The Death of Ophelia

I found the queen's description of Ophelia's watery death to be quite beautiful. It was strange to me that something as disturbing and dark as a drowning could be described so poetically. Ophelia was described as peaceful and submissive before and during her death. As she was a helpless pawn in her life, she was helpless to the water that filled her garments and pulled her to a muddy death (unless of course one reads this as a suicide in which Ophelia would be taking control of her own fate rather than leaving it to the will of men). The nature that surrounds Ophelia was quite beautiful but sad: a willow and the weeping brook were the two elements of the scene that were prominent to me. The weeping willow is a symbol of melancholy sadness and the book is described as weeping. Nature embraces poor Ophelia as it ends her life in this sad scene. I particularly liked the manner in which Ophelia was compared to a mermaid as she drifted deep into the water.