ABSTRACT

In articulating the ecopolitics of writing on Shakespeare, Gabriel Egan has drawn its analogy to feminist criticism in what constitutes the movement from political action toward critical reading. It is in the interests of these discoveries that I insist on the material reality of Ophelia's plants, which may underline the young female character's experience of slowly losing her bearings and her inevitable decline into madness. Further evidence of this possibility is embodied in the plants themselves, all of which purportedly had some curative properties that may be applied to Ophelia's ailments. A woman of Ophelia's age and station would be expected to have such a skill as readily as she would be expected to know sewing. For the early modern audience, the image of Ophelia holding flowers and herbs thus implies a potential attempt at self-administered medicine, however futile it may have ended up being.