William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, Ophelia, Laertes And Laertes

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,

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the stage was used as a way to break the barriers of gender norms. In his creation of Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the voice of Ophelia as a means to battle the gender norms that had been placed on Elizabethan society. A good women was seen as someone that was quiet and submissive. If a man could not control a woman’s tongue, there would be no chance that the man would be able to control her body. Though Ophelia’s character was more than capable of exhibiting reason, the control that her father, Polonius, held over her let Ophelia to the the madness that would claim her life by the end of the play. On the other side of the gender spectrum, Hamlet, a prince that should be have been more than capable of

In Elizabethan times, Ophelia is restricted as a woman. She is obedient to the commands of the men in her life although she often attempts to do the right thing. Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet all have a grasp on Ophelia and who she is. She does not have the freedom to change her fate as Hamlet does.

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.

     The treatment of women in Hamlet is very troubling. The leading female characters, Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, are pawns or puppets for the men around them. Like chess pieces, they are moved about and influenced by the men they love with little say of their own; in fact, Shakespeare does not even develop their characters.

It is often questioned who is responsible for the deaths of the characters in famous plays. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the answer is more complicated than it seems. All of the characters are directly responsible for their own deaths. Ophelia and Laertes, for example, cause their own deaths by their own actions, even though they are for different reasons. It may appear as if several characters in Hamlet die because of someone else’s actions, not their own. This may be the case, but it overlooks that although other people were involved in some of the deaths, it was still ultimately each character’s own fault. The characters are all responsible for their own deaths because of the actions they took.

In this passage, Shakespeare contrasts Ophelia and Laertes’ reactions to their father’s death to characterize Laertes as revengeful and Ophelia as passive. Laertes and Ophelia have both recently found out about the death of their father, Polonius, a lord of the King of Denmark. When Laertes first addresses the king, Claudius, he says, “O thou vile king, / Give me my father” (IV.v.116-117).Without properly addressing Claudius, Laertes angrily demands to know what happened to his father. Ophelia, however, enters driven by madness and singing, “They bore him bare-faced on the bier… And in his grave rained many a tear” (IV.v.164-166). Unlike Laertes’ aggressive demands for details about his father, Shakespeare gives Ophelia a passive reaction,

It can also be applied to Ophelia’s blind obedience and dependency on her father because a woman’s life was always controlled by a male, whether it was in marriage or a familial setting. Furthermore, the evident presence of misogyny in the Elizabethan society was accurately and subtly depicted through the roles and fate of Ophelia and Gertrude in Hamlet. Both females in Hamlet played the role of dependent and weak women, and their presence did not necessarily make a massive impact on the advancement of the plot. This depiction in Hamlet corresponded with the atmosphere in the Elizabethan society because it indicated that women were unnecessary in the advancement of society because of the weakness that their gender

The sexism in Shakespearean time against women limited the women 's power, possibilities, and fair treatment. The play "Hamlet" written by William Shakespeare illustrated the gender inequality and the affects it has on the two female characters in the play Ophelia and Gertrude. The social and legal roles and rules for women mere a major impact on how the women lived and what was expected of them. Religion has limited women in regards to their position to men, making them inferior. As mentioned in the "Social History of England" By Horrox, Rosemary, and W. M. Ormrod. A: Legal Treatise Henry of Bracton in the thirteenth century said "Women differ from men in many respects for their position is inferior to men". This has

The modern times of today allow for an open interpretation of most anything, but one thing that remains fairly constant is the understanding of history. When Shakespeare produced and published his play Hamlet, he gave an insight to the historical characteristics of the time period with the language he used and the descriptors of the characters. For example, Ophelia plays a large role in the play by being the love interest of Hamlet and the daughter of the man he killed. Shakespeare depicts her as a obedient family minded young girl which directly correlates to the mindframe of women during this time period. Women were meant to provide children and deal with all inner home related situations. Ophelia exposses herself as the obedinet daughter when she tells her father “’Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall keep the key of it” (Act 1 Scene 3). In this day and age most

Although it may not be on purpose, Hamlet will always treat women as less than equals because it is in his subconscious he has been taught to treat them in that manner. Women were not treated as equals to men during this time period, some women still don't believe that they are equal to men today. Polonius is her lord and she has to obey him, this is because Ophelia is inferior because she is a woman."This is for all: I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth, have you so slander any moment leisure, as to give words or talk with the lord hamlet. Look to't, I charge you. Come your ways." "I shall obey, my lord" (Shakespeare 1.3 140-145). Her father, Polonius treats her as his property. Ophelia is treated less as a person and more as an object. Ophelia struggles to determine what is right and what is wrong, but she wants to make everyone happy.Women today undergo the same struggle, but in different situations. Women are used as objects and property, but are not treated like people, when they are treated like people they are treated like low class citizens, whose opinions don't matter. “To be, or not to be: that is the question"(Shakespeare 3.1 64) That is the question Ophelia should have thought about before she committed suicide, she should have thought about why she was treated as an object. Ophelia should have wondered if it would be better to put up with the bad things you know about in life than to run away from the bad

The equality of men and women has been a controversial topic throughout various eras of time. Women have previously been observed as delicate and feeble individual’s incapable of independence. This is clearly demonstrated within the play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare by two prominent female characters, Queen Gertrude and the love interest of Prince Hamlet, Ophelia. Gertrude is depicted as a reserved leader who favors luxury and affection over loyalty and strong morals, she often looks for guidance from the male figures around her. Similarly, Ophelia has a malleable personality built upon the opinions of her father and the affections of Hamlet. Women are noticeably inferior to men within this play, they do not get the opportunity to express their personal opinions or make important decisions but instead, get judged upon the way others perceive them.

This analysis of Hamlet will focus on the female characters of Ophelia and Gertrude within the text. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius, she is a kind, sweet natured girl of who Hamlet has fallen in love with. However, due to the control of both her father and brother Laertes, has been convinced that she should spy on young Hamlet as to what his intentions are. Whereas, Gertrude is a shadowy character with little involvement in the text; it is seen as though she has to live through Claudius in order to function in society. Throughout the text we can see that both Ophelia and Gertrude are oppressed by the male figures around them such as Claudius, Hamlet, Polonius and Laertes who are pivotal characters in the text. She also becomes more mentally unstable as the play progresses. Psychologically , gender can also be a difficult subject to analyse as nowadays your gender is not solely based on whether you are male or female, the terms of gender and sex are used interchangeably and according to western cultures they are not purely connected to physical anatomy. However, focusing on the female figures of Ophelia and Gertrude in relation to the line “Frailty, thy name is woman” initially suggests that any one woman is the same as all women in society suggesting that they will always be seen as the weaker gender. On the other hand, looking at the Wordsworth classic text of Hamlet, Ophelia can be seen to be being controlled by both her father and brother which could be the reason

Throughout Hamlet, the females of the play are portrayed as reliant on the men in their lives. The queen, Gertrude, relies very heavily on having a man in her life. Ophelia is very obedient of her father throughout the beginning of the play. Because of this, Ophelia is willing to sacrifice her relationship with Hamlet to please her father. Hamlet shows us that the queen and Ophelia needed one common thing, a man to rely on.