Ophelia's Flowers in Hamlet (Fennel)

William Shakespeare uses imagery, double meaning, and folklore references in almost all of his plays; none more apparent however, than in Hamlet.  Shakespeare shows his mastery of poetic techniques through his association of Ophelia with flowers to convey strong senses of evil, remembrance, and innocence throughout the play.  During the Elizabethan era, flowers were widely used to ward away bad spirits and symbolize ideas.  This practice is most evident in Act 4, scene 5 when Ophelia clearly goes mad, begins singing, and assigns flowers to her audience members.  While these assignments may appear to be the blabbering one someone who has clearly gone mad, with a little knowledge of floral folklore, we see exactly what Ophelia is doing.  During Shakespeare’s time, everyone in the audience knew of the flowers and the symbols each carried.  The fennel was widely believed to cast away evil spirits, as well being linked to improving sight and restoring youth (Watts 140-46).  Knowing this, Ophelia’s claim to give Claudius a fennel represents her view of Claudius as an evil man.  Ophelia blames Claudius for her father’s death and Hamlet’s spiraling madness, and claims he is both a murderer and a hypocrite.  This ties into the other meanings of the fennel – restoring eyesight and youth.  By offering Claudius the fennel, Ophelia is saying that he has become blind in his age, and that if he were able to return to his youth, he would be able to open his eyes and see what he was done, and no longer be so evil.  While this is just one example, it’s easy to see the Ophelia knows exactly what she is doing and saying in regards to her flower assignments.  All it takes is a little background knowledge on the subject, and we can gain a new level of understanding into Ophelia’s “madness”.