Ophelia's Treatment Of Women In Hamlet

In medieval times, the word of the man of the house, in this case being Polonius was to be obeyed by the women of the residence. Also the word of the husband is held to a similar standard. Therefore, Ophelia would have felt an obligation to obey both Hamlet and her father. This however, creates controversy within Ophelia herself due to her commitment to both her father and her unnecessary commitment to Hamlet. Her passion for Hamlet seems to be diffused by her greater sense of commitment to her father. Ophelia is not entirely true to Hamlet in that she lies to Hamlet and tells him that her father is at home when he is actually behind a curtain listening in on the conversation. This is evidence that Ophelia is not able to operate and maintain sanity under the pressure from both sources. In her choice of obedience to her father, she in a sense has chosen the course of her fate (which is inevitable doom). But does Ophelia fulfill the requirements of her day as a woman? One way of looking at the issue is the question that was Ophelia driven insane by her desire and love for Hamlet, or was she merely a casualty of a culture that creates unfeasible demands from women? Due to her incapability to create her own decisions, she is vulnerable to the influence of her father and brother and

People have mostly seen women inferior to men because women have been thought of as simple-minded and could not take care of themselves. Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows how men treated and thought of women during the 1500s. There was an order most did not interfere with; however, some did. In the 1500s, women were supposed to conform to men’s wishes. Throughout the play, Ophelia first obeyed her father and brother’s wishes, ignored the social norms later, and then went mad, which caused her to never gain her own identity.

In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare, the author, creates female characters that occupy very different roles than in his other plays. In this play, Hamlet plays opposite two women who are used by the men around them in order to further their own interests. One woman is named Ophelia. In many of Shakespeare’s other plays, he creates women that are very strong and play a very real role in the life of the protagonist. In Hamlet, however, Ophelia occupies a very different role-she exemplifies a pawn of the men around her. She is used not only by her father and his associate the King, but also by her supposed lover, Hamlet. This is a very different role for a woman in a Shakespearian play. Also, Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude,

Midway through Hamlet, Ophelia is well under the control of Polonius and Hamlet. They are both manipulating and using her as a pawn as to get what they want and she has little to no say about it. Act 2, scene 1 serves as a turning point, as it is when Ophelia begins to realize the manipulation she faces at the hands of both her father and Hamlet, and that she can only truly gain her freedom when she herself descends into madness. Polonius’ manipulation, Hamlet’s control and Ophelia’s own thoughts and actions demonstrate her descent, and the aftermath.

Polonius teams up with King Claudius and once again places demands on Ophelia which require her to disregard her own self to fulfill their wishes of deceiving Hamlet into revealing the cause of his erratic behavior. And once again, it is Ophelia’s duty to her father and this time to the king to be obedient. Disobedience to the king and his advisor are not an option. Polonius wants the king to look on him in good favor and he is willing to step on his daughter to get this admiration. He neglects Ophelia’s feelings by not even thinking of how his requests will affect her. He feels at liberty to request whatever he would like. He is purely worried about himself. Polonius holds a position of unquestioning authority over his daughter. He treats her as though she is not intelligent enough to make her own decisions and he knows that she will inherently obey him. To him her feelings are irrelevant and immature which he states when saying “Affection, puh, you speak like a green girl.”(1.3.101) Following her fathers instructions, she loses her lover and a piece of her happiness.

During the Renaissance, it was common for women to behave a certain manner in a patriarchal society. Acting as a subordinate to their husband and fathers, women were expected to listen to the men in their lives and carry out their wishes. This cultural expectation exists in Shakespeare’s Hamlet through the father-daughter relationship between Polonius and Ophelia. Polonius is an overbearing father who ultimately plays the most influential role for Ophelia. He demands to have control over every aspect of her life, whether it’s social, emotional, or marital. Without a mother-like figure to follow, Ophelia is forced to succumb to the standards that men have put upon her. Both characters illustrate the superficiality to their personas and how they each curb their intentions due to traditional values.

In Hamlet, the female characters can be seen as being subservient to men. This goes on to show how Shakespeare, goes against the feminist theory by not creating equality between all the characters. One of the main character’s Ophelia can be seen as being weak and undermined in the play. She spends most of her time following the actions of her father, Polonius and boyfriend, Hamlet, with little to no say in her own opinion on topics. Polonius displays his dominance over Ophelia when he expresses his opinion on her relationship with Hamlet. He informs Ophelia on exactly what her next actions need to be when dealing with Hamlet. He even goes as far as warning her to not go against his wishes because it will “ tender [him] a fool”, showing his superiority over Ophelia’s actions (I . iii. 109). The inequality can also be shown when comparing Laertes’s life with Ophelia's. Laertes is left alone to travel France, while Ophelia is stuck to follow her father's orders. Hamlet also tries to show his

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.

           Ophelia allowed herself to become a sort of marionette in Polonius' schemes toward understanding the seemingly mad prince. While her relationship with Hamlet was on the line, she allowed Polonius to commandeer the strings that determined her actions. Polonius was determined that Hamlet's supposed madness stemmed from lovesickness for Ophelia. He convinced Ophelia that her betrayal of Hamlet was a necessary evil and she began to relay all of Hamlet's messages and attempts at communication to him. He told the king and queen:

Overwhelmed by outside forces and her repressed love for Hamlet, Ophelia is truly a sad and remorseful character in this play, an innocent victim with little essence or depth. An evident victimized woman, ruled by her Renaissance sense of romantic love, it can further be argued that Ophelia was extremely ambiguous. She was too incompetent to decide what she really desired in life. Because she falls in love with Hamlet at a very young age she cannot truly comprehend what love is all about, even though there is strong evidence that Ophelia had sexual relations with Hamlet. Hamlet emphasizes the hypocrisy of his words

In the beginning, of the story Hamlet makes Ophelia believe that she is the main reason for his insanity. Instead of Hamlet showing love or an emotional connection towards Ophelia, Hamlet treats Ophelia as a sexual object. We can see this clearly in the text, “ That’s a fair thought to lie between a maiden legs.” (Shakespeare 3.2.3) This shows how Hamlet sees Ophelia as a sexual object. He would rather engage in intimacy with Ophelia instead of getting to know her on a personal level. This also leads to another character in a story who treats Ophelia as an object rather than family.

In the play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, only two members of the cast are female characters. Both represent the female gender, and part of the play revolves around the character Ophelia and Prince Hamlet’s relationship towards her. Ophelia is only present in five of the twenty scenes in the play, and very little is known about her background. As the scholar Lee Edwards points out, “We can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet” (qtd. in Showalter 283). Despite of what seems like having a minimal role in the play, Ophelia still holds much of the readers’ attention. She gains so much attention because her character and her circumstances are so tragic and catastrophic. In her essay “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of

When Polonius finds out that Ophelia has been conducting a romance with Hamlet, he insists that she no longer have contact with the prince: ‘I will teach you. Think yourself a baby.’ (1.3.105) Polonius convinces Ophelia that she has been naïve and stupid to believe Hamlet’s professions of love: ‘Affection? Pooh! You speak like a green girl.’ (1.3. 101) In Polonius’s dialogue, Shakespeare repeatedly employs images of Ophelia as a child to portray how her father psychologically controls her, by making her dependent on his commands, as a young child would: ‘I shall obey, my lord.’ (1.3.136)

I have chosen to write about the character Ophelia, because in my opinion she’s a very interesting character and she takes a while to figure out. With that being said, she is a character that is very emotionally unstable, but doesn’t show it too much during the acts. She is a girl filled with love and care for all people, especially her dad who she obeys and follows every order he gives her, but also Hamlet, which is the man who she develops feelings for. The submissiveness for her dad has turned her more fragile because she’s never allowed to make her own decisions, she doesn’t even know what that’s like anymore. Ophelia is a pretty weak character in my opinion, because in the end of the play she chooses to give up everything when finding out that Hamlet doesn’t love her back and that her father is dead. She never chose to fight for Hamlet and never chose to try and live a life without a demanding father. Ophelia is from the beginning this proper, fine, young lady that cares and shows love for everyone, then goes to being emotional and confused and in the end depressed and weak. In addition she chooses not to really tell anyone about her feelings and thoughts, she still tries to be this proper and submissive lady that shouldn’t have problematic thoughts and emotions like these.

Despite being the only truly innocent, and pure character in Hamlet, driven to madness and, ultimately, death by external forces out of her control, Ophelia does play a role in her own demise due to her submissiveness and inability to stand up for herself. Her submissive nature is first introduced during the conversation between her and her father and brother, during which she is to think of herself as a "green girl" and "a baby" in this matter, and to stop seeing him. After bidding farewell to Laertes, Polonius confronts Ophelia about her relationship with Hamlet: “I would not,[...] have you so slander any moment leisure, as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet,” to which she responds with: “I will obey, my lord.” Ophelia blindly trusts and obeys her