Laertes Use Of Feminism In Shakespeare's Hamlet

In the play “Hamlet” it is only possible to analyze feminism through the characters of Ophelia and Gertrude. It is, however, evident that Shakespeare avoided fully developing their characters because they are given lesser stage time compared to characters like Hamlet who is dominant throughout the play. The women are not seen to be participating in any significant decisions and are occasionally yelled at by the male characters. An interpretation can be drawn from the fact that the women are not given enough time on stage and it may be a representation of how women were silenced at the time the play was being prepared. The woman appears to be a victim of silencing and not being given an opportunity to express her thoughts historically.

In the first Act, Laertes attempts to influence Ophelia through her sexuality by offering to advise her on matters of pre-marital sex. Laertes has the aiming of making her sister fearful of the idea of pre-marital sex as she engages in a long speech and tells Ophelia to pay attention to what he is saying because it is coming from her brother. It is clear that Laertes believes that he should take care of his sister’s best interests. Laertes uses the idea of a “Canker” worm that attacks and destroys young flower before budding as way of describing how pre-marital sexual intercourse with Hamlet would ruin Ophelia’s life. Laertes speech represents the belief held by the society at the time that a woman who does not maintain chastity is valueless. The scene also suggests that a woman’s success is measured by whether she will find a favorable husband to marry her by maintaining chastity and if she fails in doing that ,then she will become valueless. Laertes appears to be warning his sister early before the intercourse and it is apparent that if she was guilty then the condemnation that would follow would hard for her to bear the

The women are also presented as weak characters in the play through Gertrude. It is evident that Queen Gertrude has the problem of inability to make independent decisions after her husband dies. She has to hurriedly get married to Hamlet’s uncle. The hurry in which Gertrude gets another husband is a clear in indication that women are illustrated as lacking the capacity to survive on their own always have to rely on women for survival .Hamlet is seen to be attacking her mother on the basis that women are weak in character. When Hamlet is frustrated by his mother he made a statement “frailty, thy name is woman”(Cohen,46) and it shows that women are always blamed for having weak characters. Hamlet does not honor his mother as it would be expected simply because he is male. Hamlet appears to have the perception that he is powerful as a man and therefore can control his mother. In the spirit of being in control as the man, Hamlet sometimes ignores his mother’s feeling and fails to grant some of the requests made by Gertrude. Throughout the play women lack control and Shakespeare illustrated a society where women are expected to be submissive and it the men who will always make the