I’m imagining a shaking, bloodied Ophelia pointing the gun at Hamlet and others after her father has died.
Giving Gertrude and Claudius the flowers while holding the gun—not even pointing it at them, but just holding it. That would give the scene a whole new meaning: she’s still gone mad, but whereas Hamlet is constantly waffling on whether to act or not, Ophelia is the type to actually use it. So instead of it being, “Oh! The poor girl has gone mad,” the tone is now, “Uh, Ophelia’s gone nuts. Maybe just placate her by accepting the flowers.”
Do you see my vision? Ophelia has, as others have pointed out, no agency. She’s only important in relation to men. She’s a sister, a daughter, a lover, a pawn. As a woman, she can’t act to improve her own circumstances, because her options as a noblewoman are to get married or join a convent. That’s it.
But if she had a gun,…all of a sudden, the men in her life would have to listen to her, wouldn’t they! Maybe Hamlet would hesitate to treat her so poorly.
“Get thee to a nunnery?” How about you get your fickle ass out of my sight?
Oh! There could be a moment where This above all: to thine own self be true is ringing in her ears as she considers fucking finishing the entire royal family herself.
Fortinbras would come in and be like, “What the fuck?!” but then, once Horatio explained everything, maybe Fortinbras would be impressed. Maybe he’d see a kindred spirit in Ophelia, as someone who took initiative to correct an injury someone inflicted on them.
There are several things you could discuss in the process of writing a fic about this: suicide, Western gender norms like I mentioned above, revenge, insanity,…God, I need to make a fanfic outta this.
