Ophelia's flowers

Today, Emily and I finished our rehearsal talking about Ophelia's final scene in Hamlet as a possible model for the Flower Seller's final scene in our play. Both characters finish up handing out flowers either to the royal family, or to the audience in our case. Giving away these flowers seems to indicate in both cases that the characters cannot convey everything that they want to say in their own words (that language has become useless for them, as Mark Lord suggested to me) and that they see the end quickly approaching. To study some of the less obvious connections between the two, I figured it would be a good idea to take a look at the moment in question of Act 4 Scene 5 of Shakespeare's Hamlet:

OPHELIA

There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
love, remember: and there is pansies. that's for thoughts.

LAERTES

A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.

OPHELIA

There's fennel for you, and columbines: there's rue
for you; and here's some for me: we may call it
herb-grace o' Sundays: O you must wear your rue with
a difference. There's a daisy: I would give you
some violets, but they withered all when my father
died: they say he made a good end,--

For a more detailed study of what each flower means (and to whom does she hand it it), you can visit this website.

Emily, as we prepare for tomorrow's rehearsal and our work on S11, how can this background seeded in Shakespeare's play help us? Some of the things that occur to me from looking at the scene are that Ophelia knows the significance of each flower as she hands it out. What can does flowers signify for you? Moreover, there is something very funeral about the way Ophelia hands out these flowers. In a way, this relates to the idea that she sees the end (of her life, of Hamlet, of everyone) approaching. You similarly see the end of love coming soon. Does your speech then have a similar funeral quality to it? When we bury the dead, it is customary to to decorate the coffin with flowers. Are these the flowers you are using to decorate love's death? Is that what they represent when you hand them out? Is that the message you want to convey through them that you'll never be able to communicate through language/words, not even the ones that compose your speech?

These are all leading questions, I know. They have helped me, however, prepare for our meeting tomorrow. Perhaps you have ideas of your own that are different from these. If so, we'll compare notes soon. And maybe we'll get some feedback from some of our fellow bloggers!