Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick, Jack Jumped Over The Fact That Ophelia Was Jewish

This is a release from an English scholar in Canada by the name of Graem Stewart-Robertson who believes he has evidence that Ophelia (the character from Shakespeare's play Hamlet) is in fact Jewish.

    Can one little idea overthrow a "truth" that has been entrenched in society for hundreds of years? Just ask the likes of Copernicus and Columbus to see what they think. I remind you of these great men today because I will present to you an idea, and idea that goes against virtually all knowledge in its field. It may sound like a hoax, like some sort of crazed, maladjusted or "evil" concept that should not have been brought up, something that will likely never be brought up again for fear of persecution by one's peers and colleagues. A utterance that is so outlandish I at times pain to comprehend its ramifications. Yet I will not be silenced like so many others, the word must be spread; so I present to you the truth- Ophelia was Jewish.

    First of all I must clarify that this is by no means a negative characteristic, it would in fact be considered by many to be a great virtue, but I will remain neutral on this front. You may be asking yourselves how on earth one might arrive at this conclusion, and I too ask myself this very question. How might a simpleton judge contrary to a constant of the literary community? The answer is both simple yet a the same instant rather complex. I will forgo telling you the details of my thought process (both for lack of space and time, but also for security reasons- you must understand), but suffice it to say I had nothing short of an epiphany. One day while going about the rudimentary tasks of a young English scholar, it struck me, why should Ophelia not be Jewish when it solves so many problems. This idea at first helped to explain why she did receive a full Christina burial- more on that later- but the more I thought about it the more the concept applied to nearly every facet of Shakespeare's plot and character development.

    Now as any self respecting scientist will ask you, where lies the proof? And therein we shall find my first point. While perhaps overly simple, in the play Hamlet the author never specifically states that Ophelia is not Jewish and so there is no "proof" to her not adhering to said religion. While this may be one of the saddest attempts at proving my theory one could imagine, consider the fact that had it said she was not Jewish I would not at this moment be writing that she was, for my theory would be absolutely groundless. For those of you that enjoy the benefits of a critical mind (kudos if you do), you may be thinking of young Ophelia's genealogy and that if she is Jewish the members of her family that also appear in Shakespeare's writing must also share her religion, namely Polonius and Laertes. And while I could go about explaining that they too are sharing in the jewosity, and I could (just consider why the family of the Lord Chamberlain has such menial status in the hierarchy), it is in essence a mute point. In order for Ophelia to be a Jew, yes Polonius would have to have been Jewish at the time of her conception, but nothing is stopping him from being Christian at the time of the play, and the same applies to Laertes. It was quite common for Jews to be converted at the time, and it also is prevalent in many of Shakespeare's works. All of this makes an excellent bridge to my next point.

    We all know of the most famous Jew is Shakespearean writing- Shylock from The Merchant Of Venice and how at the play's conclusion he is forced to change religion to Christianity as punishment for wanting "a pound of flesh" from Antonio who agreed to this if his friend forfeited a debt to Shylock. Now some have, or do, view this as anti-Semitism by Shakespeare, it could in fact be quite the contrary. Now I will not go as far as those who suggest that William Shakespeare is Jewish himself (and there are many that do), but I will claim that he was exposing the abominable way in which they treated, and how ludicrous he considered the actions of those who treated them improperly. For example being a Jew is used as a curse in Henry the First, Part Two (Act II, Scene IV, Line 178), in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act II, Scene V, Line 53), The Merchant of Venice, Anthony and Cleopatra, Much Ado about Nothing , MacBeth and The Merry Wives of Windsor, just to mention a few. This "Jewish sympathizing" may not have been the best thing to state publicly at the time (seeing as how many blamed the Plague on the Jews) so Shakespeare "hid" it in the language of his plays with much diligence and cunning verbal traps. And it is because of these previous points that I, in part, drew my notion of Ophelia's jewosity (there is that word again...). I believe that there is a statement about Jews in every of the Bard's works so therefore where else would it lie in Hamlet than poor little Ophelia. She provides that perfect medium for purveying his message, a virtuous girl that runs into problems conducting her life due to her religious background, yet would not anger any members of the church because she ultimately dies without honour or much sadness from the audience.

    One may have noticed that I suggested that she ran into complications because she was Jewish, and that she does. Enter the famous line "Get thee to a nunnery." This line (like so many in Hamlet) is constantly in dispute. Does he mean a brothel, does he want her to be safe in a real nunnery, is he suggesting a bit of both, etc. Perhaps here again Ophelia being Jewish clarifies the situation. What Hamlet is really getting at is that he wants her to convert. Hamlet does indeed, on some level, love Ophelia and wants to be wed to her, but cannot due to her adherence to a different faith. Hamlet's extreme Christian beliefs are preventing him from entering into such a blasphemous marriage, and this causes him much grief. Such an explanation also helps account for over lines in the environs. "Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners" is simply Hamlet expressing concern that if they were to have children they would be sinners, and he cannot let that happen. By Ophelia being entered into a nunnery she could convert to an "acceptable" faith, one which Hamlet would have no problem marrying an adherent. While this may seem to be an inferred meaning of dialogue, there are cases where the girl makes direct reference to religious differences. Take this quotation for example "And of all Christian souls, I pray God. God be wi' you" (Act IV, Scene VI, Line 177). This takes place after she descends into babbling and snatches of tunes (which ironically free her from the repression of her feelings) and she is truly expressing her innermost feelings. Here she talks of Christian souls- not her own, it can be plainly stated that she is speaking of her love Hamlet as a entity quite different from her own being. She is clearly upset that such a God (namely the Christian God) would interfere with her joining the man she loves. Prior to this reference she makes a jaded remark about her lover's day of worship. "There's rue for you; and here's some for me: we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays" (Act IV, Scene V, Lines 159-160) in this example Ophelia in her madness is butchering the sanctity of Sunday. Her use of Rue (or herb of grace a it is sometimes referred to) is extremely significant, as some say- "Its action is chiefly directed upon the uterus" and it "is a stimulant to the genitourinary tract, and, in small doses, might prove a remedy in atonic conditions of those parts" while I will save you the details, suffice it to say the girl is veiling sexual references between she and Hamlet during Sundays- an absolutely atrocious suggestion. Obviously Ophelia has no regard for Sunday as a holy day, mainly because she is Jewish.

    Of small note is the location of Ophelia's burial. While even I will admit that this point is rather stretching it. The gravediggers have difficulty digging the soil (at the very least they express displeasure), suggesting that this is not a fair burial ground, perhaps even the lowly ground anointed for "lower" citizens- in this case Jews. This all of course points back to Ophelia's jewosity (can you tell I am trying to push the usage of this word) and how it explains quite conveniently why Ophelia did not receive a "proper" Christian burial. This explanation works only is you stick with the preferred assumption that Ophelia's death was accidental not suicide as some suggest (this, of course, because if she committed suicide would explain the lack of Christian burial and the entire Jewish theory goes down the tubes).

    Perhaps my final point is the most concrete, and that is why I have left it for last. It has long been considered evidence of Shakespeare's boorishness that Ben Jonson wrote he knew not much Greek or Latin. But I can say that Jonson might have been making a joke out of Shakespeare's prodigious learning in Hebrew. This helped in his insertions of Jewish references into plays as mentioned above, yet also most likely led to the reasoning behind Ophelia's name. Let me explain- several early Greek writers of the "Christian Church" testify that the name of God was pronounced "Yahweh." This is confirmed, at least for the vowel of the first syllable of the name, by the shorter form Yah, which is sometimes used in poetry and the-yahu or-yah that serves as the final syllable in very many Hebrew names. The fact is that Hebrew names containing the 'ya' of the Tetragrammaton have continuously been in use and this is clearly a huge connection to the name Ophelia which, when pronounced properly, concludes with a distinctive 'ya.' This would not ordinarily be significant save for the fact the Ophelia was by no means a common name of Shakespeare's time, and he would therefore have come across it in study of Hebrew and inserted it so that all may plainly understand that Ophelia's character is Jewish.

    Now most of you reading through this report must have caused a roller coaster of emotions, from shock, to confusion, to perhaps anger and finally (if I have been successful) acceptance. For those that are still in denial, I understand that such bold new ideas are perhaps difficult to grasp, but I implore you to try. Try to see that everything does not always have to be the way others have explained it to you, try to see that we have six senses so that we may go out into the world and make our own discoveries, draw our own conclusions and judge for ourselves what is right. And if Ophelia being Jewish scares you, scares you because it is only human nature to fear what you do not understand, that is fine, because in life it is those like Columbus and Copernicus that scare mankind into the future and that is truly the most frightful thing of all.
-Graeme Stewart-Robertson; kwajo@2sync.com