Ophelia me; we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays; O, you must wear your rue with a difference". Rue is well known for its symbolic meaning of regret, but the herb is also used to treat pain, bruises and has abortive qualities. In Act 4 Scene 7, Queen Gertrude reports that Ophelia had climbed into a willow tree ("There is a willow grows aslant the brook"), and that the branch had broken and dropped Ophelia into the brook, where she drowned. Gertrude says that Ophelia appeared "incapable of her own distress". Gertrude's announcement of Ophelia's death has been praised
Gertrude (Hamlet) Watts portrayed Gertrude in Claire McCarthy's 2018 "Ophelia". "Gertrude and Claudius", a John Updike novel, serves as a prequel to the events of the play. It follows Gertrude from her wedding to King Hamlet, through an affair with Claudius, and its murderous results, until the very beginning of the play. Gertrude also appears as a character in Howard Barker's "Gertrude—The Cry", which uses some of the characters from "Hamlet". "Hamlet" has played "a relatively small role" in the appropriation of Shakespeare's plays by women writers. Margaret Atwood's ""Gertrude Talks Back"", in her 1992 collection of short stories "Good Bones", sees