The Significance of the Manner in Which Ophelia Dies

There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds/ Clambering to hang, an envious dissever broke, When down her weedy trophies and herself/ Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, And mermaid-like awhile they bore her up (line 197-201 , knead 4, Scene 7). Shakespeare, by letting Aphelia drowns herself, to roughly extents alleviates the pain of death and pictures a beautiful Aphelia drowned In water with her beauty minded and preserved.By comparing Aphelia to a mermaid-like figure, Shakespeare gives unreal characteristics to her death and makes it smoother for Aphelia, whose life has been tragical enough. The fact that Aphelia was suffocated under her own dress and that her feminine clothes made her impossible to swim is a metaphor of womens room helplessness at the time cosmos Aphelia dies without any self- defense or mobility. Shakespeare implies the role of women in society and how being a woman gives Aphelia no chance to react even in death.At the uniform time, Aphe lia peps singing Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds/ As one incapable of her own distress/ Or Like a creature native and endued/ Unto that element. (line 202-205, Act 4, Scene 7). Her chanting reminds audience of her madness In Scene 5 and 6, In which she sings songs about men and death. Audience may Identify Aphelions chanting as a trace of madness, but also her singing on the verge of death portrays a passive let-go of Life Aphelia clearly has no Intention of rubbish back or even crying out for help. Compared to Aphelions conversations with Polonium andHamlet throughout the play, it is clear that Aphelia never has any voice or reaction to the events of her life her madness, her sine qua non and even her death are caused and retold by others. For several times throughout the play Aphelia is pictured with flowers. At the end of Act 4, Scene 7, her death is once more associated with symbolic floral images Therewith fantastic garlands did she make/ Of cornflowers, nettle s, daisies, and long purples/ That liberal shepherds give a grosser name/ But our cold maids do dead mens fingers call them. Nine 193-196, Act 4, Scene 7). Flowers are symbols of Aphelions tragic life, being a victim of disruptive events mostly caused by men. Cornflower symbolizes a inhalation of lover, portraying a dying Aphelia still thinking about Hamlet and his lovel. Nettles signify her bad luck and tragic destiny while daisies represent honest love2. The long purples represent Aphelions loss in love Wendell at ten same time audience can assume Tanat a grosser name raters to sexuality3.By occupational group long purples dead mens fingers, Shakespeare implies the causes of Aphelions death as her life is destined by men (Hamlet, Polonium and Alerts) reminding audience of the song which she sings earlier Larded all with lovable flowers/ Which between to the ground did not go/ With true-love showers. (line 43-45, Act 4, Scene 5). By associating Aphelions figure with the presence of flowers, Shakespeare also lets audience know about womens beauty and fragility as that of flowers although women are romantic and pretty outside, they are truly somber and vulnerable indeed.