The plants arch over Ophelia's corpse, literally "across" as Shakespeare intended (Act IV, scene VII), as if they were about to contain her with the rebirth of the next one's life spring. The inclusion of pansies around her wrist, signifying love in vain, is mocking, because while Ophelia and Hamlet's doomed romance is painful enough, the visual way in which the river has swallowed it doesn't make other than further cementing the idea of ​​a vain loss, moving away from the traditional pathos consistently seen in the depiction of beautiful young women as victims; pleasantly virtuous, pious and pleasant. Although anecdotal, many perhaps would have liked to see Ophelia transform into a mermaid or an angel, something beyond her apparent entropic destiny, yet Millais refuses to give her any of this..., implying the process of constant decay and germination. it's more interesting than we would like to mystify this woman in our heads. So, Millais is incredibly refreshing here, bringing to light how boring and pathetic... notions of femininity