Another reason why Hamlet’s criticisms of women are justified is due to the profound resentment he has for his own mother, which is reflected whenever he talks to any woman. Since he had a very close relationship with his father and thought very highly of him, Hamlet feels personally betrayed by his mother when she gets married to Claudius. He feels that Gertrude should be mourning his father’s death as deeply as he himself does, and thinks her decision to marry again was brash. Since he is expected to behave politely at all times due to his station, Hamlet does not feel as though he can express the hurt he feels to anyone, and instead keeps it bottled up inside. He is only able to release this anger when he is approached by another woman,…
Hamlet is about Prince Hamlet’s misperceptions that women are morally Corrupt. Hamlet’s misperceptions originate from Gertrude’s inappropriate behavior and ignorance and Ophelia’s malleable behavior, and throughout the play Hamlet is rude and cynical to the two main female characters. Hamlet makes a sweeping generalization based on his Mother Gertrude and Ophelia that all women are morally corrupt, and in doing so he demonstrates a lack of trust in Gertrude that contributes to his madness and leads him to more trouble.…
Hamlet has the disillusion that women are frail after his mother's rushed remarriage as shown by "Frailty, thy name is woman!" He also believes women do not have the power to reason. ("O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason.") Ophelia has the power to change his view but her unexplained rejection of him only adds to Hamlet's disillusion. The ghost's revelation that Gertrude dishonored Hamlet's father but also their marriage by the adultery with Claudius is contemplated by Hamlet until he goes into Ophelia's room to look upon her. As Hamlet searches Ophelia's face for some sign that might restore his faith in her, he instead believes her face shows guilt and thinks she is another false Gertrude.…
The motif of misogyny occurs throughout the play ‘Hamlet,’ it is however especially prominent in Act III Scene I, lines 135-149. Shakespeare has used negative imagery and language to portray ‘Hamlet’s’ dislike of women, for example ‘Hamlet’ in this extract curses ‘Ophelia’ that even if she is ‘as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,’ she will still be looked down upon, the imagery of ‘snow’ is often used by authors to represent virginity and is not necessary seen as being negative, Shakespeare however could have used this language to create the connotation that like ‘snow’ and ‘ice’ virginity is only temporary, and not something that will last forever, this is something that appears to frustrate and anger ‘Hamlet.’ This frustration ‘Hamlet’ has…
In past years women have played a role economically, politically, and socially, therefore having a huge impact on the way they are perceived in literary works. Women have been oppressed and undermined by men for centuries, thus creating feminist criticism within literature. Mary Wollstonecraft author of, A Vindication of the Rights of Women, highlights the inequalities between the sexes. For example, men were seen as freethinkers that ruled and changed the world for better, while women were recognized as pretty objects that bear children and took care of household duties. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the women in the play are portrayed as extremely weak, passive, and submissive, illustrating the power dynamics between men and women.…
Hamlet gets into an argument during the play when people are spying on them and says---”. He tells Ophelia that she --because it was so easy for him to take her virginity. Hamlet also feels that Ophelia is weak too which is why he controls her and makes her do what he says. From what we see throughout the play hamlet does not think very good of any women. Towards the end of the play Ophelia drowns and some say it could have been hamlet.…
Since the Renaissance, when Shakespeare born and wrote his works, many of the plays and literature styles have gained wide popularity among the readers and influenced many of the readers and the critics. Furthermore, people often say, it is widely believed at this time that role of males stand completely opposite to that of females; however, through the play of Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays a complex representation of human beings including femininity in its protagonist and title character, prince Hamlet. The Women in Literature and Life Assembly states in one of their articles, “Defining masculine and feminine characteristics allowed writers like Shakespeare to draw males with certain ‘feminine’ characteristics and females with certain ‘masculine’…
Gender inequality in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, is a key discourse which is explored throughout the character of Ophelia. In Elizabethan England, the period of William Shakespeare, women were brought up in a patriarchal society where they were dominated by the authority of men. Women were socially degraded and taught they were inferior to men. Ophelia, is portrayed as weak, submissive and is manipulated continuously by the male figures in her life. Throughout the play, Ophelia is continuously taken advantage of and used as an object by her father Polonius and her love interest Hamlet. In modern day society, women have become more independent and generally have more freedom in regards to social expectations.…
In many of William Shakespeare’s works, it is evident that Shakespeare is alluding the lack of intelligence and weakness of women. “Frailty, thy name is woman” (1.2.146), quoted by Shakespeare in Hamlet is an example of this. In Hamlet, Shakespeare depicts characters like Ophelia and Gertrude as demonstrating weakness and being tools of manipulation by the males in their lives. Their actions and fates are greatly influenced by the men's decisions and are led by the men in their lives, which gives them a weak image. Women in the Elizabethan era were reliant on men to make their decisions as they were oppressed and disregarded in society. As Alex Gilbertson states, “this was not a glorious time…
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an intricate literary masterpiece, made up of a conglomeration of different techniques that add dimension, color, and texture to the story. There are countless uses of characterization, dark humor, and many other literary components in Hamlet, all of which are used to give the reader a more emotional and thought provoking reading or listening experience, and insight into the twisted storyline. One of the most interesting of Shakespeare’s techniques is the characterization of each gender as a separate entity. He seems to give the main characters traits that will lead them to follow certain trends for their gender. In Hamlet, Shakespeare characterizes the main male characters as men with power who tend to exercise…
Walking down the street and encountering a crazy person, one would wonder how that person is capable of navigating home. How can a mentally unstable person function in society? When a tragedy occurs, people handle it differently. A stereotype about women is that they are emotional to the point of insanity. Society views men as decision makers and action takers. This sexism instilled in society could lead a person to craziness in itself. The constricting idea that each gender has a role in tragedy is troubling. When a father dies, the man takes the responsibility over. Society assumed the daughter is emotionally unstable and in need of assistance. In Hamlet, Ophelia is parallel to Hamlet in the events that occur, showing that death is an equalizer of even the deepest misogyny.…
“Women may fall, when there’s no strength in men” –William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare conveys this message about women being inferior to men through all his plays. He says that men are women’s strength and are the reason for women’s survival. Shakespeare shows women to be obedient and weak, whereas, men to be strong and independent. Once again, Shakespeare continued this trend of showing women to be dominated and influenced figures in his play Hamlet. Hamlet was written in 160 set in Denmark during the Elizabethan era. A very significant part of the play Hamlet is gender roles where the men are powerful, dominant, and revengeful but, the women are fragile, manipulated, and simply weak. There are many examples throughout Hamlet in…
In Western society, women are part of a very prosperous age, where they are seen as equals to men; however, this is not the case in Shakespeare’s time. The issues and gender roles forced upon women during England’s Elizabethan era are highlighted by Shakespeare in many of his plays. In Shakespeare’s, Hamlet, the women in the play are powerless, which can be seen through their lack of control over their sexuality, their lack of voice and their lack of independence.…
While Ophelia demonstrates a kind and sweet character, Queen Gertrude is depicted in a much different light. Shakespeare had made a developed character that has far more than one-dimensional. Aside from her role attached to the male characters in Hamlet, Queen Gertrude is an intelligent, respectable woman. Unfortunately, Gertrude is not always painted in the best light as her lack of awareness of her husband’s murder. Gertrude “doesn’t seem to know what’s going on around her and doesn’t know why Hamlet is moody” (Tom Stoppard 23). Acknowledging her oblivious behavior that Shakespeare has given her, Gertrude is often depicted as an unaware woman. Nonetheless, she is greater than the stereotypes surrounding the Renaissance time for women. However,…
Objectification is defined as, “a notion central to feminist theory…the seeing and/or treating a person, usually a woman, as an object.”¹ There are several ways to look at the idea of the objectification of women in literature. Shakespeare’s, Hamlet can be a prime example of the objectification of women when viewed through a feminist lens, due to the use of violability, instrumentality, and silencing by the misogynistic patriarchy, towards the women of the noble family.…