You are here

All Site ContentHamletAct 4Scene 7
Back to the Play
Ophelia's Death
Context and Language Videos
Act 4,
Scene 7
Lines 140-148

A discussion of Ophelia's Death in Act 4, Scene 7 of myShakespeare's Hamlet. 

myShakespeare | Hamlet 4.7 Ophelia's Death

Laertes   

Drowned! Oh , where?

Gertrude

There is a willow grows aslant a brook, 
That shows his hoary leaves in the glassy stream.
There, with fantastic garlands did she come,
Of crowflowers, 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 pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
Video Transcript: 

RALPH:  Laertes' question is somewhat odd — he's been told that his sister has drowned, and his first question is "where did it happen?" 

SARAH:  Nevertheless, it's a perfect question for Gertrude to be able to describe the scene in which Ophelia meets her death.

RALPH:  Gertrude begins her account by setting the scene:  there's a willow tree overhanging a nearby brook.

SARAH:  Willow trees were symbols of sorrow— as in the phrase weeping willow —  and they did indeed tend to hang over streams and rivers.

RALPH:  Ophelia has gone down to the river to make garlands of flowers — earlier in Act IV, she wandered on and off-stage presenting flowers to various characters while singing fragments of folk songs.

SARAH:  Among the flowers that Gertrude lists here, she mentions long purples. Gertrude says that innocent young girls call these flowers dead men's fingers, but that less innocent shepherds have another, more vulgar name for them.