Fragrance in Shakespeare: Violet

After his dead father's ghost appears to accuse the current King Claudius of being his murderer, Hamlet decides to feign madness as a cover while vowing to avenge his father's death. Ophelia's father, Polonius, believes Hamlet has gone mad out of love for his daughter; the Queen suspects his father's death has made it impossible for him to face reality. However, Polonius is accidentally killed by Hamlet, and the innocent Ophelia cannot bear the grief of losing her father. She becomes haggard and mad, eventually drowning accidentally in a river. Her brother Laertes mourns her, saying:

"Lay her i' th' earth, and from her fair and unpolluted flesh may violets spring!" — Laertes｜Hamlet

Beyond being a symbol of fertility in ancient times, violets are also an herb that can relieve headaches and dizziness. Violets possess a soft, powdery romantic quality that blends beautifully with other base notes to create distinctly feminine fragrances. According to Hamlet's description, it is "Sweet, not lasting, the perfume and suppliance of a minute, no more," once again emphasizing the traditional meaning of violets as a symbol of early death. This is because violets bloom in early spring and wither before summer arrives.

Since the fourteenth century, violets have symbolized faithfulness and "eternal devotion." In his earlier remarks, Laertes contrasts Hamlet's love for Ophelia with the violet, as if it bloomed too eagerly and met death too soon. The violet's blooming period is extremely short—within approximately ten hours from blooming to being picked, the violet's scent changes completely. This is why the "violet fragrance" in perfume differs from actual violet in fragrance.

Chemists actually isolated the scent of violets as early as the nineteenth century—ionone—and today almost all violet-based perfumes use synthetic ionone. Interestingly, ionone from different suppliers possesses different scents and colors. Many contemporary fragrances contain ionone and methyl ionones, including methyl-alpha ionone, a molecule with strong raspberry and woody notes. Perfumers can use violets with their varied scent profiles as the base for multiple fragrance compositions, creating countless combinations that can even extend to woody or amber bases—families completely unrelated to floral notes.

References: https://reurl.cc/v10lEj https://reurl.cc/D64RY6 https://reurl.cc/k0rR93

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