ever anything there, Ophelia simply goes insane. Honestly, who’s to blame her? The sweet, virginal girl has been accused of being less than such, even her only love accuses her of it. Not to mention the fact that her only love could deny the only relationship with love she has ever experienced. Then, that same love kills her father, the only family she has near Eilsnore to speak of.Her insanity, in contrast to Hamlet’s, is very real. It is not an act, nor is it a ploy for attention. She has seriously gone insane. But her insanity gives her a freedom of sorts. No longer does she have to worry about how to act or what to say, she may act or say however she feels at the moment. Some of her songs have the same sort of crude sexual allusions Hamlet was allowed, but not Ophelia. Her songs, though loaded with themes of love, sex, and desertion, are not the real Ophelia. She, due to her insanity, has no real purpose in saying these things, instead, they are just free expressions of the topics which prevail in her mind. In one scene of madness, Ophelia talks of flowers, and gives certain types to certain people. Rosemary and pansies are given specifically to Laertes, the rosemary for remembrance, and the pansies for thought. While rosemary is a symbol for remembrance, it is also a symbol of fidelity, love and loyalty. Violets are mentioned in regard to her father, and how “they all withered away when my [her] father died” (4.6, 188-189)Other flowers, such as rue for repentance, columbines for ingratitude, daisies for faithlessness, and fennel for flattery are given out. Their meanings are very clear, but to whom they were given to is left to interpretation. One might guess that the rue was given to Claudius to symbolize his need for repentance after the murder of his brother, and the incestuous life that he has thus lived. The fennel and the columbine are given to the same person, yet to whom this wou...
