The Dramaturgy of Ophelia’s Bouquet

ABSTRACT What does Ophelia carry with her on stage in Act 4, scene 5 of Hamlet? She names a variety of botanicals, but productions have often replaced these with sticks, bones, pills, toys, or nothing at all. These replacements seek to provide modern audiences with more accessible or relatable symbols but can rarely capture the complexity and ambiguity of the originals. On page and stage, Ophelia’s bouquet has become a key to interpreting her in her madness – the meaning ascribed to her plants going hand in hand with the presumed qualities she displays in the scene, from childish innocence to overt sexuality to defiant anger. This essay details a series of staging experiments conducted in a graduate Shakespeare class to investigate the dramaturgical possibilities of Ophelia’s bouquet, asking how these items shape our perception and understanding of Ophelia, her mental state, and place within the play.