Essay On The Role Of Women In Hamlet

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.
In Hamlet, one can immediately determine the relationship between men and women. The women tend to be dependent and morally obedient to the …show more content…
Just like Ophelia, Gertrude is also dependent but dependent on affection, and is portrayed as weak when she quickly marries Claudius after her husband dies. “Frailty, thy name is woman! A little month, or ere those shoes were old with which she followed my poor father’s body, like Niobe, all tears. Why she, even she O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer! Within a month, Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes” ( 1.2.146-155). Within a month of mourning the king’s death, Gertrude now seeks attention from another man. So desperate for the attention of a man, she marries the king’s brother. An act like this is considered weak minded and submissive. Gertrude fell into the trap of Claudius when given love, affection, and attention ultimately demonstrating how the women in the play are portrayed as extremely weak, passive, and submissive, illustrating the power dynamics between men and