Gertrude and Ophelia

Cafe Society
1

The death of OpheliaThere is a willow grows aslant a brook,
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream;
There with fantastic garlands did she come
Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples
That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,
But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them:
There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds
Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke;
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide;
And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up:
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes;
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and indued
Unto that element: but long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death.
as told by Queen Gertrude.

My HS English teacher did find this troubling, because, for all the world, this reflects a first-hand account. Was the Queen nearby, watching this horrific event unfold? Wherefore, then, was she a mere spectator, a passive witness to the eddy demise of her own son’s favored one, raising no hand to forestall the tragedy? Did she consider it a mercy, to allow Ophelia to free herself from the strangling grip of dementia? Was the some hidden hostility in her, toward this girl who threatened to come between her and her son? Or was there some other thing at play here?

My theory is that Gertrude was occupied at the moment, focused on taking a crap.

2

Gertrude is clearly imagining, with some horror, the scene of Ophelia drowning herself. Nothing in the text suggests that she was observing it firsthand and Gertrude is clearly shown as somewhat favoring Ophelia and horrified at the events that transpire (the accidential death of Polonius, the increasing instability of her son, the carelessness of Claudius). She may be lacking in guide and somewhat credulous about Claudius’ involvement in the death of King Hamlet (although you can also take it that she was simply looking out to protect her and her son’s perrogatives by enjoining someone who would at least protect the crown and interests of Denmark to be inherited by Hamlet), but I don’t think there is any basis for arguing that she had a vested interest in or is tacitly complicit in Ophelia’s suicide.

Stranger

3

It made more sense dramatically for Gertrude to tell Hamlet, so Shakespeare wrote it that way, and to hell with giving it any lame rationalization.

4

Well, no, that passage is delivered to Claudius and Laertes, not Hamlet. And Laertes reaction, “Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia, and therefore I forbid my tears” seems almost as though it were put there for comic relief. Or to depict Laertes as a dick.