Ioc Hamlet

Introduction:

Hamlet by Shakespeare.
Act IV, scene vii.

Conversation about Ophelia's death between Gertrude, Leartes and Claudius.

Motif: death- suicide.

Some literary elements help to a deeper understanding of Ophelia's madness as well as Laertes thoughts and emotions of the moment.

Body paragraphs:

Gertrudes’s first words inthe passage are “one woe doth tread upon another’s heel, so fast they follow”. These words first introduce to the main genre of the play which is tragedy. Previously we see that Claudius has murdered King Hamlet and then there is Polonious’s accidental murder. This first words foreshadow a new tragedy, which immediately is exposed as Ophelia’s suicide.Ophelia's madness is first seen in the imagery of how she died. She is portrayed as insane for her action of making "fantastic garlands' a "crow-flowers". Her suicide was not as tragic, but she decided to do it in an adorned place where she could involve with the flowers and die in a fancier, more elegant way.

Also, there is a metaphor where Gertrude describes that for Ophelia thenettles, daisies, and long purples are "dead men's finger". The metaphor suggests that Ophelia's is wrapping herselve in between the death, therefore, portraying a wish to be with the dead man. This then means that Ophelia’s madness rose due to her father's death. It can be inferred that she also became mad because Hamlet killed her father; therefore, demonstrating that she has lost two of the mostimportant men in her life.

Loosing Hamlet could also be considered to have made Ophelia mad since she tangled herself in daisies which symbolize an unhappy love. This suggests that Ophelia was mad due to love, and therefore died killed by man's owns hands, which in this case is Hamlet's lack of love. Therefore, demonstrating that Hamlet's madness and his wish to send Ophelia to a convent and canceltheir marriage did affect her.

The imagery in which Ophelia falls along with the flowers is a harsh imagery since it portrays how life falls along with a mad person who as Gertrude says, is "incapable of her own distress" and "native and idued unto that element". 

During the fall she is compared to a mermaid, this might have the purpose of creating a heavenly image ofOphelia’s death. "Her clothes spread wide" while she "chanted snatched of old lauds". The fact that she is portrayed as careless to her death, demonstrates that for her madness was more of an adventure rather than a prison. We can see that even though Ophelia is committing suicide, she still does it in a "melodious", elegant manner, almost as if trying to say that nothing wrong happened, like if she isfinally dying for good.

A contrast in the atmosphere also demonstrates that Ophelia is not sad for her death; she is more like celebrating this incident. The flowers usually represent life, and therefore there is the contrast between what is being done and the mood that the atmosphere portrays. Even though the flowers were a symbol of the dead man, they stillembellish the place where Ophelia committed a sin.

When Ophelia’s suicide has been described to Laertes, for the first time, he shows his emotions.

Throughout the play we see that he is a strong, independent man. Yet in Act I, scene iii, we also see that he cares a lot for Ophelia and advises her on love to avoid her from suffering.More of this brotherly love is then portrayed when he tries “to forbid [his] tears” since Ophelia had already too much water on top of her. However, he cannot bear the fact that his sister committed suicide and starts crying like a “woman”, .

Even though we can see that he is a man who is not afraid of demonstrating his...