Ophelia And Hamlet

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, there were many important characters just like Hamlet who show up in more than three-fourths of the play; but there are also characters that don’t necessarily show up as much but still have a strong role. One of the characters that didn’t get as much screen time but was still important was Ophelia. Ophelia was a sister, girlfriend, and daughter that so many people loved. Therefore, Despite the lack of presence of Ophelia, she ultimately played a big role in the lives of a lot of the characters.

William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is perhaps one of his most intriguing and scandalous pieces of work. One character who is liable for much of this excitement and outrage is Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. To some readers and critics, Gertrude is conceived as an erratic, superficial and sensual woman. Others discern the Queen as an earnest, intellectual and sagacious woman whose tragic fault is her yearning for sexual satisfaction. Throughout the text, there are several legitimate arguments for both sides, but in the end, Hamlet seems to sum up the Queen’s true persona with the words “Frailty, thy name is woman”. Evidence of Gertrude’s true nature can be found in many instances through out the play such

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet can be read as a feminist play given Ophelia’s experiences within the Danish society. Through Ophelia’s interactions with the men of the play, the audience can see that the male-dominated society brings inequality, distrust, and destruction. As Ophelia interacts with her brother, her father, and Hamlet, she is completely unable to assert her own independence, and her lack of personal autonomy eventually drives her to madness. These three men all deny Ophelia’s individuality and desire for self-control because they are accustomed to their male-dominated world. However, once Ophelia is driven to madness, she is regarded as an individual and finally has political and social power. Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a feminist play located within a misogynistic culture that Ophelia struggles to escape.

Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.” (King James Bible, Corinthians. 11. 8-9). Women are clearly subordinate to men from a biblical perspective and Hamlet adopts this notion upon evaluation of his mother’s personal choices. As a woman, Gertrude is unable to be seen for who she truly is. Rather, her worth as a person is observed through the lens of whatever male partner she has in her life. Claudius, as a husband, has power over his mother and is able to stain her, giving her shame and brings dishonour to the kingdom. Hamlet also addresses honour within his soliloquy. Despite the two playing equal parts in the relationship, it is Gertrude who is Hamlet sees as scandalous and a disgrace because of the marriage. This all adds up to Hamlet vilifying his own mother by prioritizing God’s values over respecting the only person in his life who he truly loves. This sacrifice massively contributes to his downfall. Thus, through Hamlet implementing Catholic morals in his life in an effort to cope with his father’s death, he deteriorates the now dicey relationship with his mother and makes him responsible for his life’s decline. PEE 4, LOVE OF GOD

Due to Hamlet’s psychological state, he felt confused and betrayed by his mother. His mother marrying his dead father’s brother opened gates to his madness. To Hamlet’s mind, women represent frailty; they are weak and regard them as an embodiment of weakness. He referred to his mother as a morally and spiritually weak woman as her incestuous inconstancy drove her to remarry immediately after her husband’s death and that she committed a sin. The most notable frailty of Gertrude seems to be that, whether by nature or nurture, she cannot exist without men. He recorded saying that Gertrude, “a little month or ere those shoes were old, with which she followed mo poor father’s body” (1.2.147-148). She needs a man as her guide to her perception

Women in the 1600’s were typically expected to be weaker than a man, to bear children, and to have some sort of education as long as it didn’t surpass that of a man’s. Shakespeare wrote two women, Gertrude and Ophelia, that fit some of the stereotypical characteristics of women in this time period and some that do not. Shakespeare’s Hamlet portrays a variety of stereotypical feminine traits and ideals within two distinctly different female characters, expressing along with them a large spectrum of interactions and reactions that open a potential window into Shakespeare’s mindset about women. Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark, is given a set of traits that would generally be associated with an older woman.

Queen Gertrude is the mother to Hamlet, widow to the late King, and new wife to King Claudius as shown within the first act of Hamlet. Following her marriage to King Claudius, her relationship with her son Hamlet becomes strained. Queen Gertrude symbolizes much of what is considered to be a negative aspect of womanhood. To Hamlet, Queen Gertrude is a failure of a woman. Through his dialogue, it is presented that Hamlet desires a woman and mother to be concerned for her family and place tradition above all else. When Hamlet’s mother makes a decision outside of that realm and marries King Claudius, Hamlet strives to berate her for her choices. Through

“Frailty, thy name is woman” (1.2. 150)! This controversial line, followed by several more from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, displays a common view towards women that portrays them as being weak and reliant on men. Throughout the play, two women, Ophelia and Gertrude, are shown to be dependent on the men in their lives. They both take on a senselessly obedient state of mind. Even though they share this common characteristic, Ophelia and Gertrude are very different characters. Ophelia is a beautiful, young woman who is the love interest of the protagonist, Hamlet. Ophelia obeys her father, Polonius, without hesitation and has very little experience with making her own decisions. Gertrude was the wife of Old Hamlet, and is now the wife of Claudius, the current king and Old Hamlet’s brother. Gertrude desires affection and status more than she cares about the truth of what happened to her late husband. The men in this play have no sense of how they treat the females. This patriarchal way of life was prominent in the late 16th century and early 17th century which was about the time that Hamlet was written and performed. This relationship between the genders is interconnected within the play and with society during that particular time period. The characters of Ophelia and Gertrude were solid examples of how women were viewed as inferior to men during this time in history.

The female characters were connected to their authoritative male counterparts by a dominated relationship which created the scale for inequality. Ophelia was labeled as a dependent woman. She was always seeking for the instructions and advice of her father on how to conduct her relationship with Hamlet. “Do you believe his tenders, as you call them? I do not know, my lord, what I should think.” (Shakespeare I.iii.103-104) By bluntly stating “what I should think” and referring to Polonius as “my lord”, Shakespeare is demonstrating the obedience and dependence on the male authority figure in the Elizabethan era. These terms of address illustrate a scale of inequality amongst gender roles not only within the play but within the Elizabethan era. Gertrude is also characterized as a damsel in distress who is in need of a man in her life, as demonstrated by Hamlet’s reaction to Gertrude’s hasty marriage to King Claudius. “Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him as if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on; and yet within a month – let me not think on’t – frailty, thy name is woman.” (Shakespeare I.ii.143-146) Through Hamlet’s lens, Gertrude’s “increase in appetite” reveals her dependability on men to be the result of her need to fulfill her sexual desires. Through the explosive declaration, “frailty, thy name is women”, Hamlet extends the judgment of sexual dependence on men to all women and reveals a weakness among women in the Elizabethan era to not be able to live on their own and to be reliant upon men to fulfill their sexual appetite. The strict gender roles and the lack of authority given to women, illustrates the strong need for male dependability by Gertrude and

For all, your thanks” (Hamlet, 1.2.14– 16). This explained that he was advised to do so by the King’s advisors for the good of Denmark. Prince Hamlet, Jr. could only see the potential appearance of an affair between Gertrude and his Uncle Claudius prior to his father’s death. This left Prince Hamlet, Jr. contemplating whether his mother was an adulteress woman because she was not thinking with her heart for her deceased husband. Rather, she thought as an evil, lustful, selfish desire seeker. Prince Hamlet, Jr. “fishes for the Queen’s reaction to the Mousetrap” (Wallenfels, 2006) thinking that it will either prove he was correct and that she had carried on a torrid affair with Claudius while King Hamlet, Sr. was still alive or that he’d be able to find that chord of appalment to show she had indeed not. Her reaction did not elicit the response he had anticipated, “The lady doth protests too much, methinks” (Hamlet, 3.2.203), which goes to support the fact that Gertrude was indeed not having an illicit affair with her deceased husband’s brother, Claudius. Though Prince Hamlet, Jr. still believed she was currently perpetrating the sin of incest and unhappy since Gertrude “had been living in a sexual relationship with her

The play Hamlet originates from the 12th-century Danish history, uses the Danish court in medieval as background. Through the processes of Hamlet’s revenge for his father, the author depicts the real pictures of the late Renaissance of British and European social conditions. In the story, Denmark is as turbulent and dangerous as the British in reality at the time, with the wicked and the conspiracy-looking court. As the victim of the times, Hamlet and Ophelia both display the elements of hamartia, anagnorisis, and hubris, proving them to be tragic heroes. Hamaratia means the flaw or error of judgment of characters, and this is one of the reasons why Hamlet and Ophelia become tragic heroes.

Gertrude is also seen as a woman who looks for affection and physical connection this can be seen through her hasty marriage to claudius which is thought of as incest by hamlet who states “She married. O, most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (Shakespeare). By showing that gertrude cares more about affection and physical contact from others than her own family: king Hamlet and her son, it paints her in a negative light especially because of the view of the role of women during the late 16th early 17th century when it was

Hamlet is rife with commentary on social hierarchies, chiefly those of insanity, religion, and women in society. Through the character of Ophelia, we can see the intersection of all three of these aspects, and through an analysis of her character can gain insight on the England for whom Shakespeare writes. I argue that the marginalization of Ophelia in the play is a result of these multifaceted attitudes, and we can examine how insanity and religion frame Ophelia’s character, her and Gertrude’s relationships with men in the play, and her pessimistic end. From the introduction of Ophelia in Act 1, Scene 3, her Shakespeare’s role for her appears evident. Immediately she is defined in relation to the men in the play, first with Laertes, “Farewell.

Hamlet also metaphorically compares Claudius and Gertrude to pigs in a sty by saying “honeying and making love/Over the nasty sty!” Hamlet feels betrayed and disgusted with his mother and believes that she is subhuman. By comparing this crude animalistic image to Gertrude’s relationship with Claudius, Hamlet reinforces his argument that their relationship is morally wrong and corrupt. In her relationship with Claudius, Gertrude is driven by her sexual needs, which is the physical representation of her inner corruption. His mother’s betrayal leads him to believe that all women are disloyal and dishonest to their husbands. This portrayal of women to Hamlet completely changes his opinions on women. Notably on Ophelia, Hamlet’s girlfriend, due to the fact that in the beginning of the play when Hamlet and Ophelia are having a conversation, Hamlet acts cordially towards Ophelia, but later turns on her and suddenly denies ever loving her. He attacks her with unfounded accusations, claiming, “If thou wilt needs marry,/marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what/monsters you make of them” (III.i.149-151). In this quote, Hamlet’s distrust of women, born from his anger at his

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Gertrude possesses great sophistication, serving as more than an easily manipulated and simple woman. Throughout Hamlet, the queen speaks less than other individuals such as Hamlet and Claudius. In addition, Hamlet’s interpretation of her marriage to Claudius and the ghost’s accusations portray her in a negative and simplistic light, explaining her actions as adultery through weakness. Consequently, Gertrude might easily appear vulnerable and dependent on others, as described by Hamlet and the ghost. However, such an interpretation fails to correctly analyze the meaning and value of Gertrude’s actions and the intelligence she demonstrates.