Act 4 Scene 5 Flashcards
Why do you think Gertrude is unwilling to see Ophelia first - why does she eventually agree
Guilt ‘I will not speak with her’
Horatio - moral ‘good she were spoken too’
What does Gertrude’s aside reveal
Do we change our attitude
‘Sick soul’
Feels empathy- moral - like her more now
Ophelia songs shows her madness
Can you detect any underlying themes in her words
How do you react to the sight of Ophelia like this
Songs of true love and death
‘True-love showers’
‘Grave did not go’
Shock - before she was passive
How does Claudius react to Ophelia
‘Conceit upon her father’
‘Pretty Ophelia’
Short replies
‘Follows her close’ - SPY- selfish
The entrance of Laertes shows another reaction to killing of a father. Exp contrast
How does Ophelia affect this
‘Vile King/ Give me my father’ - fierce
‘Didst thou persuade revenge’
Plot summary
Open with Gertrude saying she won’t ‘speak with her’ but doesn’t know who she means
A ‘gentlemen’ described the waiting woman as desperate and mad - she can’t speak anything of sense and he isn’t sure than she thinks anything rational at all
Gertrude agrees to speak to Ophelia as Horatio persuades
After Ophelia is gone, Claudius tells Horatio to look over her. Tells Gertrude that this is due to her father death.
He also tells her that Laertes has returned, but will not speak to anyone. He’s heard rumours that as Laertes has passed through the city the people have called for him to become king.
Laertes arrives into room, angry and accusatory. He seems to thin Claudius murdered his father, but asks what has happened and why funeral was so swift. Claudius tells him that he was not responsible for Polonius’ death and then Ophelia enters
Laertes immediately realised that she is mad,and is grief stricken. Ophelia bearing flowers, hands them out around the court while she continues to sing. Claudius tells Laertes that he will tell him everything, and work with him to achieve ‘due content’ for his father’s death - Laertes agrees and they leave to talk
Key themes
Madness - Ophelia has been driven mad by what has happened
Father/son relationships : Laertes and Polonius provide and interesting constrast to hamlet and the king Laertes speech is angry, direct and forceful- whereas hamlet is often indecisive and vacillates between one decision and another
Form structure and language
Ophelia songs
Songs reveal more about Ophelia thought and character than perhaps any of her ‘sane’ speeches does.
She uses references to old folk tales and fables that she half-remembers, finding new meaning in them
Her reference to the ‘bakers daughter’ is reference to a legend in which a begger pleads for some bread - and when the baker agrees, the daughter rebukes him
The begger is the saviour in disguise and the daughter is turned into an owl as punishment
Her second song about the maid is more sexualised and perhaps indicate her suffering over her relationship with hamlet; the maid gives her honour away on Valentine’s Day, and when he rejects her she is ruined
Form structure and language
Ophelias use of prose
After her second song, Ophelia speaks in prose- just as Hamlet does when he is in a ‘mad episode’
Key quotes
To hell allegiance! Vows to the blackest devel’
‘I dare damnation’
Determined to seek revenge no matter what
Ophelia sex
‘Let in the maid, that out a maid never departed more’ - she left honour in room
Song - mad
Ophelia flowers
‘Fennel’ and ‘columbine’ - flattery and deception
‘Rue’ - bitterness
‘Daisy’- innocence
‘Violets’ - fidelity
