Flowers

If Hamlet was to send a bouquet of flowers to his mother from England, he would symbolically pick specific flowers to convey his feelings to her.

A nightshade would be the first flower in the bouquet. A nightshade symbolizes deception, anger and death. Hamlet has made it perfectly clear that he is angered by all that has occurred in Denmark. The symbol of death could be taken as the death of his father King Hamlet, or the death that he plans on his uncle King Claudius. The nightshade could symbolize a remembrance for his mother of what has happened, or a foreshadowing of the death that will occur when he seeks revenge on his father.

A violet symbolizes faithfulness. Although Hamlet is in England, that will not stop him from seeking revenge on his father. The violet would prove to his mother that he will remain faithful to Denmark, and faithful to his family. Hamlet is not going to let others push him around. He still plans to be faithful and take action.

A rue symbolizes sorrow or repentance. Hamlet may now be regretting how he has acted in the past. He may regret waiting for so long to tell his mother the truth, and instead treating her with deceit like the others. Hamlet may have created an even bigger disaster by keeping his mother in the dark. If he had told her and trusted her in the first place on what was going on, maybe he could have saved everyone from the domino effect of death.

Lastly, a pansy symbolizes loving thoughts and remembrance. It is true that through out the play, Hamlet was never kind to his mother. He hated her from the beginning for marrying so quickly after his fathers death, and to his uncle no better. Now after everything has occurred, Hamlet may want to send a flower back to his mother to remind her that he does still love her.

The scene in Act IV of Ophelia passing out flowers contributes to the garden motif as a whole. Denmark is symbolized as a garden. Each person living within Denmark can be accounted as a flower, which altogether forms a garden. In Act 1 scene iv Marcellus states "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark." From there on, the garden of Denmark is referred to as decaying and rotten because of the actions of the people living within it. Ophelia herself is a pure and and innocent state. Around her forms the weeds that over take Denmark. These weeds transform the garden into something foul and unclear. Ophelia symbolizes a flower herself, her brain slowly began to wither and soon she died. The scene of Ophelia passing out flowers represents that even though she may be insane, she still knows the truth. She hands a fennel and columbine to Queen Gertrude because they symbolize adultery, and Gertrude is sleeping in a bed of incest. She hands a rue to King Claudius because it symbolizes repentance. Claudius has much to repent for because he is the source of all the destruction and death in Denmark, after he committed murder. Each flower may be beautiful, but they symbolize each for rotten things. The garden motif is parallel to the appearance vs. reality motif. Although something may be beautiful on the outside, on the inside there is cruelty and deceit.