Hamlet Blog Post #5

Ophelia's Funeral Song:

Cough Syrup- Young The Giant

Lyrics:

Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm losing my mind losing my mind losing control, oh oh

These fishes in the sea they're staring at me oh oh

Oh oh oh oh

A wet world aches for a beat of a drum
Oh

If I could find a way to see this straight
I'd run away

To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down, come down.

Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm coming up now coming up now out of the blue, oh
These zombies in the park they're looking for my heart
Oh oh oh oh

A dark world aches for a splash of the sun, oh 

oh

If I could find a way to see this straight
I'd run away

To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

And so I run now to the things they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

Life's too short to even care at all, oh
I'm losing my mind losing my mind losing 

control, oh oh

If I could find a way to see this straight
I'd run away

To some fortune that I, I should have found by now

So I run now to the things they said could restore me
Restore life the way it should be
I'm waiting for this cough syrup to come down

One more spoon of cough syrup now (oh whoa) [x2]

Justification: 



I feel like this would be the perfect song for Ophelia's funeral because it is sad while at the same time has a bit of a lovely beat to her, which kind of defines her. I thought the lyrics fit really well because this sing has to do with committing suicide because the person doesn't care about life anymore. Cough syrup is meant to be the way they commit suicide. I thought the lyrics in which it says "I'm losing my mind…losing control" because she starts singing Well, God 'ild you! They say the owl was a baker's/ daughter. Lord, we know what we are, but know not/what we may be. God be at your table!/", which prove how she is slowly losing her mind and going mad (4.5.42-45). 

"These fishes in the sea they're staring at me" relate back to the reason Ophelia committed suicide since she was losing her mind about not having an option between all her men and how they controlled her. The line with the fishes made me think back to her drowning herself as told my Gertrude "So fast they follow; your sister's drown'd, Laertes."(5.7.187) and when she was thinking about it some fish were probably staring back at her and then she decided to be with the fish inside the pond. Gertrude described finding her as with "her clothes spread wide;/And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up"(5.7.187-205). This again reminded me back to the fish and and also her beauty. She was this creature that looks very beautiful and independent but deep down they just want to be loved and are kind of lost between being human or fish. She was lost between what to do and how to choose her men in her life. In the song it says "If I could find a way to see this straight I'd run away", and in Hamlet Ophelia was trying to run away from her status of being controlled by men and her only way of being to do that was to commit suicide, which I think is very sad. 

This song fits her situation and really describes the sadness behind all the craziness in her life. And so The lines in the song "And so I run now to the things they said could restore me/ Restore life the way it should be" reminds me of "something rotten in the state of Denmark" and especially in the royal family since it was all based on betrayal (1.4.90). The relationships between the family were most certainly lacking as the ghost told "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown,"(1.4.38-39).  Although Ophelia wasn't directly part of the royal family it all led to her demise since anything that happened to Hamlet affected her severely. Ophelia's madness was practically like her begging for things to go back to how they were when Prince Hamlet would be the rightful heir or better yet when King Hamlet was still alive but it wasn't going to be restored so all she could do was run away and like mentioned before the only way to run away from the problems was for her to commit suicide.