Ophelia's Eulogy

If only someone, just one person, saw it coming they could have saved her. Gertrude especially wishing there was some way she could go back and save Ophelia.

We are here today to remember our good friend, daughter and sister, Ophelia. Poor Ophelia. A beloved young woman, loved scorned and pushed to the edge of no return.. Ophelia was a caring, respectable girl, who honored her father and brother, against her true feelings.  She was thoughtful of others. She was always singing with a smile big enough to brighten the saddest man’s day. But today we honor Ophelia, whose young life is no longer with us. She silenced herself for a reason unclear.

Maybe it was because of Hamlet's "madness" that pushed her to the edge. The man she gave all of herself too, suddenly loosing memory of the once love they shared.  Maybe it was a broken heart. Could it be her father, Polonius' death, who was mistakenly killed by Hamlet? No one will ever know.

When you think of a good Christian what is the first thing you think? ... Devotion, loyalty, obedience, respect, and love, all characteristics of beautiful Ophelia.  So the question is why shouldn't she get a proper Christian burial? Some think suicide is a sin that is an invitation to hell, others having empathy for all the sudden struggles of someone’s life.  Imagine drowning. Your lungs filling up with water until your last breaths are taken. Imagine how low you have to feel to contemplate taking another breath? Isn't that enough punishment in itself? Ophelia must have felt she was living in a hell on earth.

The question is, what is one to do when backed into a corner? Some cry and some go mad, others don't make it through. However, when backed into this corner, how does one think straight? They don’t.

A warm hearted Christian person would feel sorrow for one’s thoughts, taking her so far into despair. We feel horrible for Ophelia who will now never be a wife or see motherhood; two things she would have been great at.  We as people are genuinely hurt, and perhaps disrespected by the burial given to Ophelia, who deserved so much more.