{"id":320,"date":"2026-09-28T21:09:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T21:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/?p=320"},"modified":"2026-09-28T21:20:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T21:20:42","slug":"hamlet-and-the-murder-of-ophelia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/2026\/09\/28\/hamlet-and-the-murder-of-ophelia\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamlet and the Murder of Ophelia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hamlet<\/a>I saw Hamlet in Seattle yesterday. It was an excellent production in a smallish, intimate theatre. Jacqui’s favorite soliloquy is the “Defy Augury” speech and Hamlet stood right in front of us to deliver it. By Hamlet, I mean the actor Billy Finn who was a marvelous Hamlet. He brought a humor and grace into the role that really opens up the play. It is a stellar cast that included Anne Allgood as Gertrude. I highly recommend this production if you are in the Seattle area.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Gertrude, I have a lot of questions about her role in this play. I know formally, why she does the things she does in the play. Someone has to come on to stage to announce Ophelia’s drowning in Act 4 sc. 7. That is how things are done in the Elizabethan theatre. It would be a technically hard to thing to depict give the stages these plays were acted upon. This is a play, not a movie: someone has to tell us.<\/p>\n

BUT, Gertrude describes the exact species of flowers Ophelia wore, the specific willow branch she climbed, how her clothes spread out to keep her temporarily afloat, and how she sang old hymns while sinking. If Gertrude witnessed all of this in such vivid, real-time detail, it implies she was standing right there. One could argue that instead of saving a drowning, mentally unstable young woman, Gertrude simply watched her die or maybe even actively pushed her. Abigail Jackson in her Inspecting Shakespeare<\/a> video wonders what a queen is doing out alone with a mentally unstable woman with seemingly no guards or attendants who could have intervened.\u00a0 This lends support to the theory that Gertrude may have wanted to silence Ophelia, whose madness had led her to wander the castle singing politically dangerous and provocative songs that threatened the stability of the royal court.<\/span> Also, it is possible that if Ophelia married Hamlet, it could have given Polonius’ family even more power. I have not thought that one through enough though because marrying Ophelia (a local girl) prevents Hamlet from marrying into a foreign family, raising an army, and returning to Denmark to claim his throne. Despite that, I think that there are three possible motives here:\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Columbo<\/a>Motive 1: The Danish public is already angry and on the verge of rebellion over Polonius\u2019s secret burial. Ophelia is walking around the castle acting as a living, breathing megaphone for the royal family’s corruption. Gertrude explicitly states at the start of that scene that Ophelia “may strew dangerous conjectures in ill-breeding minds.”<\/em> Silencing Ophelia permanently protects the crown from a public relations disaster and shores up their power.<\/p>\n

Motive 2: When Laertes storms the castle in Act 4, scene 5, he isn’t just mourning; he has a mob of Danish citizens behind him crying, “Laertes shall be king!”<\/p>\n

Save yourself, my lord:
\nThe ocean, overpeering of his list,
\nEats not the flats with more impetuous haste
\nThan young Laertes, in a riotous head,
\nO’erbears your officers. The rabble call him lord;
\nAnd, as the world were now but to begin,
\nAntiquity forgot, custom not known,
\nThe ratifiers and props of every word,
\nThey cry ‘Choose we: Laertes shall be king:’
\nCaps, hands, and tongues, applaud it to the clouds:
\n‘Laertes shall be king, Laertes king!’<\/p>\n

He is a genuine threat to overthrow Claudius and Gertrude. If Ophelia is alive and mad, she is a constant visual reminder to Laertes of what the royal family has stripped away from him (first his father, now his sister’s sanity). By ending Ophelia’s suffering and framing it beautifully as a tragic accident, Gertrude can redirect Laertes’s rage. Instead of blaming the monarchy for a slow, agonizing psychological destruction, she gives him a clean, poetic tragedy to mourn, defusing his immediate political rebellion.<\/p>\n

Motive 3: Hamlet killed Polonius. If Ophelia recovers her sanity, or if she reveals details about Hamlet’s erratic, violent behavior toward her, it further builds the legal and political case to have Hamlet executed or permanently exiled. By removing the victim of Hamlet’s emotional abuse from the board, Gertrude eliminates a key witness and a massive source of complications for her son’s survival.<\/p>\n

Hamlet, 4.7<\/strong><\/p>\n

Enter\u00a0Queen.<\/span><\/p>\n

QUEEN<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nOne\u00a0woe\u00a0doth\u00a0tread\u00a0upon\u00a0another\u2019s\u00a0heel,
\nSo\u00a0fast\u00a0they\u00a0follow.\u00a0Your\u00a0sister\u2019s\u00a0drowned,\u00a0Laertes.
\nLAERTES<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> Drowned?\u00a0O,\u00a0where?
\nQUEEN<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nThere\u00a0is\u00a0a\u00a0willow\u00a0grows\u00a0askant\u00a0the\u00a0brook
\nThat\u00a0shows\u00a0his\u00a0hoar\u00a0leaves\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0glassy\u00a0stream.
\nTherewith\u00a0fantastic\u00a0garlands\u00a0did\u00a0she\u00a0make
\nOf\u00a0crowflowers,\u00a0nettles,\u00a0daisies,\u00a0and\u00a0long\u00a0purples,
\nThat\u00a0liberal\u00a0shepherds\u00a0give\u00a0a\u00a0grosser\u00a0name,
\nBut\u00a0our\u00a0cold\u00a0maids\u00a0do\u00a0\u201cdead\u00a0men\u2019s\u00a0fingers\u201d\u00a0call<\/span>
\nthem.
\nThere\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0pendant\u00a0boughs\u00a0her\u00a0coronet\u00a0weeds
\nClamb\u2019ring\u00a0to\u00a0hang,\u00a0an\u00a0envious\u00a0sliver\u00a0broke,
\nWhen\u00a0down\u00a0her\u00a0weedy\u00a0trophies\u00a0and\u00a0herself
\nFell\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0weeping\u00a0brook.\u00a0Her\u00a0clothes\u00a0spread\u00a0wide,
\nAnd\u00a0mermaid-like\u00a0awhile\u00a0they\u00a0bore\u00a0her\u00a0up,
\nWhich\u00a0time\u00a0she\u00a0chanted\u00a0snatches\u00a0of\u00a0old\u00a0lauds,
\nAs\u00a0one\u00a0incapable\u00a0of\u00a0her\u00a0own\u00a0distress
\nOr\u00a0like\u00a0a\u00a0creature\u00a0native\u00a0and\u00a0endued
\nUnto\u00a0that\u00a0element.\u00a0But\u00a0long\u00a0it\u00a0could\u00a0not\u00a0be
\nTill\u00a0that\u00a0her\u00a0garments,\u00a0heavy\u00a0with\u00a0their\u00a0drink,
\nPulled\u00a0the\u00a0poor\u00a0wretch\u00a0from\u00a0her\u00a0melodious\u00a0lay
\nTo\u00a0muddy\u00a0death.<\/span>
\nLAERTES<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> Alas,\u00a0then\u00a0she\u00a0is\u00a0drowned.
\nQUEEN<\/span>\u00a0<\/span> Drowned,\u00a0drowned.
\nLAERTES<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>
\nToo\u00a0much\u00a0of\u00a0water\u00a0hast\u00a0thou,\u00a0poor\u00a0Ophelia,
\nAnd\u00a0therefore\u00a0I\u00a0forbid\u00a0my\u00a0tears.\u00a0But\u00a0yet
\nIt\u00a0is\u00a0our\u00a0trick;\u00a0nature\u00a0her\u00a0custom\u00a0holds,
\nLet\u00a0shame\u00a0say\u00a0what\u00a0it\u00a0will.\u00a0When\u00a0these\u00a0are\u00a0gone,
\nThe\u00a0woman\u00a0will\u00a0be\u00a0out.\u2014Adieu,\u00a0my\u00a0lord.
\nI\u00a0have\u00a0a\u00a0speech\u00a0o\u2019\u00a0fire\u00a0that\u00a0fain\u00a0would\u00a0blaze,
\nBut\u00a0that\u00a0this\u00a0folly\u00a0drowns\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

If you have any ideas on this, I would love to hear them. I think I look at these plays this way primarily because I am storyteller myself. One of these days I will have to bring out my suspicions of Friar Laurence…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw Hamlet in Seattle yesterday. It was an excellent production in a smallish, intimate theatre. Jacqui’s favorite soliloquy is the “Defy Augury” speech and Hamlet stood right in front of us to deliver it. By Hamlet, I mean the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[94,96,92,95,93,9],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theatre","tag-drowning","tag-gertrude","tag-hamlet","tag-murder","tag-ophelia","tag-shakespeare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geoffcain.com\/blog\/fluxus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}