Flowers

(On the card to Queen Gertrude from Hamlet)

"To my mother, the woman who loves me and my late father:  

      Violets for faithfulness and innocence that tho' lacks. Rosemaries for remembrance of thy 'love', my father. One long stem red rose for thy undying passion for that ogre you call a husband. Camellias for my never ending gratitude from me to you for my birth. Red chrysanthemums that symbolize my love for you, my mother. I  may not return from England, so enclosed with these flowers may be my final good-bye. 

-Your son, Hamlet"

         

            
                
        
      The flowers Ophelia gives away symbolically represents something to each character in a way; a secret messgage she sends to each of them. Rosemary for remembrance of their father and pansies for thoughts to Laertes, so he can use his mind wisely when dealing with King Claudius, who is only using him as a tool to kill Hamlet with out getting his hands dirty. Fennel and columbines to Gertrude symbolizing flattery because she was a mother figure to her and adultery for how quickly she forgot about her late husbands recent death. Rue to Claudius representing repentance, meaning that he should repent for what he did. Violets meaning innocence that she had in this whole sitiation and roses symbolizing  her love to Hamlet. At this point in the scene it apprears to me that Ophelia has an idea of what she is doing. That she like Hamlet pretended to go mad just in this scene or that maybe in this exact moment she has a short moment of sanity. The flower scene fits in with the whole garden motif of how King Hamlet was killed in the garden where the whole conflict of the play began.