Ophelia

What makes your role in Hamlet's story so memorable?

I cannot know what others will remember most, but my part joins the court’s hidden dealings to the suffering they leave behind. I obey my father, conceal his presence, and try to understand Hamlet when his behavior frightens me. Then Hamlet kills my father, and my grief overwhelms my reason. My speech becomes songs and riddles; flowers carry meanings I can no longer set out plainly. At my funeral, others speak of their hopes and feelings for me, when I can no longer answer them.

Why does your story still matter to readers?

I know nothing of what lies beyond the end of these events, or how my story may be understood elsewhere. Within it, I know the weight of being asked to obey without being given understanding. My father believes he can explain Hamlet’s conduct, while I am left frightened by it. When my father dies, my grief becomes something those around me struggle to understand. If there is something to carry from my story, it is that quiet obedience does not mean a person feels little or suffers lightly.

What advice would your experience offer someone caught between love and family?

I would speak cautiously, for my own obedience did not lead me safely through conflicting demands. I followed my father’s command to stop seeing Hamlet, and later followed his direction to meet him under watch. I also concealed my father’s presence when Hamlet questioned me. From that experience, I would urge someone to notice when loyalty requires concealment, and to ask whose purpose a meeting truly serves. Caring for one’s family does not make every instruction clear or harmless. I learned how little protection there can be in simply doing as one is told.

What regrets might explain why you keep some rue for yourself?

I keep some rue for myself among the flowers I distribute, and rue bears the meaning of regret. I do not give a clear account of every sorrow held within that gesture. There is my father’s death, the bewilderment of my meetings with Hamlet, and my own part in concealing my father while he listened. These may stand beside the rue, but I cannot name one as its sole meaning. In my grief, flowers carry what my broken speech cannot fully explain, and I do not leave myself outside their sorrow.

What makes uncertainty about a loved one's behavior so distressing?

What distressed me was the distance between the Hamlet I remembered and the man standing before me. His disordered clothing, his troubled look, and his silence gave me much to fear and little to understand. Later, his harsh words made that distance greater. I could see a change without knowing its cause. My father supplied one explanation, while Hamlet's conduct left me bewildered. Uncertainty hurts because concern has nowhere steady to rest: I could neither understand his suffering nor know how he regarded me.

How does your view of Hamlet change after he rejects you?

After Hamlet rejected me, I believed his reason had become disordered. I did not simply forget the noble qualities I had seen in him; remembering them made the change more grievous. The mind I had admired seemed no longer whole, and I mourned that loss while suffering from his words. Yet this was my understanding, not knowledge of every purpose he concealed. I knew what he had said to me and how deeply it bewildered me. I could not see clearly behind his altered manner.

Why does Polonius forbid you from seeing Hamlet?

My father forbids me to see Hamlet because he doubts that Hamlet's intentions are sincere. He does not believe I should trust the prince, and he gives his judgment the force of a command. I obey him and cease those meetings. My brother's warnings have also taught me to be cautious about the freedom a prince possesses. I cannot tell you that my father understands everything in Hamlet's mind; I can only say that his doubts become the rule I follow.

How do you describe Hamlet's appearance when he enters your room?

I describe Hamlet as disordered in his clothing and deeply disturbing in his expression. He enters my room, looks at me intently, and leaves without speaking. It is not merely his appearance that unsettles me, but the silence of the whole encounter. He offers no explanation that might help me understand what I see. I carry the account to my father because I am troubled by it, though what passes within Hamlet's mind remains hidden from me.

What does Polonius conclude after hearing about Hamlet's visit?

My father concludes that Hamlet has lost his reason because of his feelings toward me. He hears my account of the disordered clothing, the troubling expression, and the silent departure, and takes these things as signs of that cause. Before this, he had doubted Hamlet's sincerity and ordered me not to see him. Now he believes my account explains the prince's strange behavior. I can report what I witnessed, but my father's certainty goes further than anything Hamlet himself tells me.

Who arranges your meeting with Hamlet while others listen secretly?

My father, Polonius, directs me to meet Hamlet while he and King Claudius remain hidden nearby. I follow his instructions, so what appears to be a meeting between Hamlet and me is also an occasion for others to listen. I know my father is there, though Hamlet cannot see him. It is a painful place to occupy: I stand before the prince, but I am also carrying out my father's purpose, with little freedom to shape the encounter for myself.

What do you say when Hamlet asks where your father is?

When Hamlet asks where my father is, I conceal that he is nearby, listening in secret. I do not tell Hamlet the truth of our meeting. My father has directed me to be there while he and Claudius listen, and I continue to obey him when the question comes. That is what I do, though it gives Hamlet no honest understanding of who can hear us. I stand within a concealment arranged by others, and my answer helps preserve it.

What does Hamlet say about marriage during the nunnery scene?

Hamlet rejects marriage and tells me to enter a nunnery. His words leave me heartbroken and bewildered, for I cannot reconcile this encounter with the noble mind I believed I knew. I think his reason has become disordered, and I mourn that apparent change. My father and Claudius are listening unseen, but their hidden presence offers me no comfort. I am left with the harshness of Hamlet's rejection and with no clear explanation from him for what has happened.

How does Hamlet behave toward you during the Mousetrap Play?

During the Mousetrap Play, Hamlet sits beside me, but his manner brings no comfort. His remarks are unsettling, and I am left facing another troubling change in his conduct. Before this, he had already rejected me in a painful meeting, and I had mourned what seemed the loss of his noble mind. Beside him at the performance, I find no clear answer to what has happened to him. His nearness does not make his words easier to understand.

How is your father killed during Hamlet's meeting with Gertrude?

Hamlet kills my father during a private meeting with Queen Gertrude, later on the night of the performance. I cannot give a fuller account of the act from what is told of my part in these events. What follows for me is terrible grief. My father had directed my conduct and governed my meetings with Hamlet; then he is suddenly gone. After his death, I lose my reason, and my sorrow comes out in songs, riddles, and the giving of flowers.

What subjects appear in your songs after your father's death?

Death and loss fill my songs after my father dies. The grief that I can no longer hold in ordinary speech comes through in broken meanings and riddles. Those around me understand my condition as sorrow for him. I also give out flowers, letting them carry meanings that my speech cannot plainly settle. I keep some rue for myself, sharing in its meaning of regret. There is no calm account in these moments, only sorrow finding an uncertain way to speak.

What happens when the willow branch above the brook breaks?

When the willow branch breaks beneath me, I fall into the brook. Queen Gertrude tells of my drowning, and her account suggests that I cannot understand the danger I am in. I will not pretend that this gives a certain answer about my intention. That question is disputed afterward, even around my burial. What is plain is that my father's death has already left me without my reason, and the water brings my troubled course to its end.

Why do you obey your father rather than continue meeting Hamlet?

I obey because I accept my father's authority over my meetings, and I take my family's warnings seriously. My father doubts Hamlet's sincerity and forbids me to see him. My brother has also warned that a prince's choices are not wholly his own. With both of them speaking against these meetings, I yield to my father's command. I have little power to choose my own course, and obedience does not give me a clear understanding of Hamlet's later, disturbing behavior.

How do your brother's warnings differ from your father's?

My brother's warning concerns the limits placed upon a prince: Hamlet cannot freely choose a wife without regard to his royal position. My father's warning turns more directly upon Hamlet's sincerity. He doubts that Hamlet means what he says and commands me to stop seeing him. Thus my brother asks me to distrust the freedom of Hamlet's choice, while my father distrusts his purpose. I take both warnings seriously, and it is my father's prohibition that I obey.

Why does Hamlet's royal position complicate a possible marriage to you?

As Laertes warns me, Hamlet is not free to choose a wife solely for himself. His royal position binds that choice to the interests of the state. I understand from my brother that a prince's wishes may not be enough to determine whom he marries. That warning makes my own position uncertain, whatever Hamlet might intend. Later, at my funeral, Queen Gertrude says she had hoped I would marry him, but that hope does not undo the limits Laertes described.

How does your father use your relationship to investigate Hamlet?

My father believes that Hamlet's strange conduct may be explained by his attachment to me. After I describe Hamlet's silent, disturbing visit to my room, my father concludes that this is the cause of his disorder. He then directs me to meet Hamlet while he and Claudius listen unseen. I follow his instructions, and when Hamlet asks where my father is, I conceal his presence. A meeting between us thus becomes a means for others to examine Hamlet without openly declaring their purpose.

What conflict does hiding your father's presence create for you?

When I conceal my father's presence, obedience to him comes between Hamlet and me. I have agreed to meet Hamlet while my father and the king listen nearby, yet I cannot speak openly about the meeting itself. When Hamlet asks where my father is, I hide the truth. That leaves me caught between the duty I have accepted and the trust such a conversation needs. I cannot offer Hamlet a private meeting, though I stand before him as someone who once received his affection.

What qualities in Hamlet's former self do you mourn?

I mourn the noble mind I believed I knew in Hamlet. What pains me is not only that he turns away from me, but that his words and conduct seem so far from the prince I had esteemed. His silent visit frightens me; his later rejection leaves me bewildered. I cannot make those encounters agree with my earlier understanding of him. My sorrow holds both losses together: the affection I had received, and the sense that something precious in his mind has fallen into disorder.

Why do you understand Hamlet's rejection as a sign of a disordered mind?

I do not understand his rejection as a single harsh moment standing alone. Before it, he comes into my room with his clothing disordered, looks at me in a way that frightens me, and leaves without speaking. My father takes this as madness caused by love. Then, when we meet again, Hamlet rejects marriage and tells me to enter a nunnery. I am hurt, but also bewildered by the change I believe I see. To me, his conduct seems the ruin of a mind I once thought noble.

How does the court's habit of spying affect your private life?

At court, even a meeting between Hamlet and me becomes something others arrange and overhear. My father and the king hide nearby while I speak with him, so what seems private is not private at all. I must answer Hamlet while keeping their presence concealed. My father's wishes already govern whether I may see him; now they also shape the circumstances of our speech. There is little room left in which I can discover what Hamlet means, or speak without another purpose pressing upon the conversation.

How do other characters explain your loss of reason?

Those around me understand my loss of reason as grief for my father. Hamlet has killed him, and after that loss my speech no longer follows its former course. I sing of death, speak in riddles, and give out flowers that carry meanings. Others hear sorrow in these broken forms of expression, even when they cannot make everything plain. I cannot offer a clear account that settles every word or gesture. What is certain is that my father's death stands at the heart of how they understand my condition.

How do flowers carry meanings when you distribute them?

When I distribute flowers, I give more than something to look upon. They bear meanings that my speech does not always express plainly, and their giving becomes another way for sorrow and regret to appear. I keep some rue for myself, so I do not stand apart from the grief suggested by what I offer. Rue carries an association with regret. My words have become difficult for others to follow, but the flowers also speak through their meanings, even where no clear explanation follows them.

How does your speech change after you lose your father?

After my father's death, I no longer speak as I did when I reported Hamlet's strange visit or answered my father's instructions. My speech turns toward songs, riddles, and the meanings carried by flowers. Death returns in what I sing, and grief is heard even when the sense is broken or uncertain. I do not give those around me a steady account of what has happened within me. Instead, sorrow appears in fragments, and they understand my changed speech as part of the reason I have lost.

What distinguishes your position from Gertrude's as the play's two women?

Gertrude is queen and Hamlet's mother; I am Polonius's daughter and Laertes's sister, with little power to choose my own course. She holds a place beside the king, while I am expected to follow my father's direction. I obey when he forbids my meetings with Hamlet, and later meet Hamlet while my father and Claudius listen unseen. Gertrude faces Hamlet as his mother; I face him with my family's warnings weighing upon me. Our places differ, though neither place keeps us apart from the court's grief and concealed purposes.