Hamlet: Act 4, Scene 5 – Analysis
Scene Profile – At a Glance
- Location: A room in Elsinore Castle.
- What Happens: Ophelia, driven mad by grief for her father and her broken love, sings strange songs and hands out flowers. Laertes storms back from France at the head of a mob, demanding revenge for Polonius's death. Claudius calms him and begins to turn his fury towards Hamlet.
- Key Characters: Ophelia, Laertes, Claudius, Gertrude.
- Dramatic Function: The scene shows Ophelia's tragic collapse and brings Laertes back as a second, decisive avenger – a sharp foil to Hamlet.
- Famous Quote:
"There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray,
love, remember..."
(Ophelia, Act 4, Scene 5) - Why It Matters: Ophelia's madness is one of Shakespeare's most haunting scenes, and Laertes's return sets up the revenge that will kill Hamlet.
Scene Summary
A gentleman warns Gertrude that Ophelia has gone mad and is behaving strangely, speaking in riddles and snatches of song. Ophelia enters and sings about a dead lover and a betrayed maiden. Her grief for her murdered father, Polonius, mixed with the loss of Hamlet's love, has broken her mind.
Claudius watches with concern, aware that Ophelia's state is dangerous and that the kingdom is unsettled. He notes that troubles are arriving all at once: Polonius dead and buried in haste, Hamlet sent away, and the people whispering and angry.
Suddenly Laertes bursts in, having returned from France, leading a rebellious crowd who want to make him king. He is wild with grief and rage, demanding to know who killed his father. Claudius, calm and clever, faces him down and promises that Laertes will have justice once he learns the truth.
Ophelia returns, still mad, and hands out flowers, each carrying a hidden meaning. Her broken songs and gentle madness devastate her brother, turning his rage into sorrow. By the scene's end, Claudius has begun to steer Laertes's fury away from himself and towards Hamlet, who he will argue is the real cause of all this grief.
How Should I Your True Love Know
Ophelia's madness is expressed almost entirely through song. Her first songs are about death and a lost lover, mixing mourning for her father with the wound of Hamlet's rejection until the two cannot be told apart.
Original
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff,
And his sandal shoon.
(Ophelia, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoes.
The song asks how to recognise a true love among others, picturing him as a pilgrim with a "cockle hat" and staff. It is a song of searching and loss, fitting for a girl who has lost both her father and the man she loved. The pathos is that Ophelia, denied a voice all through the play, can only speak her grief now through scraps of old songs. Her madness gives her a strange freedom to express the sorrow and desire she was never allowed to own when sane.
There's Rosemary, That's for Remembrance
The most famous moment of Ophelia's madness is the giving of flowers. She hands out real or imagined blooms to those around her, and each flower carries a meaning – a hidden message buried in her broken speech.
Original
There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember: and there is pansies. That's for thoughts.
(Ophelia, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember. And there are pansies: they're for thoughts.
Rosemary was a symbol of remembrance and pansies of thoughts; she goes on to give out fennel and columbines (flattery and unfaithfulness), rue (sorrow and repentance), and a daisy, while saying the violets all withered when her father died. Many readers believe the flowers are carefully matched to their recipients – rue and false flowers for the guilty king and queen. Laertes recognises this himself, calling it "a document in madness", meaning her mad speech still teaches a lesson. Even broken, Ophelia speaks truths that the sane characters dare not.
When Sorrows Come
Claudius surveys the wreckage gathering around his throne. He sees that the troubles are no longer coming one at a time but all together, threatening to overwhelm him.
Original
When sorrows come, they come not single spies
But in battalions.
(Claudius, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
When bad luck comes, it doesn't come alone,
More like an army.
The image is military: troubles arrive not as lone "spies" but as whole "battalions", an army of disasters. Claudius lists them – Polonius dead, Hamlet gone, the people muttering, Ophelia mad, and now Laertes back in a rage. The line is one of the play's most quoted because it captures a truth everyone recognises: misfortunes tend to pile up at once. It also shows Claudius under real pressure for the first time, his careful control beginning to slip as the consequences of his crime multiply around him.
To Hell, Allegiance!
Laertes is everything Hamlet is not. Where Hamlet broods, Laertes acts. He storms the castle at the head of a mob, ready to tear down the king himself to avenge his father.
Original
To hell, allegiance! Vows, to the blackest devil!
(Laertes, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Allegiance, go to hell! I'll stand with devils!
Laertes throws away loyalty, vows, conscience and even his soul – "to the blackest devil" – for the sake of revenge. It is the instant, all-or-nothing fury that Hamlet has never managed to feel, and it makes Laertes a perfect foil. He will damn himself without a second thought to avenge his father, while Hamlet has spent four acts thinking and failing to act on a far greater wrong. Claudius, ever the manipulator, immediately sees how to use this raw rage, and begins steering it towards Hamlet rather than himself.
Language and Technique
- Madness in song: Ophelia's grief breaks out as snatches of folk song, letting her express loss and sexuality she could never voice when sane.
- Flower symbolism: Rosemary, pansies, rue and the rest carry coded meanings, so even her mad speech is loaded with pointed truth.
- Foil: Laertes's instant, furious revenge throws Hamlet's long hesitation into sharp relief.
- Military metaphor: "Sorrows... in battalions" pictures Claudius besieged by an army of disasters.
- Pathos: Ophelia's gentle, broken sweetness makes her madness unbearably moving, especially set against Laertes's rage.
Key Quotes from Act 4, Scene 5
Quote 1He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
(Ophelia, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
He is dead and gone, lady,
He is dead and gone;
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day...
(Ophelia, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's Day...
Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.
(Ophelia, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Lord, we know what we are, but know not what we may be.
How came he dead? I'll not be juggled with...
(Laertes, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
How did he die? Don't give me any crap!
A document in madness, thoughts and remembrance fitted.
(Laertes, Act 4, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Connecting thought and memory is pure madness.
Key Takeaways
- Ophelia goes mad: Grief for her father and the loss of Hamlet's love break her mind, and she speaks in songs.
- Her madness carries meaning: The flowers and songs hide pointed truths about loss, betrayal and guilt.
- Laertes returns for revenge: He storms in with a mob, ready to damn himself to avenge his father.
- A foil to Hamlet: Laertes acts instantly and ruthlessly where Hamlet hesitates.
- Claudius takes control: He calms Laertes and begins steering his rage towards Hamlet.
Study Questions and Analysis
What has driven Ophelia mad?
Ophelia's madness has more than one cause, and the play presents them as tangled together. The immediate trigger is the death of her father, Polonius – and the horror that he was killed by Hamlet, the man she loved. On top of this comes the loss of that love itself: Hamlet rejected her cruelly in the nunnery scene and has now been sent away. She is left with no father, no lover, and no one to guide or protect her.
Her powerlessness is the deeper cause. Throughout the play, Ophelia has been controlled by men – her brother, her father, the king – and used as a tool in their schemes. When those men are removed or turned against her, she has nothing of her own to fall back on. Elaine Showalter, in her 1985 essay Representing Ophelia, argued that Ophelia's madness becomes the only "language" left to a woman who has been silenced and defined entirely by others. Her breakdown is the breaking of a person who was never allowed to be whole.
What do Ophelia's songs mean?
Ophelia sings two main kinds of song, and together they reveal what has destroyed her. The first are songs of death and mourning – a dead lover "dead and gone", buried with a stone at his head – which clearly grieve for her murdered father, and perhaps for the loss of Hamlet too. The second are bawdy songs about sex and betrayal, such as the Valentine's ballad of a maid seduced and then abandoned.
These sexual songs are shocking precisely because Ophelia was, when sane, the model of obedient innocence. In madness, all the restraint imposed on her falls away, and buried fears and desires come pouring out. Some read the songs as a sign that she was more troubled by sex and "honour" than she could ever admit; others hear in them an echo of the men's constant warnings about her chastity. Either way, the songs let Ophelia voice, through borrowed words, the grief and longing she was never permitted to speak directly. They are her tragedy set to music.
What is the significance of the flowers Ophelia hands out?
In Shakespeare's time, flowers carried well-known symbolic meanings, and Ophelia's distribution of them is a piece of coded communication. She gives rosemary for "remembrance" and pansies for "thoughts", then fennel and columbines (flattery and infidelity), rue (sorrow and repentance, "the herb of grace"), and a daisy (false love), and notes that the violets – faithfulness – all died when her father did.
Many productions and critics believe the flowers are matched to their recipients: rue and false flowers for the guilty Claudius and Gertrude, remembrance for those who should not forget. Even in madness, then, Ophelia may be accusing the court of its sins. Her brother Laertes recognises this, calling it "a document in madness" – a lesson taught by a broken mind. The scene suggests that Ophelia, silenced and used all her life, finally speaks the truth about the people around her at the very moment she has lost her reason.
How is Ophelia's madness different from Hamlet's?
The contrast is deliberate and revealing. Hamlet's madness is, for the most part, a deliberate performance – an "antic disposition" he puts on and takes off, full of sharp wit and hidden purpose. He chooses it as a weapon and a disguise. Ophelia's madness is real, involuntary and total. She has not chosen it; grief has simply shattered her, and she cannot come back.
The difference also reflects the difference in their power. Hamlet, a prince and a man, can use madness as a strategy and still control his fate. Ophelia, a woman with no power of her own, is destroyed by the same pressures Hamlet survives. Where his "madness" lets him speak dangerous truths and stay safe, hers leads only to drowning. Setting the two side by side, the play shows how the same court that Hamlet can fight, however imperfectly, simply crushes a young woman who has no weapons at all. Her genuine madness is the price of the powerlessness the play has shown from the start.
Why does Laertes return, and how does he react?
Laertes returns from France the moment he hears of his father's death, and he comes back transformed – not a careful young man taking advice, but a furious avenger. He bursts into the castle leading a rebellious mob that wants to crown him king, and he confronts Claudius directly, demanding to know how Polonius died and threatening anyone who stands in his way.
His reaction is pure, immediate rage. He throws away allegiance, vows and even his hopes of heaven for the sake of revenge, declaring he would cut his enemy's throat in church. This is the conventional revenger's response – swift, total, and heedless of consequence – and it is exactly what the play has been withholding in Hamlet. Then he sees his mad sister, and his fury dissolves into grief, which makes his rage even more dangerous, because now it has a fresh wound to feed on. Claudius, watching, recognises a weapon he can use, and the rest of the scene is the king beginning to bend Laertes's revenge towards Hamlet.
How is Laertes a foil to Hamlet?
Laertes is one of three sons in the play avenging a father, alongside Hamlet and Fortinbras, and his role is to throw Hamlet's behaviour into relief. Both men have had a father killed; both are bound to take revenge. But where Hamlet delays for the whole play, questioning, testing and hesitating, Laertes acts at once, storming home and threatening the king within minutes of arriving.
The comparison is not entirely flattering to Laertes. His speed makes him reckless and easy to manipulate; Claudius plays him like an instrument, steering his honest grief into a dishonourable, poisoned plot that will kill both Laertes and Hamlet. So the contrast cuts both ways. Laertes shows up Hamlet's failure to act, but Hamlet's caution also looks wiser beside Laertes's rashness, which leads him straight into the king's trap. Through Laertes, Shakespeare asks whether quick revenge is really better than slow thought, and suggests that neither extreme ends well. The two avengers will finally destroy each other in the duel of Act 5.
What does "When sorrows come... in battalions" show about Claudius?
The line marks the moment Claudius first appears genuinely besieged. He observes that misfortunes never arrive singly, like lone "spies", but in whole "battalions" – an army of disasters all at once. He then counts them off: Polonius killed and hastily buried, Hamlet sent away, the people angry and suspicious, Ophelia driven mad, and Laertes returned in open rebellion.
The speech is important because it shows the consequences of Claudius's original crime spreading beyond his control. He murdered his brother to win the crown, and now the rot from that act is poisoning everything around him, exactly as the play's disease imagery keeps suggesting. For the first time, the smooth, confident king sounds harried and defensive. Yet even here, under pressure, Claudius keeps his head and his cunning, immediately setting about managing Laertes. The line captures both his vulnerability and his resilience, and it signals that the careful balance he has maintained since Act 1 is finally starting to collapse.
How does this scene develop the play's treatment of women and gender?
Ophelia's mad scene is the play's most powerful statement about the fate of women in its world. From the start, Ophelia has been denied any will of her own: told whom she may love, used as bait, lectured on her honour, and then abandoned. She has obeyed every man who claimed authority over her, and it has destroyed her. Her madness is what is left when all those props are knocked away at once.
The scene gives her, at last, a voice – but only through the disguise of madness and song. Elaine Showalter, in Representing Ophelia (1985), traced how Ophelia has been pictured over the centuries as the very image of female madness, beautiful and pitiable, and argued that her breakdown is the only form of expression a silenced woman is allowed. The flowers and songs let her finally say something true about loss, betrayal and the guilt of those around her, but the cost is her reason and, soon, her life. Beside Laertes, who can turn his grief into action and rebellion, Ophelia can only sing and drown. The scene exposes, with great tenderness, how the play's world offers women no way to survive the pressures it places on them.
