs of a living mind in Ophelia’s words or behavior. She looks more like an obedient doll. Either she is really cold as a fish, or her upbringing has driven all her spiritual impulses deep inside. This issue will be resolved a little later. Shakespeare will give his heroine a chance to open up, although he will do it very, very cruelly.

There is an abyss between Hamlet and Ophelia. If we select Ophelia’s lines from the conversation before the performance of “The Mousetrap,” we get: “No, my prince.” "Yes, my prince." "I don't think anything, my prince." "Are you having fun, my prince?" "Yes, my prince." “No, it’s already twice two months, my prince.” "What, my prince?" Quite a boring conversation. Did they always communicate like this? But Ophelia has one small, but passionate and meaningful monologue, which stands out against the background of the meager and gray remarks of Polonius’s daughter:

“Oh, what a proud mind is struck down! Nobles,
A fighter, a scientist - gaze, sword, tongue;
The color and hope of a joyful state,
An emboss of grace, a mirror of taste,
An exemplary example - he fell, he fell to the end!
And I, of all women, are more pitiful and unhappy,
Having tasted the honey of these vows,
I watch this powerful mind grind
Like cracked bells
Like this image of blooming youth
Torn apart by delirium; oh, how to blow your heart away:
Having seen the past, see what is!”

Look how it burst! And this is what the quiet little nymph says? Now its second bottom has opened. Maybe the gap that separates Hamlet and Ophelia is not so big? If so, where does the icy aloofness come from? Is Hamlet angry at the entire female race for the sins of his mother? Hamlet takes revenge on Ophelia because she listens to her father, because she believes in his madness? Well, he's not a fool. There is a completely different reason here. Here we need to dig deeper. But I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Why did Ophelia go crazy?

Ophelia goes crazy after her father's death. The very fact of madness is considered strange. And Ophelia's songs are mysterious. There is nothing strange or mysterious here. The point is not that Polonius died. Children, as a rule, outlive their parents. If Ophelia were so sensitive, then at any turn of events she would be doomed to madness and death. But Polonius not only dies, he dies at the hands of Hamlet - this is what drives Ophelia crazy.

Madness is proof of love for the prince, and this is not a “quiet, calm, deep” feeling, only passion can break it. Ophelia has to make a choice in her heart between her beloved father and her beloved man; this insoluble contradiction drives her crazy. In a crazy delirium, she sings street songs about her dead father and her betrayed lover, Hamlet. And it is in the scenes of madness that Ophelia’s soul is revealed. Having lost her mind, she frees herself from the shackles of decency and gives vent to her feelings in rude peasant songs (it turns out she knows them). And if you believe that she distributes her flowers according to their symbolic meaning, as if indicating who is who, then Ophelia no longer looks like the naive fool she seemed before.

So who did Hamlet love?

Now about Hamlet. Does he have at least one love scene with Ophelia? This love is not visible. We hear Laertes, Ophelia, Polnius, and Gertrude talk about her. Hamlet himself declares: “I once loved you,” and then “I did not love you” - at least once, honest Hamlet lied.

When Shakespeare talks about love, it is unlikely that anyone will have a misunderstanding of what he is actually talking about. Be it the youthful passion of Romeo and Juliet, or the mature love of Othello and Desdemona based on spiritual intimacy, or the grotesque experiences of the heroes of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Somehow, Shakespeare's characters know how to declare their love. For example, Romeo, here is his speech, overheard by Juliet:

"... Any fly
More worthy, happier than Romeo:
She can touch without interference
Juliet's hands are a miracle of whiteness,
Or steal the bliss of heaven from sweet lips,
What seems like virginal innocence
They blush from mutual touch,
Considering it a sin to kiss each other.
Any fly, but not Romeo.”
(“Romeo and Jellietta” translated by T. L. Shchepkina-Kupernik)

How simple, how sincere, how poetic. Is it possible not to believe Romeo? What does Hamlet write to his beloved Ophelia? As he explains, the standard of education of his time, a tastemaker, an avid theatergoer, a passionate and eloquent person. Yes, yes, eloquent - what monologues he gives! And what does he write: “Heavenly, the idol of my soul, the adorned Ophelia...” Even Polonius understands that this is bad.

"Don't believe that the sun is clear,
That the stars are a swarm of lights,
That the truth has no power to lie,
But believe in my love."

These are the verses. By the way, Pasternak’s translation is no better. Hamlet is not capable of more. Where did the prince's talents go? Or is Ophelia simply not inspiring to him?

“Oh dear, Ophelia, these sizes are not given to me. I don't know how to time my sighs; but that I love you completely, oh completely wonderful one, believe this. Goodbye. Yours forever, dearest maiden, as long as this mechanism belongs to him, Hamlet.” And in prose it is just as clumsy as in poetry. Is it possible to notice even a spark of love here? Clumsy, cold, dead. Take a look at any of Hamlet’s monologues: how much expressiveness and life there is in his words. And in friendly conversations with Horatio there are much more feelings than in these declarations of love.

It seems strange that the first person on whom Hamlet experienced his imaginary madness was Ophelia. He came to her immediately after meeting the ghost and frightened the fragile nymph with his appearance. Maybe the prince was still not himself, had not yet recovered from the shock? But if we look at the last scene of the first act, we will see that despite the excitement into which Hamlet’s terrible revelation of the spirit leads, the prince controls himself, and his appearance does not cause much concern to Horatio and Marcellus. A conversation takes place in which the friends show ordinary curiosity. Hamlet is excited, but nothing more. He even allows himself to make rude jokes about the ghost:

“So, old mole! How quickly you dig!
Great digger! “Well, let’s leave.”

The prince is so in control of himself that he has already drawn up a plan of action, deciding to play crazy:

“No matter how strange I behave,”
Then, what I may deem necessary
Sometimes clothe yourself in whims..."

Cloaked in whimsy, Hamlet appears to Ophelia and scares her half to death. The cold analytical mind calculated everything correctly. Ophelia becomes the first messenger about the prince's madness, Polonius picks up the news from his daughter's lips and betrays it to Claudius and Gertrude. Hamlet's plan is allowed to enter. But is this what lovers do? “Honest” Hamlet simply uses poor Ophelia in his play.

There is not a single scene in the tragedy that confirms Hamlet’s love for Ophelia. Maybe a funeral scene? The scene in which the famous phrase about the forty thousand brothers was uttered and the desperate willingness to drink vinegar and eat crocodiles was shown.

It would seem that a misfortune has happened, Hamlet has lost his beloved, it’s time to throw off his cold mask and indulge in grief, without hiding his feelings... If, of course, the prince has them. What really happens at Ophelia's grave?

How Hamlet wept over Ophelia's corpse

First we see Hamlet’s quite reasonable surprise: “How is Ophelia?” To whom are the prince’s next words dedicated?

"Who is whose grief
So expressive; whose sorrow calls
To the wandering luminaries, and they,
Stopping and listening in amazement?
I, Hamlet the Dane."

This is said by a man who has just learned of the death of his beloved. Of course, Hamlet considers it his duty to answer the challenge thrown at him by Laertes. And the desire to answer the challenge is so strong that Hamlet, forgetting about his grief and basic decency, jumps into Ophelia’s grave and fights with her brother there. It’s understandable why Laertes is angry: Hamlet ruined his life. But why does the prince behave like a drunken brawler?

The scene in the cemetery does not look like mourning for the dead, it is rather a rivalry with Laertes, a strange jealousy of his beloved brother. At the funeral, Hamlet's focus is not Ophelia, but Laertes. All the prince’s words are addressed to him:

“No, tell me what you are ready to do:
Cry? tormented? fight? starve?
Drink vinegar? eat a crocodile?
Me too. Did you come here to whine?
To spite me jump into the grave?
Bury her alive, and so will I.”

Claudius argued that Hamlet was jealous of some of Laertes' superiorities over himself, and saw him as a rival. Did the prince's ambition prevail over his love for Ophelia? Not a word from her again! Here are the prince's last words over the grave - again, addressed to Laertes:

"Tell me, sir,
Why are you treating me like this?
I have always loved you. - But still;
At least Hercules destroyed the whole world,
And the cat meows and the dog walks.”

No, Laertes interests Hamlet much more than Ophelia. Maybe this explains all the strangeness of his love?

Ophelia is Shakespeare's most unlucky female character. Even those who have never held a book in their hands will tell you about Juliet and Desdemona: Desdemona was loved so much that they killed her, and Juliet loved herself so much that she killed herself. And they will tell you only one thing about poor Ophelia: she drowned. That's all. Maybe, having strained their memory, someone else will add: “crazy.”

But this is not true. The story of Ophelia is no less tragic than the stories of other Shakespearean ladies, and no less mysterious. First of all, we know that Hamlet loves Ophelia only from her conversation with her father. The prince himself not only does not show any love - on the contrary, he pushes the poor thing away, showering her with almost vulgar abuse. The absurd letter that Polonius reads to the king and queen is clearly a forgery - Ophelia did not give any letter to her father and directly said that she “did not accept any more letters from him or from him.” The prince himself declares his love only while standing on the edge of Ophelia’s grave. There is no question of any serious feeling here - it seems that Polonius was right when he asserted that “these flashes do not produce heat.” In the same conversation with his daughter, he utters a strange phrase: “Don’t accept these nonsense (“pledges of heartfelt friendship”), and in future demand more expensive pledges.”

Instead of being happy for her daughter’s future and trying to get her the Danish throne, the minister and first friend of the king categorically forbids Ophelia to see Hamlet. This is more than incomprehensible, given his cunning, prudence, and hypocrisy, which he demonstrates more than once in conversations with his son, servants, and Claudius. He needs more expensive collateral than the prince’s love and his gifts - but Ophelia had something to return to Hamlet!

Hamlet's conversations with Polonius and Ophelia would be an example of the most outright cynicism, if we did not assume, even for a second, that the prince knows something that is unknown to the viewer and reader. He directly tells Polonius that “The sun breeds worms with dogs... Conceiving is a blessing, but not for your daughter.” And he does not hesitate to call the minister himself a pimp! In a conversation with Ophelia, he goes even further. “Be as pure as ice and pure as snow, you will not escape slander” - this means that he learned or heard something about her that makes him continue: “...marry a fool. The smart ones know too much what monsters you make of them.”

The prototype of Shakespeare's prince - Prince Amleth, the hero of Saxo Grammar's chronicle "History of Denmark" - crowed like a rooster and performed other absurd actions, wanting to be considered insane in order to save his life. But Hamlet just says what he thinks. He stopped pretending, threw away his courtly courtliness, and gave vent to his anger. They talk about the “imaginary” madness of Hamlet, contrasting it with the “true” madness of Ophelia. But there is no madness at all in his actions and speeches. He’s just angry, irritated – and he makes it clear to everyone why.

What about Ophelia? Rejected by the prince, whose love she hoped for as her last salvation... Scene five of the fourth act begins completely unexpectedly: the Queen does not want to see the unfortunate... “I will not accept her.” But the songs and speeches of the minister’s daughter are such that the courtier warns: “There is confusion in her speeches, but whoever hears it will find a godsend.” It is not in vain that the courtier asks the queen to accept her: it is obvious that Ophelia is looking for Gertrude. “Where is Denmark's beauty and queen?” she asks as soon as she enters the room. And then - line by line, song by song, he reveals to listeners and viewers a secret for which he will pay with his life.

At first she sings about a pilgrim, about a wanderer - perhaps referring to Hamlet, who was sent to England. The death of her father and the disappearance of the prince make her think about the shroud and the grave. But when the king appears, the theme of the songs changes dramatically. She directly and unequivocally declares her dishonor, and uses words that an obedient modest woman, let alone say out loud, in principle, should not even know.

Reluctantly, in school essays and essays it is customary to quote only the first of Ophelia’s two “obscene” songs, about Valentine’s Day. When the king tries to notice in her words “They say the owl used to be the baker’s daughter” that this is her imaginary conversation with her father, she abruptly cuts him off: “there is no need to talk about this... if you were asked what this means, tell me...” (Ophe Pray you let "s haue no words of this: but when they ask you what it means, say you this). Yes, the death of her father has only an indirect relation to this trouble of Ophelia.

The second “obscene” song, containing extremely ambiguous puns, was translated into Russian in a very streamlined manner. Moreover, these puns are hidden in the name of God! By Gis and by cock – by Jesus and by God, the names of God are replaced with obscenities worthy only of a “baker’s daughter” - a whore... It is simply impossible to translate this song without obscene expressions. If the first song begins with at least faint hints of romance in a relationship:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I'm a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine…
...then in the second song everything is said in a direct, dirty and open text: “By cock, they are to blame” - “I swear ... they are guilty!” Ophelia sings this song in the palace hall, looking straight into the face of the king and queen. Of course, they should have listened - it is not surprising that later, after listening to her innocent songs, Laertes remarks: “This nothing"s more than matter.”

Ophelia is not mad. She is in despair, in a frenzy. Like Hamlet, she has cast aside shame and decency, she is ready to tell everyone about what happened to her. What do they do with a crazy person? Both today and all centuries ago? They lock him up, tie him up, and try to treat him. In those days, all mental illnesses were explained by the intervention of evil spirits, so both a doctor and a priest were called to the patient. But no one is trying to lock Ophelia up, calm her down - by any means. Instead, the king simply orders to keep an eye on her: “Follow her close; give her good watch, I pray you.”

Appearing in the room for the second time, Ophelia finds herself in a more noisy campaign: Laertes, with a crowd of indignant supporters ready to crown him, bursts into the king and queen, showering them with reproaches and claims. Now the girl has flowers in her hands, and people are still arguing about the secret meaning of these flowers until they are hoarse, and they can’t come to a common opinion - there is not a single remark in the text indicating to whom Ophelia gives which flower.

“There"s rosemary, that"s for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. that"s for thoughts. There"s fennel for you, and columbines: there"s rue for you; and here"s some for me: we may call it herb-grace o" Sundays: O you must wear your rue with a difference. There"s a daisy: I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died..." - “Here is rosemary, this is for memories; I ask you, dear, remember; but the Mother of God grass (pansy), this is for thoughts. Here's dill and doves (columbine) for you; here is the rue for you; and for me too; it is called the grass of grace, the grass of resurrection; oh, you must wear your rue with distinction. Here is a daisy; I would give you violets, but they all withered when my father died...”

Perhaps she hands the rosemary and pansies to her brother with the appropriate wish: he must understand and remember what happened. Dill is a symbol of flattery and pretense, and columbine meant betrayal in love and adultery. She probably gives these flowers to the king - twice a traitor and twice a seducer. This is confirmed by the following flower: rue, the emblem of sadness and repentance. It was also called the grass of grace (Sunday grass) because it was carried to church on Sunday by those who repented of sin. Most likely, she offers this flower to the queen, leaving one for herself: they both have something to repent of, they have the same sin, and they both sinned with the same person, but the queen must wear the rue with distinction - she married her seducer, but Ophelia does not. A daisy instead of violets... A daisy is a symbol of unhappy love, and the name of withered violets is violets, too reminiscent of violens, violence. Her father's death was violent, Ophelia tells everyone gathered in the room. The story of her unhappy love ended in violence - this is the second possible meaning of the phrase.

“Oh, you must wear your rue with distinction!” - how unpleasant this phrase must have been for the queen. No wonder she didn't want to see Ophelia! And here is a worthy ending: it is the queen who brings Laertes the news of her sister’s death. This poetic story deserves special attention.
There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men"s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, while they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and inspired
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull"d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

There is a willow above the stream that bends
Gray leaves to the mirror of the wave;
There she came, weaving in garlands
Nettle, buttercup, iris, orchids, -
Free shepherds have a rougher nickname,
For modest maidens they are the fingers of the dead:
She tried to hang it on the branches
Your own wreaths; the insidious bitch broke,
Both the grass and she herself fell
Into the sobbing stream. Her clothes
They stretched out and carried her like a nymph;
Meanwhile she sang snippets of songs,
As if I didn’t smell trouble
Or was a creature born
In the element of water; it couldn't last
And the clothes, heavily drunk,
The unfortunate woman was carried away by the sounds
Into the quagmire of death.

If there is someone who observed the death of the unfortunate woman, and even retold them to the queen in such detail, then why didn’t he save her while “she sang snippets of songs” and her clothes carried her along the stream? Who stood and indifferently watched as the victim of the royal lust went down? Or is all this just a fiction, and in fact Ophelia paid for her explicit songs? And - most importantly - what actually plunged the girl into such boundless despair that her words and actions inspired those around her to think of her madness?

It is generally accepted that Ophelia's songs are about the death of Polonius. But if we at least roughly arrange the “time milestones,” then it will become clear that it was not the death of her father that plunged the poor girl into despair. It just seems that the entire action of the play spans several days; the events do not follow one another at all - the fabric of the narrative is torn, but the dates are clearly indicated. Some time passes from the first appearance of the Phantom until the wedding of Gertrude and Claudius - he has already been noticed twice by the guards who reported Horatio’s strange guest. From the wedding and the prince’s first remark “Not at all a son and far from sweet” to the production of “The Mousetrap”, two whole months pass! Considerable time also passes from the death of Polonius, Hamlet’s hasty departure to Ophelia’s illness - Laertes did not receive this news immediately, returned to Denmark from France and managed to recruit supporters... Any grief dulls over time. Even if Ophelia was the most loving of daughters, the first flash of grief should have passed by now. And why did she go with her trouble to the queen, who certainly did not kill Polonius?

The great Meyerhold, thinking about staging the play, wanted to show Ophelia pregnant in the fourth act. Oddly enough, this conclusion is very logical and suggests itself. If the cunning and dexterous minister “planted” his young daughter on the royal brother, then at least six months had passed since that time - the period when the pregnancy should no longer raise doubts in the unfortunate woman. While her father was alive, who guided Ophelia’s actions in everything, she was calm. Attempts to change the situation and escape from the snare ended in nothing. Hamlet, whose love she so hoped for, decisively rejected Ophelia. The king is only the husband of the “heiress of the military frontiers”; he will not go against his wife under any circumstances. The fate of the unfortunate woman was decided.

One would believe in Ophelia's accidental death if it were not for such a detailed story about it. Everyone believed in the girl’s madness. If a person commits suicide in a fit of madness, this is not a reason to deprive him of the right to a Christian burial. But a conversation in the cemetery between two simpletons, gravediggers, two Clowns, again introduces doubts into the picture so romantically described by the queen. According to them, “If she had not been a noble lady, she would not have been given a Christian burial.” There is no talk of madness at all. The investigator allowed her remains onto the consecrated ground: “the crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial,” but the gravediggers have their own opinion on this matter. The priests, who did not want to agree with the coroner’s conclusion, had the same opinion: “her death was doubtful.” “We would desecrate the holy rite by singing a requiem over her, as over a soul who has departed in peace,” the priest categorically declares to Laertes. Everyone is sure: the raped (possibly pregnant) girl committed suicide. And if there had not been a special order “from above” - “great command o” ersways the order,” her funeral would have looked completely different: “She would have waited in the unholy land for the trumpet of judgment: in return for prayers, they would have thrown shards and stones at her.”

But then – what a bitter irony! - Now Hamlet publicly declares his great love for Ophelia. Yes, this is something that could have happened, but did not happen. He stepped on the throat of his feelings, he rejected the fallen girl, pushed her away, becoming an unwitting accomplice to her death. By killing her father, he completely ruined Ophelia's life.

It is worth noting here that Polonius’s funeral also took place in violation of rituals. This is precisely what outrages Laertes: “His means of death, his obscure funeral - No trophy, sword, nor hatchment o"er his bones, No noble rite nor formal ostentation” - “His death, the mystery of the funeral, Where the sword and coat of arms did not overshadow the bones , Without pomp, without proper ceremony." But why was the beloved and faithful minister buried in such a way? His death could not have been similar to suicide. Most likely, the corpse of Polonius was never found, although Hamlet notes - "if you are! If you don’t find it within a month, you will smell it when you go up the stairs to the gallery,” it is not indicated anywhere that the body was found. The haste and non-compliance with the rituals could have only one reason: the coffin was empty. That’s why Ophelia confuses death and death in her songs. separation, the dead and the wanderer.

“Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be. God be at your table! - “Sir, we know who we are, but we do not know who we can become. God bless your meal!” - these words of the girl are clearly addressed to the king, and no one will call them nonsense. Ophelia knew who she was, and she knew who everyone else in the conversation was. For which she paid – with honor, good name, life. She became a symbol of confusion of feelings, love deceptions, tragic disappointments.

Ophelia?.. Laughter. Ophelia?.. Moan.
And the terrible cries of hungry crows.
Ophelia?.. Crying. Ophelia?.. Scream!
Creeping stems. Transparent spring...

Nickname Nickney Ophelia with a white wreath
Sail and swim to the lilies along the outline
Where bloodless Hamlets roam in secret
And they play the melody of delirium on the flute

It's a long way to sail to the dead in the land of the night
So that Hecate sadly extinguishes her smile
If a modest wreath sinks
Unyielding Sappho's reckless strength

Beyond Levkat sirens Feathered people
Sailors are fooled by their bird habits
And no one will return to the whirlpool
Where three gentle voices sang so sweetly...

Guillaume Apollinaire. Translation by A. Geleskul

John Everett Millais/John Everett Millais(8 VI 1829 - 13 VIII 1896) - English painter, one of the founders of Pre-Raphaelitism.

Millais's most famous painting is Ophelia. (Ophelia, 1851-1852), considered one of the masterpieces of world painting. Here is Elizabeth Siddal, the lover of Rossetti (another Pre-Raphaelite poet and artist).

In his famous painting, Milles captured the moment when Ophelia, half submerged in water, sings. According to the generally accepted interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, the girl went mad because Prince Hamlet, whom she loved, killed her father, Polonius. Madness led Ophelia to death.

Millais began painting this picture at the age of 22, like many young people of his age, he literally raved about Shakespeare's immortal play. And on canvas I tried to convey as accurately as possible all the nuances described by the playwright.

For the scene of Ophelia's death, Milles chose a picturesque river corner (the artist humorously recalled that he himself almost drowned while working on this canvas). Milles painted the figure of the girl after he had completed the river landscape, in his studio during the winter months. The model, Elizabeth Siddel, posed for the artist while lying in a bathtub of warm water. Unfortunately, posing turned out to be a deterioration in Elizabeth’s health: one day the lamps used to heat the water in the bath failed, and the girl’s consumption, which was tormenting her, worsened.

The Pre-Raphaelites principally used a white base. When starting the creative process, they covered small areas of the canvas with white paint and painted on it until it dried. True, Milles used this technique only on those fragments of the canvas where he painted the landscape. Millais’ technique is still not fully understood, but it is known that he first applied an exact drawing of the future painting to the canvas, and then took up paint. The artist did not paint over with white the areas where the most picturesque flowers later appeared.

The most difficult thing for Milles in creating this painting was to depict a female figure half submerged in water. Painting it from life was quite dangerous, but the artist’s technical skill allowed him to perform a clever trick: painting water in the open air (working in nature gradually became part of the practice of painters since the 1840s, when oil paints in metal tubes first appeared), and a figure - in his workshop.

IMAGE OF OPHELIA

V. G. Belinsky wrote about Ophelia:

“Ophelia takes second place after Hamlet. This is one of those creations of Shakespeare in which simplicity, naturalness and reality merge into one beautiful, living and typical image... Imagine a meek, harmonious, loving creature in the beautiful image of a woman; a creature who will die from rejected love or, even more likely, from love first Divided and then despised, but who will not die with despair in the Soul, but will fade away quietly, with a smile on her lips, with a prayer for the one who destroyed her; will fade away, as the dawn fades in the sky on a fragrant May evening: here is Ophelia for you.”

THE DEATH OF OPHELIA

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And, mermaid-like, while they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indu’d
Unto that element; but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.

A willow tree grows obliquely above the stream, reflecting its leaves in the mirror stream. There she came with fancy garlands of leaves, nettles, daisies, and those long purple flowers to which frank-tongued shepherds give a rude name, and our cold girls call the fingers of the dead. When she climbed a willow tree to hang the wreaths of flowers and herbs she had woven on the hanging branches, an envious twig broke and, together with her trophies of flowers, she fell into a weeping stream. Her clothes spread wide and held her for some time on the water, like a mermaid, and during this time she sang fragments of old songs, like a person unaware of her misfortune, or like a creature born in the water element and accustomed to it. But this could not last long until her clothes became heavy with water and dragged the unfortunate woman from the melodious song to a shadowy death.
(translation by M. Morozov, IV, 7)

INTERPRETATION OF OPHELIA'S DEATH

Who saw it and who heard it?
The Queen speaks from the words of Horatio and a Certain Master. Shakespeare makes this clear by first mentioning obscene phallic flowers and then a “jealous” or “treacherous” bitch.

In Gertrude's monologue there are a lot of lies and a lot of retelling of other people's words. There is also some outright obscenity in it. If we talk about high lyricism, then it sounds only in the last three lines:

Do you remember the fallen willow,
Which rinses over the stream
Your foliage?.. Ophelia there
She came in a wreath - there were daisies in it,
Yasnotka and cuckoo adonis,
And long fleshy flowers -
Yes, you know them! – commoners
Their names are short and obscene,
And the girls are “fingers of the dead”
And dozing... She barely climbed onto the trunk,
Wanting to decorate it with a wreath,
The envious bitch broke.
In flowers she fell into that stream,
Splashed as if she was born in it
A mermaid, I didn’t realize the trouble,
And still she sang her songs...
But this could not last long:
The dress got wet and became heavy,
And that transparent melody choked
In the arms of muddy death.

This story alone is enough to understand what really happened to Ophelia. Only Laertes, who is shocked by the news of his sister’s death, can ignore the blatant absurdity.
And doesn’t it sound like a mockery that “it didn’t last long”?..

Having noticed the obscenity sounding in Gertrude’s monologue, let’s ask ourselves: what is this, if not a sign of someone else’s, in this case, male speech? After all, the queen herself did not see how Ophelia drowned, and she retells it from someone else’s words.

WHO KILLED OPHELIA?

After Hamlet’s expulsion, Horatio remains to live in the castle, he is served by the royal lackeys, and the king, to whom Horatio had not even been introduced before, calls him “good Horatio” and asks him to look after the prince in the cemetery.

The scene with the pirates’ visit was apparently preceded by an interlude that was not included in the “word text” that has come down to us, in which Ophelia went out to the stream, sang and picked flowers, and was watched from afar by two unknown persons (according to the latest Shakespearean edition of Hamlet - one unknown). Then she fell into the water, allegedly continuing to sing her songs, and they continued to watch her, and only when the song was interrupted did they take her out of the stream and carry her lifeless body to the shore. Then one of these unknown people, say, would throw back his hood, and the shocked spectator would see that it was Horatio.

It can be assumed that Horatio himself drowned Ophelia, although he is hardly suitable for such work. And in the text we did not find direct indications of such a development of the plot. Let us remember that it is not Horatio who beats the dead king with a halberd, but Marcellus (albeit on Horatio’s orders). However, one indirect indication still exists.

If there was no pantomime, then we must believe that Horatio ignored the king's "request" to "follow her" and "provide her with good supervision." And for some reason the king not only did not get angry with him, but, on the contrary, after that he began to call him “good Horatio”.

Ophelia drowned just in time (for Claudius). Well, just like her failed father-in-law, who died just in time in his sleep in the garden.

Does Horatio have an alibi? No. And so he is in a hurry to disappear from Elsinore before everyone finds out about Ophelia’s murder. He was ordered to follow Ophelia's heels, he described to the queen how she drowned, and now he had to escape. (What if the king orders an investigation and blames everything on Horatio?) Therefore, he does not fulfill Hamlet’s requests and does not arrange access for the sailors to the king and queen, but he himself passes on the letters through a certain Claudio, and he and the courtier forward them to the king.

HORATIO

After Hamlet is deported to England, Horatio goes to serve the poisoner king.

Let us recall that in Elsinore the Swiss (Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus) are not only guards, but also spies (Reynaldo). At the cemetery, Horatio pretends that he does not know who is being buried “according to a truncated rite.” But a very interesting dialogue occurs:

HAMLET: What insensibility. He digs a grave and sings.
HORATIO: Habit hardened his heart.
HAMLET: You're right. Until the hand becomes rough from work, and the heart is sensitive. (V, 1)

HORATIO:
This means,
That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in a hurry
To your own death?

HAMLET:
So what?
They found something to their liking
And by doing so they chose death for themselves.
Their blood is on them, not on me.
A nonentity must keep up appearances,
And don’t poke your nose between two blades,
When opponents fight to the death.

The dispute between Thomas More and Erasmus of Rotterdam, whether a humanist should become an adviser to the ruler, was resolved by Shakespeare. And the author of “Hamlet” takes the side of Erasmus, showing what comes of such a walk in power.
Horatio, convinced that Claudius is a murderer, but “due to circumstances” going to his service, himself chooses the path of a hired killer.

Horatio is the ideal student of Machiavelli, brilliantly described by Shakespeare, who, like Horatio, is Italian. He does not have a girlfriend with him, his wife and muse is politics.