Ophelia what the other characters interpret as grief for her father. She talks in riddles and rhymes, and sings some "mad" and bawdy songs about death and a maiden losing her virginity. She exits after bidding everyone a "good night". The last time Ophelia appears in the play is after Laertes comes to the castle to challenge Claudius over the death of his father, Polonius. Ophelia sings more songs and hands out flowers, citing their symbolic meanings, although interpretations of the meanings differ. The only herb that Shakespeare gives Ophelia herself is rue; "...there's rue for you, and here's some for
Literary influence of Hamlet and Simple Murders"—in which the title character sets her son straight about Old Hamlet's murder: "It wasn't Claudius, darling, it was me!" Also, because of the criticism of the sexism, American author Lisa Klein wrote "Ophelia", a novel that portrays Ophelia, too, as feigning madness and surviving. Author Molly Booth has written a Young Adult historical fiction novel, "Saving Hamlet", about a teenage girl who time travels back to the original production of "Hamlet" at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, 1601. The book has a focus on Ophelia's role, and how the sexism from Shakespeare's era translates to sexism in