Read the excerpt from Act V of Hamlet . Gertrude: Sweets to the sweet: farewell! [ Scattering flowers .] I hop'd thou shouldst have been my Hamlet's wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have deck'd, sweet maid, And not have strew'd thy grave. Shakespeare included this plot event to help show that Gertrude, over the course of the play, has changed from

Gertrude’s words at Ophelia’s funeral show sadness and regret: she says she had hoped Ophelia would marry Hamlet and that she would decorate Ophelia’s bridal bed, not her grave. This remorse contrasts with Gertrude’s earlier happiness about her own marriage to Claudius, so the change is from happy to remorseful.

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