Hamlet+5.1

4. At the beginning of the scene, the gravedigger says, "Is she to be buried in Christian burial/ when she willfully seeks her own salvation?" (5.1.1-2). I found this interesting not only because they question the faith/ritual of her burial because she committed suicide (as if that makes a different to how they bury her - was suicide considered a sin at the time?), but also because they refer to death as "salvation." This is another reference to faith that Shakespeare makes. Is death considered salvation? Maybe when one kills another, he is actually freeing him from pain - Clearly I'm not saying that murder okay, but possibly Shakespeare is saying that those who die/are killed are the purest ones: Ophelia, King Hamlet (everyone liked him), and King Polonius (faithful to King C, and to his children). Following this, the Gravedigger says, "And the more/ pity that great folk should have cout'nance in this/ world to drown or hang themselves more than/ their even Christian" (5.1.27-9).

6. Does Hamlet's reaction signify that he actually really loved Ophelia? I believe that Hamlet loved Ophelia, but I am still trying to work out whether it was his "madness" that got in the way, or his knowledge that he could not have her. It is interesting that Shakespeare chooses never to show Ophelia and Hamlet together on stage, while they are actually "in love." This is probably because he wants us to analyze/figure out the ambiguity of their true emotions.

5 / 6. In this scene, Queen Gertrude says (to the dead Ophelia), "I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife;/ I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,/ And not have strewed thy grave" (5.1.255-7). Based on our conversations about Gertrude, this is kind of fake to me. If Gertrude wanted Ophelia to be Hamlet's wife, I feel like she would have done more to make it happen. She does not really seem to care for the well-fare of Ophelia, as she refuses to speak with her once she's gone mad. (And she allowed her new husband to just send Hamlet away without really arguing with him).