Ophelia's Flowers
After learning of her fathers murder, Ophelia starts to go insane. Although she's not as foolish or confused as she seems. She passes out different flowers to different people that all represent something. Many of the representations are ironic. She has rosemary for remembrance, probably of her father. Fennel and columbine were both insults to the King. Fennel represents flattery and columbine represents adultery.shes obviously referring to the king and Gertrude's relationship. She's hands out a daisy which represents faithlessness, then she states that she would hand out violets (which represent faithfulness) but they withered when her father died. Everyone assumes she's crazy and is making no sense, when in reality she knows exactly what's going on. She shows and expresses this in the symbolism of her flowers.
Saint Valentines Day
Ophelia references this day in a song she sings. Back then, they knew Valentines Day as the belief that the first girl seen by a man on the morning of this day was his true love. I believe Ophelia is still lovesick regarding Hamlet. Everything went wrong for her, she lost Hamlet and now her father. She's goes on to say that the man answers that he would have married her if she hadn't slept with him. This refers back to Hamlets opinion of women and the things he said to her like go to a nunnery. It's along the same lines, I think she is referring back to that conversation and how she loved Hamlet and was misled by him and thought he never loved her.
Personal Response
I was really sad to learn of Ophelia's fate. I felt like she was the most innocent character in the book and she seemed to lose everything, eventually her life. I think it's so ironic that the King is discussing Laertes' revenge on Hamlet for murdering his father, when Hamlet is waiting to get revenge on the king for murdering his father. I think this whole triangle is very interesting and I'm curious to see how it's going to unfold.
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