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Ophelia's Suicide

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Ophelia's Suicide
Gertrude's use of vivid imagery in her telling of Ophelia's demise provides a picture of the events that took place. Through this imagery she assigns agency to seemingly innocent objects in nature, such as the weeping willow and the envious sliver, and takes the blame away from Ophelia, thus leading Laertes to truly believe this was a suicide. While she does not receive a true Christian burial, Gertrude is successful in keeping Laertes calm; no one but nature is to blame for the death of Ophelia in his eyes. Gertrude's need to tell the death in the manner of which she did is perfectly logical. Had Laertes believed otherwise his reaction could have lead to more trouble for the King and Queen. By placing the blame away from Claudius, Hamlet,
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