As the Violets Withered
a Hamlet one shot
"...I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died..."-Ophelia HAMLET Act 4 Scene 5
NOTE: This is sort of a analysis of Ophelia's madness and her ultimate death. The first section is an outside look at how she is being pushed into her madness. The second and third sections are views of inside her mind. The second section takes place right after she receives news of her fathers death. The third section is later when she is ultimately consumed by the insanity and her final moments before drowning in the river.
Keep in mind an insane person doesn't know they are insane and they view themselves as the sane one.
One catastrophe likes to follow another, they grow greater in their severity until one happens that is so horrific that it can drive a person to madness. First consider the temporary departure of a sibling this could leave a girl with a slight loss of security. Now add in a lover who could change their mood in an instant, the said lover is experiencing a loss and that accounts for much of their moodiness. Now consider that the girl's father does not approve of the lover's affections and has demanded that the girl not pay any attention to him. Let's say this lover's emotions peak in a climatic moment when he deems the girl a harlot. Now consider that this lover has killed the girl's father.
What does she do? Her father is now no longer there to stand in the way of her and her love. Yet she loved her father dearly and cannot bear the thought of losing him. She depends on him for guidance in the world and is now left alone, her brother is not there to guide her, she is abandoned. And a great sense of guilt is brewing with all these emotions, she had at many times wished her father to be out of the way and now he is and she feels as though she has brought about that in some way.
Not to mention the fact she was taught that women are to be seen and not heard and that they are inferior to men and that they need a man to take care of them. She was brought up sheltered and not very aware of the vast complex world around her. And it is a Sisyphean effort to keep herself calm. Well what happens to a girl who is put though all of this?
One would only assume she would go mad.
What has happened here? Why has this happened? How? This morning my life was normal, a bit rocky, but normal. And now....now I have gotten my hearts desire and I wish nothing more then to curse my heart for such a want. How could I have wished this? Perhaps this is my bittersweet reward, to be given a love who himself is mad and to have a guardian torn away from me. Oh how a grudge can cause such madness! My dear beloved father gone and his remains no where to be found!
It is my fault for even desiring that abomination in the first place! How could I have allowed myself to be a mere pawn in his much larger game! How can a man who speaks so eloquently and charmingly also commit such a crime of evil?! And seem to feel no remorse for his actions! He was a devil and he tricked me into playing his game and it has cost me more then fortune could ever bring back.
Think not of it, think not of it. Robbed, you've been robbed! Robbed of your life by a man! All men are unfaithful all men are crazed. They commit great injustices for a sin of flesh.
Adultery. Columbines.
Repentance! Does not the good Lord forgive? Does he not absolve us from our sins? Why he cannot fix this, fix them, fix me. Not a true Christian in the lot of them! Including me....I allowed this to happen I added to the fire and kept it burning brightly. I was foolish as I always am and now the blame rests on me, they look at me with it in their eyes! They don't understand what I am saying so clearly! They have all become insane! I am but the only sane person left on this whole black world!
Repentance. Rue.
Not a faithful person is left here and the unfaithfulness has led to this. It has all died away like the violets where the frost chokes their roots. The frost of their actions has choked me and every other person on this planet!
The Water. Pure. Rebirth. Clean.
It will wash away all of this, the river is but the only solution to washing away all of this. It will cleanse me.