What is the meaning of the viola flower in Shakespeares literature?
The viola appears in several Shakespeare plays, sometimes referred to by other names. Shakespeare didn’t choose it at random–the Elizabethans attached special meanings to flowers.Traditional MeaningThe viola also is known as the wild pansy. In Shakespeare’s time, garden pansies had not yet been cultivated; in his work, reference to “pansies” relate to the viola. The word “pansy” comes from “pensée,” French for “thought.” According to Kate Greenaway in her book “The Language of Flowers,” it’s associated with thoughts of a loved one in absence.In “Hamlet”Handing out flowers to the people around her after her father’s death, Ophelia gives Laertes rosemary and pansies. Rosemary stands for remembrance, so her message to her brother is to remember their father and keep him in his thoughts.In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”To cast his love spell, Puck uses a flower called “love-in-idleness,” which, according to Killerplants.com, was an old name for the viola. To Shakespeare’s audience, the viola
