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Playlist Shakespeare's Hamlet: Shmoopversations 16 videos
Crack open your copy of Hamlet, because it's time to discuss what happens during the course of Act I. Sadly, it has nothing to do with ham.
What is the setting of Hamlet, and how does it contribute to the overall feel of the play?
What does the line "to thine own self be true" mean in the context of the play? And why do so many people use it as their senior yearbook quote? Pe...
Shakespeare's Hamlet 11 Ophelia's Death 162 Views
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Description:
How does Ophelia die, and what does that say about her character? What a weird question. If we die as planned––in a bathtub full of mac n' cheese––we hope people don't make assumptions...
Transcript
- 00:00
Thank you We sneak Shakespeare's hamlet Ophelia is dead Alas
- 00:09
shmoop How does ophelia die And what does that say
- 00:14
about her character So we don't see her actually drown
- 00:17
Of course we see her show up with all these
- 00:20
flowers kind of saying these nonsensical nursery rhyme ish things
Full Transcript
- 00:23
So there's this sense of like you know that creepy
- 00:27
like a baby innocent stuff turned sour where she's this
- 00:31
corrupted figure and we're not sure why and she she
- 00:34
herself doesn't seem to have a good sense of why
- 00:37
and she seems to retreat into this like infantile world
- 00:40
Other people actually read her final speech as actually having
- 00:44
like content and meaning but it's when you first hear
- 00:47
it it certainly doesn't make any sense at all And
- 00:50
then when she when she doesn't maybe kill herself or
- 00:52
whatever just dies that's that's always left Is this lingering
- 00:55
question and because of the to be or not to
- 00:57
be speech we know that it really matters whether or
- 01:00
not she killed herself right It matters as to whether
- 01:03
or not she's going to go to heaven matters in
- 01:05
terms of like the proper burial rites So she's like
- 01:09
officially she just died but there's that specter of her
- 01:13
Maybe Having committed suicide there the whole time which in
- 01:16
some senses makes it even more tragic right Because then
- 01:19
her innocence is corrupted on so many levels She's not
- 01:21
just a martyr figure she's like a martyr that goes
- 01:24
to hell Alright she's like actually corrupted She actually chose
- 01:28
to do the evil thing And again it's she's she's
- 01:31
an interesting character because we don't get any kind of
- 01:33
internal sense of her thoughts ever You know she doesn't
- 01:36
give us soliloquies She's always there kind of with policing
- 01:41
male figures either like hamlet he's manipulating her or her
- 01:44
father and brother were manipulating her or claudius who's manipulating
- 01:48
her but she just she has nowhere to turn for
- 01:51
someone who's actually giving disinterested advice How does ophelia die
- 01:58
And what does that say about her character Huh No
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