Ophelia In The Laws Resolutions Of Women's Rights

In 1632, The Law’s Resolutions of Women’s Rights treatise was published, by an unknown author, and in the treatise it said that women “are understood either married or to be married and their desires are subject to their husband” ("The Law's Resolutions of Women's Rights"). This mentality shaped the opinion of women in Shakespeare’s world. Due to the fact that there was such a lack of independent power amongst women, over time their sovereignty over themselves led to controversy amongst different groups of people. During Shakespeare’s time, Protestants were pushing the idea of feminism and that women should have greater control of their lives and more independence from men. Since this was such a crucial moment at the time, and even still now, authors incorporated this into
Ophelia was young and hadn’t been under the control of men for long, but Gertrude, a woman three times her age, has had a lack of power for a greater period of time making it harder for Gertrude transition into a state of autonomy. Gertrude is a perfect example for the type of woman at that time who was struggling with this new idea of self-governance. Hamlet believes that his mother’s “appetite” to hurry with “such dexterity to incestuous sheets” is the reason why Gertrude remarried so quickly after the death of Hamlet’s father (1.2.157 double check). Hamlet fails to realize that early modern women needed male protection and his mother had never lived without that protection (Kemp, 2012, pg. 92). The desire for constant male support explains why Gertrude did not want Hamlet to leave Denmark as well as why she remarried immediately after the death of Hamlet’s father. Shakespeare seems to agree with the idea that women should have more independence because Hamlet attempts to help Gertrude free herself from the powers of Claudius when he says… (find quote in Hamlet