The first song from the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is sung by a character named Ophelia. This song is a sonic representation of her distress, which is attributed to the death of her father, Polonius, and her brother, Hamlet.
She is so affected by her father's death that she cannot be rational, and instead rambles on about everything. Her craziness is so extreme that Gertrude cannot make sense of it and sends her away.
Her madness causes her to sing about death in a very inappropriate way, reminiscent of a gravedigger who sings nonsense songs about the dead while digging up graves. In fact, she is so frenzied that she even sings about her own father's death in this song, which is the earliest one she sings about in the play.
This song is about mourning and expressing love in a particular way, and it is written with a certain tone that questions the societal standards of love and mourning. It also addresses the question of whether Hamlet truly loved Gertrude, or if she simply had a fondness for him while they were together.
In the lyrics, Ophelia compares her own love to Hamlet's, and she expresses doubts about his love for her because he did not properly mourn her as she mourned him. She is trying to prove that everyone has a different view of love and that there is no right answer.
