ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -Ophelia says that she brings violets too with her but all the violets are dried and withered when her father died. So she can’t give violets to anyone. It is interesting because violets are associated with faithfulness and fidelity. We must agree, Ophelia’s father Polonius was faithful and loyal to King Claudius .

Detailed explanation-2: -A red poppy floats near Ophelia’s hand, a symbol of sleep and death. Despite her saying that there were no violets, we can see she wears a necklace of them. Fritillary, symbols of sorrow, also appear. In Act 4, Scene 5 we hear Queen Gertrude’s description of Ophelia’s death.

Detailed explanation-3: -Ophelia uses flowers as symbols of her deep sorrow and grief. She is very upset because her father, Polonius, has just been killed by Hamlet. Being a sensitive and intelligent young woman, Ophelia needs to express herself, and she does so by passing out flowers to the court in her seeming mad state of mind.

Detailed explanation-4: -To Laertes, she gives rosemary, for remembrance, and pansies, for thought, suggesting both their shared history and her lost faculties.

Detailed explanation-5: -This work shows the death of Ophelia, a scene from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Traumatised when Hamlet breaks off their betrothal and accidentally kills her father, she allows herself to fall into a stream and drown. The flowers she has been collecting symbolise her story, the poppies representing death.