Grieving Madness:
Does Hamlet Experience Misogyny or Misplaced Emotions? Grief and vengeance are irrational. The emotion is so strong at times it can alter a person to a mass degree. In Hamlet, Hamlet experiences firsthand the detrimental effects of what grief and vengeance can do to a person. The grief and vengeance that Hamlet feels, alongside his great intellect, allows him to treat Ophelia and Gertrude with inexcusable behavior. This leaves many to believe that Hamlet hates women, when that is not the case. Hamlet does not hate women; he is hurt by the two women who are supposed to be his role models of what women are. His beloved father is “but two month’s dead!-nay, not so much, not two” (Shakespeare). And his mother, Gertrude, is already moving on. Hamlet knows his father loved
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Though he was angry and confused due to the situation with his father, taking out his pain on Ophelia and Gertrude had a ripple effect of bad things to come. Not only did it in up in the death of Ophelia and Gertrude, but Polonius as well. Eventually Hamlet’s emotions should have been more centered on Claudius and setting his father free from his everlasting purgatory. In the end, Hamlet combined his wit and his negative emotions to hurt not only Claudius but everyone he believes is in assistance to Claudius, as well as innocent people such as Gertrude, Ophelia, and Polonius. Hamlet’s pain is spread to a lot of people unnecessarily, but never is it indicated that he hates women or that men in his society are primarily misogynists. Gertrude and Ophelia were the only two women present in the story and though they proved little information, they do show a level of concern for Hamlet as he started to act out with his pain. This proves that Hamlet didn’t hate them from the beginning and the feelings he has are misplaced grief and vengeance. Polonius tells
Hamlets misogyny is not something that was engrained in his culture but what his mother has engrained within him. Hamlet hasn’t always hated women as he does now, his harsh treatment of Gertrude and Ophelia are because of their betrayal of his love. Hamlet knows that even though she has made mistakes she has not stopped being a mother to him, apart from that he stills feels anger towards her and the hate that he now feels for Ophelia is just a displacement of his feelings for his mothers, “the total reaction culminates in the bitter misogyny of his outburst against Ophelia…Hamlet is really expressing his bitter resentment against his mother” (1199) towards the poor and innocent Ophelia. His hate for women is just his frustration for his mother and Ophelia blinding him and not truly him hating women because in Ophelia’s grave he tells Laertes “I loved Ophelia, Forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my sum.” (5.1.262) Hamlets repulsion against women is just him repressing his true love for the women in his life who have hurt him, “the powerful repression to which his sexual feelings are being subjected.”
In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, there are many characters that allow themselves to be manipulated and be consumed by their own emotions. The way that this type of irrational behavior occurs is when Claudius killed Hamlet Sr, this causes a chain reaction of unfortunate events. Gertrude and Claudius plan to immediately marry after the death of the king. On going with the repercussions of the event; Hamlet is later visited by the dead spirit of his father. This happening caused Hamlet to realize that he needed to avenge his dead father by killing Claudius and rightfully taking the throne back after the ghost of his father told him to do so. Along with all the supernatural things that occur Hamlet is faced with technicalities in the Kingdom of Denmark. His love for Ophelia is rebuffed do to Polonius and Laertes insisting to her that Hamlet only wants to be with her for her only for lust. Claudius hires people to spy on Hamlet and report his every move to him. Hamlet attempts to
They decided to invite some of his college friends to watch over him. The Queen offered many thanks for their decision to watch him. “For the supply and profit of our hope, / Your visitation shall receive such thanks / As fits a king’s remembrance.” (2.2.24-26). Claudius asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to get answers out of him, making them seem more like spies than helpful friends. When Hamlet shows up to Ophelia’s house, seemingly mentally disturbed, Ophelia tells her father. Polonius decides to tell the King of Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship that he thinks that may be the source of his problems. The King and Polonius set up a meeting between the two. Seeming to know he is being watched, Hamlet acts very wildly, leading them to believe Ophelia was not the cause of his insanity. The King is not impressed at Polonius. “Love! His affections do not that way tend, / Nor what he spake, though it lacked form a little, / Was not like madness. There’s something in his soul” (3.1.170-72). At this point, Hamlet has started his drastic decline in his mental stability. When he is called by the Queen for a talk, he over hears something behind the draped curtains and stabs through it, killing Polonius. His reaction is not what one would expect, as he does not feel any remorse. Hamlet simply states it was for the best and his bad luck. “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell. / I took thee for thy
There are many ways that Hamlet and his mother express their feelings for each other. In the beginning, they show tenderness and overwhelming love towards each other. It is Gertrude’s actions that bring out the anger in Hamlet. He cannot understand how his mother could be so disrespectful by remarrying so quickly. Although he honors his mother, he cannot do this upon learning of her engagement.
Women and love play a strong and important role in the play Hamlet. Shakespeare created the main character Hamlet to hide his true emotions by directing them toward the women in his life. Hamlet lies and manipulates Ophelia into thinking that she has broken his heart by not loving him back and leads the other characters in the play to think the same. Hamlets writes a letter to Ophelia, “O dear Ophelia, I am ill at these numbers. I have not art/ to reckon my groans. But I love thee best, O most/ believe it. Adieu” (II.ii.119-121). Hamlet writes about his love for Ophelia, but his true desires ar...
He urges Ophelia to go to a nunnery rather than experience the corruptions of sexuality. Hamlet blames the bad woman he is intimately intertwined with for his indecisiveness between a man 's power and the ability to do right. He acts as though it would be strange for him to not be cruel to women. Another display of his rudeness is his mocking of them. Knowing that Ophelia is obsessed and affectionate towards him, he taunted her. He purposely gave her false hope, immediately after telling her how stupid she is, by saying to her “I did love you once" (3.1.114). Ironically, he then proceeds to state the truth: that he never loved her, to which she reveals “I was the more deceived” (3.1.118). Now, having lost all his patience, he commands her to go to a nunnery. He also tells her that he did not love her and would have rather not been born. In the quote "accuse me of such things that it was better my mother had not borne me” (3.1.120-121). This quote makes it clear that he is homosexual and will always continue to be such, stating he would never prefer existing to loving a woman. He is even incapable of loving his mother as once before. Throughout the story, he is almost constantly complaining and condemning her for being disloyal to his father, which only further proves to him that women are incapable of truly loving anyone. On his deathbed, he holds to his homosexual nature and voices his haughty farewell to his mother, "Wretched queen, adieu!” (5.2.306) this perfectly highlights the division he had between the two genders even to his deathbed; Unmannerly vs.
Hamlet’s behaviour towards Ophelia and other women in Act 3, Scene 1 could be characterized as rude and insulting because he is expressing suppressed emotions of hatred towards his mother. Hamlet feels his mother has been unfaithful and incestuous when she married his uncle and because of this, begins to take his anger out on other women. Earlier in the play, Hamlet was so ashamed of his mother that he had pronounced a curse on all women; “Frailty, thy name is women!”(1.2.147), and this is why Hamlet acted the way he did towards Ophelia. Hamlet attacks Ophelia with many blunt put-downs, one of the them s...
In the play, Hamlet is described as an intelligent, emotional, and grief-stricken protagonist but he is consumed by his own thoughts which make him a highly-indecisive individual; Hamlet’s inability to act on his father’s murder, his mother’s hasty remarriage, and his uncle assuming of the throne are all evidence that Hamlet does not know what is going on in his own life. Perhaps Hamlet wants to place the blame on someone else after he wreaks vengeance on King Claudius, or capture the attention of certain characters so that he may find out exactly what has gone “rotten in Denmark” (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 90). Throughout the play Hamlet is deeply hurt by his mother’s decision to remarry his uncle. As Hamlet says, “Frailty thy name is woman”, her actions cause Hamlet to curse women all together (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 146).
Hamlet is vicious to the women in this play. He orders Ophelia, to “get thee to a nunnery!”(III.i.121), and he tells his mother Gertrude, “Frailty, thy name is woman,”(I.ii.146) even though Hamlet is not very strong himself. Heroism does not always involve taking heroic actions. Hamlet’s inaction is his own form action. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius has and uses power, Hamlet has power but mostly chooses not to use it, Polonius has less power than he imagines himself to have, and Ophelia and Gertrude have no power.
Mostly, men are the ones included in the dialogue while rarely women were allowed to make their own decisions in this play. Hamlet by William Shakespeare shows that females are often looked down upon and mistreated, this is shown through the two female characters Ophelia and Gertrude. Often, women are looked at as objects; this happens to Ophelia when she returns love letters to Hamlet. In act three, Ophelia tries to give Hamlet his love letters that he had written for her back.
Since Hamlet is notoriously the worst to the female sex, we will start with the assault on his character. Hamlet said "Frailty, thy name is woman,“ thus Hamlet believes his men are the epitome of stability and strength, right? Not really, but Hamlet's attitude toward women is definitely sexist and biased, and his hate seems to emanate from his revulsion at his mother's marriage to Claudius, which he considers “unfaithfulness” to his dead father. His attitude is totally unjustified.
William Shakespeare incorporates many themes and ideas into his play, Hamlet. Of the multiple important ideas, one potentially overlooked is the role of women. Only two of the characters in the play are female. Their lines are scarce, but hold huge importance in relation to the progression and plot of the play. Ophelia, the implied lover of Prince Hamlet, and Queen Gertrude, his mother, do not appear significant, but their actions and characters allow for other events to unfold. Gertrude and Ophelia are manipulated and belittled. In their weak will, they end up betraying Hamlet. Observing their manipulation by other people, Hamlet is able to justify and go through with his actions.
Hamlet’s vernacular and tone towards woman was completely different his vernacular and tone towards men. This is a result of the intense and angered relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. Hamlet addresses his mother with a sense of disgust. The idea that Hamlet was lead to believe that women would and could be controlled by their sexual appetites can be ascertained. As a result from past experience, Hamlet releases a rage of anger and frustration out on
Gertrude and Ophelia both love Hamlet, yet they love him in different ways. Gertrude, his mother, loves Hamlet in a motherly way, placing his honor under her current husband Claudius, which is Hamlet’s uncle, and also the brother of Gertrude’s deceased husband and Hamlet’s late father. Hamlet thinks of his mother as a whore because she married Claudius right after her husband’s untimely death. Gertrude is not a whore;
Just like in society the men in Hamlet follow the rules for a patriarchal society. The three most masculine characters in Hamlet are Claudius, Polonius and Laertes. “Man is supposed to be strong, courageous, rational and sexually aggressive; while woman is weak, timid, emotional, and sexually passive” (De-Yan 1). The first identifiable masculine characters are Laertes and Polonius as they are introduced in the play conversing with Ophelia. In this scene they tell Ophelia what she is allowed to do and command to her to not be with Hamlet, “For Hamlet and the trifling of his favor, Hold it a fashion and a toy in blood, A violet in the youth of primy nature, Forward not permanent sweet, not lasting...” (1.3.5-9). After Laertes leaves, Polonius enters the scene and rebukes Ophelia for believing Hamlets words of affection. As in a patriarchal society the males of the household are the leaders. First in command is the father, and then the brother. Therefore just like in Act one scene three, Ophelia has to do what her father and brother tell her. Claudius is another masculine character in Hamlet. He shows this by murder...