Roles Of Women In Hamlet Essay

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Role of Women in Hamlet Introduction Gender issues have become paramount in societies today. In the past, one sex dominated the society as the other one remained inferior- male ruled over female. In most stances, female missed out in the civil discussions and only featured in house chores and domestic affairs such as digging. However, with globalization and introduction of the millennium development goals, it dawned that all genders need equal treatment as there is none that outdoes the other. In all typical setups, literature is the mirror as it reflects everything trending in the society- evil or good happenings. In the traditional culture of Denmark, women had lesser value to the society as opposed to male. In that light, Shakespeare wrote the Hamlet as a tragedy that exposed all the evils in society such as corruption and decay. He used female characters with varying character traits so as to unveil how the community continually eroded due to the cheap and annoying occurrences. The playwright uses different images and symbols as developed by female actors to ease his communication on various circumstances that drew the Denmark community backwards. In his play, he uses the Denmark society as the setting so as to …show more content…

Both Ophelia and Gertrude develop the theme of betrayal in the play. When Hamlet stages his vengeance plans and kills Polonius, he pesters the mother not to unveil what happened. However, Gertrude goes against her promises and opens up to Claudius concerning the action. Similarly, Polonius and Claudius arrange to capture Hamlet through Ophelia. She betrays her son by lacking concern about Hamlet’s life but instead becomes part of the evil plans. She is always ordered by Claudius the entire play, and obeys; a betrayal to her killed husband- King Hamlet, “Come away” (Shakespeare, I.II, 15). She always appears swayed and easy to convince in the whole drama- traits that show women as inferior and

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