Question

What is a difference between Gertrude's description of Ophelia's drowning and the painting of the same scene? A) There is nothing different. The two are exactly the same in every way. B) She has been shot by an arrow in the play, but she has drowned in the painting. C) She looks peaceful and serene in the painting, but the play says she met a "muddy death." D) She is alive and just taking a swim in the painting even though the play says she has drowned.

Answer 1

Answer:

C) She looks peaceful and serene in the painting, but the play says she met a "muddy death."

Explanation:

In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the sister of Laertes, and also the lover of Hamlet. She became insane after the death of her father and the loss of Hamlet who has also seemingly become insane due to his grief of his own father's death.

Act IV scene vii of the play shows Gertrude bringing the news of Ophelia's death to Laertes. And while describing the drowning scene of Ophelia, Gertrude mentions that she was "clambering to hang" the flowery wreaths on a branch of a tree when it gave way and she was dumped into the brook. She was then pulled further into the water when "her garments, heavy with their drink,  Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay  To muddy death." This shows a rather unsettling and painful death.

On the contrary, the painting of Ophelia's death by Sir John Everett Millais, a British artist, shows her peacefully floating on the water with flowers around her. Her eyes were slightly open and a calm expression on her face, with hardly any sign of pain in it.

Answer 2

Answer: C

Explanation: USATESTPREP: She looks peaceful and serene in the painting, but the play says she met a "muddy death." The painting shows a peaceful, clean Ophelia who looks to be asleep beneath the water, but the play states that her heavy clothes "Pull'd the poor wretch from her melodious lay / To muddy death."