5 minute Eulogy on Ophelia performed by Gertrude

I want to begin by placing this lavender, Ophelia’s favourite flower on her coffin. It seems incredibly fitting that the lavender represents faithfulness. A trait all of us here today can testify, Ophelia certainly possessed.

When one looks back on the life of such a beautiful person, it seems so easy to break down at such a loss, but to me, today is not about loss, sadness or despair. It is about celebrating the life of a beautiful, loving, caring and special young lady. Ophelia’s pure heart and loyalty to all gave her credibility the rest of us could only dream of. To me she was the epitome of goodness. She represented in my eyes all things true, all things honest and all things innocent. I could not imagine a person more perfect and faithful than dear Ophelia.

How I dearly wish that her and my son had been wed. Their love seemed to be so strong that it would last through any trouble and turmoil. Like a tree in the wind that hung to its leaves for dear life, Ophelia cared for his love and cared for him like only true soul mates could have. When my son began to act strangely I feared that his love would not last. They had differences and for a short while we all questioned their love, however, I think I speak for us all when I say that our questions were answered just moments ago when hamlet said,

I lov’d Ophelia, forty thousand brothers

Could not, with all their quantity of love,

Make up my sum.

Unfortunately, I can not help but feel I had an influence on their relationship. In my room on the day that Ophelia’s father was killed, god bless his soul, Hamlet blamed me for his supposed inability to love,

Such an act

That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,

Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose

From the fair forehead of an innocent love

For this Ophelia I am sorry. You deserved a true and able lover and it is in my wrong doings and inadequacies that this could not happen. As you lie to rest, know that Hamlet loved you with all his heart and he showed his love with all the heart he knew how to show, his intentions were honest and he never would have hurt you.

I look at Ophelia and wished that at her age I had been as pure and honest as she.

As a mother, it is in no doubt in my mind that her father stands proud of her every doing, and I firmly believe they will be together once more in heaven. Their relationship was very close, on many occasions Polonius discussed with Claudius and I his deep love and care for her, as well as his feelings of not duty but privilege to be her father.

It was through Ophelia’s close relationships with her father and brother that her greatest attributes were apparent. Her unfaltering respect and her loyalty to them was something remarkable and a true testament to the reliable and trustworthy person she was.

While in her most recent days she was overcome by levels of madness and little presence of her own mind, Ophelia’s past stood so vibrant and alive that this madness would never rule in our minds as a true picture of her person. It was certainly understandable that she fell ill given the circumstances surrounding her father’s death at the hands of her lover. In an ordeal as terrible as this, many of us would not have been able to hold ourselves the same way she did.

In dying as pure as she has done, the Lord will undoubtedly see her unpolluted flesh and satisfy her in heaven like an angel.

I would like to end by thanking God for the small mercies he has shown us in these uncertain times. For taking Ophelia at a time that must have been so unfairly unbearable for her. I would like to pray for her relatives and friends that mourn her passing; that God watches over you and cares for you. But above all we give thanks for the life of a girl I am so proud to be able to say I knew, the unique, the loyal, the extraordinary and irreplaceable Ophelia whose beauty, both internal and external, will never be extinguished from our minds.