Critical Feminist Lens for Hamlet

Feminist Lens on Hamlet The critical school our group will be discussing is feminism. The core ideas of this school is the equality of gender. When defined in the dictionary, it states that feminism is “The theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes”. A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women. Malala Yousafzai, a young social justice leader, sums up the general passion felt by those who are members of this school when she said “We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back”. In history, Margaret Cavendish is an example of one of the scholars who held the beliefs tied to this school. She was a 17th century writer who is regarded as one of the most important feminists of her time. To better understand this critical theory, a quote from G.D. Anderson states “Feminism isn’t about making women stronger. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength”. This quote ties into feminist criticism, which is the analyzing of literature to point out the male domination within text. The critical lens seeks to “expose the misogynistic nature of male authors through their writings. It looks at how female consciousness is portrayed… and aims to fix the imbalance in literary study”. A scene that can be critically analyzed is featured in Act 3, Scene 1. Ophelia is forced to break things off with Hamlet under orders from her father. Ophelia is treated rudely by Hamlet when she attempts to end the relationship, and has little to no say when she tries to defend herself against Hamlet. In our presentation, we will now recreate this scene and allow Ophelia more power and a voice, compared to the original misogynistic text. Act 3, Scene 1
In this scene of the play, Hamlet meets with Ophelia while Polonius and Claudius spy on them. When Polonius greets Ophelia, he instructs her to pretend to be reading a book in order for her being alone to not be unusual to