Hamlet 4.5 | A Mad But More Assertive Ophelia Emerges

Question 1

4.5 Through madness Ophelia makes a forceful assertion of her being’

Answer 1

Charney

Question 2

4.5 “She is importunate”

Answer 2

Her voice can’t be silenced unlike earlier in the play

Question 3

4.5 ‘Half sense’ / “botch the words up to fit their own thoughts”

Answer 3

Ophelia’s words presented as half sense and that her comments carry weight people interpret to fit their own agenda

Question 4

4.5 “Dangerous”

Answer 4

Seen as dangerous which is a significant contrast to earlier meekness , Gertrude admits anxiety and overwhelming guilt

Question 5

4.5 “Pray you mark”

Answer 5

Ophelia demands attention showing little respect for authority of Claudius or Gertrude

Question 6

4.5 “Larded with sweet flowers / which bewept to the grave did not go”

Answer 6

Ophelia comments on cover up of polonius’ murder - denied proper burial

Question 7

4.5 “Let in the maid that out a maid / ‘never departed more” // ‘you promis’d me to wed’

Answer 7

Ophelia comments on Hamlet’s lies and immoral behaviour , taking her virginity + going back on his promises

Question 8

4.5 “Violet in the youth” / “pretty Ophelia”

Answer 8

Claudius defines Ophelia in superficial way - similar to her being compared to a flower

Question 9

4.5 ‘Weeping brook’ // ‘mermaid-like’ + ‘like a creature native to that element’

Answer 9

Gertrude’s monologue presents a beautiful image of Ophelia as being at one with nature, seen through the personified ‘weeping brook’ . even in death denied a meaningful identity described as above

Question 10

4.5 Ophelia is a lesser we have never really known

Answer 10

Kerrigan