Ophelia Quotations Flashcards
Ophelia promises to keep her discussion about Hamlet with Laertes private
‘This in my memory lock’d and you yourself shall be the key of it’
Ophelia cant think for herself
‘I do not know my lord what I should think’
Ophelia does what she is told
‘I shall obey my lord’
Hamlet tells Ophelia he never gave her gifts
‘I never gave you aught’
Ophelia asks God to help Hamlet
‘Oh help him you sweet heaves’
How Ophelia responds to Hamlet - passive, submissive, formal address, respect, distancing herself
‘good my lord’, ‘my lord’, ‘what means you my lordship’
Ophelia criticises herself in her soliloquy
. ‘And I, of ladies most deject and wretched’
Ophelia’s praise for Hamlet in her soliloquy
. ‘O, what a noble mind is here’ - still praises Hamlet
. Talks about Hamlet first, ‘The glass of fashion and the mould of form’ - Hamlet is a model for others
What does Ophelia mean?
Serving girl
Said by gentleman - ‘method in her madness, similar to Hamlet
‘carry but half sense’
Scared of Hamlet
‘Oh my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted’
Ophelia rejected Hamlet following Polonius’ orders
‘But as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied his access to me’
Polonius without anyone to cry for him, implies she could not go to the funeral, unable to get closure, syllable disruption through ‘not’
‘Larded all with sweet flowers which bewept to the grave did not go’
Ophelia starts giving flowers - method in madness as her flowing giving seems fitting
. ‘there’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance’ - given to Laertes
. ‘there’s fennel for you, and columbines’ - given to Claudius, fennel = flattery, columbines = ingratitude and infidelity
Clown says this, suspicion surrounding her death
‘is she to be buried in Christian burial when she wilfully seeks her own salvation’
