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Essay on The Projection of Hamlet’s Emotions Through Adult Sexuality

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The Projection of Hamlet’s Emotions Through Adult Sexuality
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the question of sexuality and the role of women becomes a substantial component in analyzing Hamlet’s character and behavior. The motif of misogyny occurs intermittently throughout the play shown largely through Hamlet's relationships with both Gertrude and Ophelia. Clearly hurt by Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius so soon after his father’s death Hamlet becomes cynical of women and surmises that they are all immoral creatures. He develops a particular obsession with female sexuality and incestuous relations. Hamlet forms a connection between women and immorality, thus using his his mother’s incestous actions as a basis to surmise that all women are…show more content…
The very fact that his mother did not mourn such a grand man as his father made Hamlet feel as if she had betrayed not only her husband, but him as well. He personifies her as a beast, an animal that could not even properly mourn someone that she had once called husband. The way Hamlet addresses his mother shows his cold reception towards her,“You are the Queen, your husband's brother's wife, / And, would it were not so, you are my mother." (3.4. 16-17). He refuses to acknowledge his mother as anything other than King Hamlet's wife. Hamlet chooses to refer to her as his father’s brother’s wife, not allowing Claudius to become relevant in his speech. Hamlet wishes that Gertrude were no longer his mother, for she has brought shame and grief to his already faltering soul. Her relationship with Claudius has directly affected Hamlet not only in his emotional state, but in his physical being. The thought of incestous occurences happening in the marital bed between Claudius and Gertrude brings only nausea and anger to Hamlet. The very fact that this union has occurred has poisoned his royal lineage. Yet the only emotions Hamlet can express unabashedly are those of disgust and grief that have been brought upon him by his mother.
The amount of pathos in Hamlet’s speech becomes heightened as he becomes increasingly obsessed
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