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Recommended: Gender roles
Michael McClain
Mrs. Baringer
Honors World Lit
16 December 2013
Gender Roles For Hamlet
Act 1
King Claudius- "'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet,
To give these mourning duties to your father:
[…] but to persever
In obstinate condolement is a course
Of impious stubbornness; 'tis unmanly grief;
It shows a will most incorrect to heaven,
A heart unfortified, a mind impatient,
An understanding simple and unschool'd." (1.2.290-300)
Plot Context: King Claudius is talking about Hamlet mourning the death of his father still. His mother Gertrude says she also still misses her husband but you have to move on.
Analysis: In this quote, Claudius is saying that Hamlet needs to stop complaining about his father's death. That mourning for this long is very unmanly. He is basically saying that everyone else is happy why can't you be happy.
Act 1
Hamlet-" That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month—
Let me not think on't—Frailty, thy name is woman!—"(1.2.341-350)
Plot Context: In this part of the story Hamlet is very upset with his mother. His mom has just gotten married to his uncle 2 months after his father's death. In the speech he is talking about losing faith in woman especially his mother.
Analysis: In this he is talking about all his mother wanted was to have a man in her life. She is so weak that she couldn’t go 2 months without a man. He says that her "appetite" has grown and she needs to feed on so...
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...easty collection, which carries them through and through the most fond and winnowed opinions; and do but blow them to their trial, the bubbles are out. (181-188)
Plot Context: Hamlet it talking to Horatio about the duel that will happen. He also makes about Laertes is not ready for the duel.
Analysis: In the quote Hamlet is talking about praised and he isn’t ready. Men have cockiness and don’t know what’s really going to happen. He is going to lose because he isn’t prepared.
Act 5
GERTRUDE: He’s fat, and scant of breath.—
Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows.
The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet. (5.2.281-283)
Plot Context: Hamlet is dueling Laertes and is winning. He strikes Laertes again and Gertrude comes out with wine and a rag.
Analysis: Gertrude is playing the common role of a caring mother. She wants her boy to win and do well so she comes out
In Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” Hamlet and Laertes act as dramatic foils, where their similarities are used to highlight their differences. Each character learns that his father has been murdered and each plots his revenge against the murderer. In the first act of the play, the ghost of Hamlet’s father tells him “Let not
Throughout the play, Laertes is as an extremely caring member of his family. His strong emotions for family have an opposing side to it, a shadow that has repressed feelings of anger which cause him to add to the disaster in Denmark. An example that depicts this is when Laertes attempts to request more rites for Ophelia’s funeral. After he is denied, he starts a commotion by calling the priest “churlish”, explaining that Ophelia will be “A ministering angel” while the priest will “liest howling”(5.1.217-218). His compliments to Ophelia shows how much he loved her, while his nasty insults to the priest show his repressed rage. While this is occuring, Hamlet hears Laertes’s mention of Ophelia during the commotion and throws himself into a brawl with Laertes. It is the conflict built up from there that causes Claudius to target Laertes as his next weapon to kill Hamlet with. Laertes’s deep anger for Hamlet makes himself the best candidate for Claudius’s manipulation. Once Laertes’s sides with Claudius, he shows his dark intent by requesting Claudius to not “o'errule me to a peace”(4.7.58). On the day of the duel, Laertes undergoes a confrontation of his shadow while he clashes with Hamlet. His realization of his shadow comes too late into the duel when both Hamlet and Laertes are struck by poison, as this happens he declares that he is “ justly killed with mine own treachery (5.2.337).” In the moments that he is still alive, he dismisses his shadow and ends the circle of murder by announcing the true nature of Claudius. Laertes’s repressed anger guides the play into the duel where many deaths occur including Hamlet’s.
Hamlets ridiculed feelings for women was because of his mother’s disappointing action. Hamlets mothers’ marriage with Claudius not so long after his father’s death did not show her devotion to her husband’s memory in the way a loving wife should. ”O god a beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer” (l.2.150) degrading Gertrude, as he believes an animal would find the loss of its mate more upsetting than the queen did when she lost her husband. In his mind women are frail and weak this is why he says that women is just another name for weakness. “Frailty, thy name is woman” (l.2.148) generalizing that all women are frail and incapable to withstand temptation. His bitterness has lead him to believe that all women are dishonest and untrustworthy because his mother easily moved on from the husband she so thought to have loved and worse married his brother a month after his death. Hamlet starts to torment his mother by telling her that she is sleeping with her husband’s killer. “But you live in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, stewed in corruption and making love over that nasty sty” (3.4.100) trying to make her realize the wrong that she has done, being easy to fall in love with another man because she required comfort. To Hamlet his mother is weak, surrendering to lust, changing Hamlets view and sparking his hate for women, seeing how they are not loyal. “When the compulsive ardour gives
These questions prove that Gertrude is much more complex than the reader thinks initially. However, her character in the play is an enigma, shallow in depth. Gertrude seems to put on a facade of ignorance. She must protect her own interests.
Laertes makes another unfair move in the film – he wounds Hamlet while Hamlet is on the floor with his back turned. In the text, Laertes wounds Hamlet during their fight...
He criticizes women for making men behave like monsters and for contributing to the world’s dishonesty by painting their faces to appear more beautiful than they are. This illustrates Hamlet shifting from sane to insane. During Hamlets talk between him and his mother, he hears a noise behind the bars. Hamlet storms into the room and asks his mother why she has sent him. She says that he has offended his stepfather.
soliloquy, that Hamlet is beginning to loath his mother for marrying Claudius only one month after King Hamlet’s
In the beginning of Hamlet, the Prince behaves as any normal person would following the death of a loved one. Not only is this a loved one, but an extra special someone; it is his loving father whom he adored. Hamlet is grief stricken, depressed, and even angry that his mother remarried so soon after his father’s death. Having witnessed how his father had treated his mother with great love and respect, Hamlet cannot understand how his mother could shorten the grieving period so greatly to marry someone like Uncle Claudius. He is incapable of rationalizing her deeds and he is obsessed by her actions.
Claudius begins his speech with an acknowledgement of Hamlet’s death and his own marriage to Gertrude. Claudius claims that the “green” memory of his “dear brother’s death” “befitted” Denmark to contract into “one brow of woe” (1.2). Despite Claudius’ affectionate reference to Hamlet, his hypocrisy is transparent. The colour imagery reveals the freshness of Hamlet’s death. The metaphor used suggests the kingdom is expected to unite and share the grief over its loss but the diction in “befitted” hints Claudius disapproval of expected mourning rites, causing the audience to doubt his sincerity. Furthermore, Claudius adds that “discretion fought with nature” causing him to think of Hamlet together with a “remembrance of [himself]” (1.2). The metaphorical conflict between “discretion” and “nature” contrasts Claudius’ hasty marriage to the expected mourning after Hamlet’s death. Moreover, in Claudius’ statement, the dependen...
Clearly, Hamlet’s concern for the Queen, his mother, is of genuine association to the death of King Hamlet. Within this solitary thought, Hamlet realizes the severity of his mother’s actions while also attempting to rationalize her mentality so that he may understand, and perhaps, cope with the untimely nature of the Queen’s marriage to Claudius. Understandably, Hamlet is disturbed. Gertrude causes such confusion in Hamlet that throughout the play, he constantly wonders how it could be possible that events would turn out the way they did.
middle of paper ... ... Gertrude betrays Hamlet as a mother, she does not believe in him or trust him, she goes behind his back and blocks out Hamlet and his feelings and marries Claudius which really hurts Hamlet. Gertrude as a wife and mother, hurts the people she most loved, her family. The Shakespearean play of Hamlet captures the audience with many suspenseful and devastating themes, including betrayal. Some of the most loved characters get betrayed by those who they thought loved them most.
In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare commendably conveys a, if you will, a “love story” between the major characters in the play. Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius are the individuals he writes about. In this story, Gertrude must choose between her son, a loyal, sincere male figure in her life that has always supported and loved her, or a man who can offer her power and fulfill her dependency trait, which one may say is what she has always strived to attain. Gertrude’s inability to see the bigger picture of King Claudius’ deceit and ill morals is what makes Gertrude a weak and submissive character. While Gertrude means no harm, her poor judgment contributes significantly to the rotten events that occur throughout the play. The choices Gertrude does make ultimately leads to her death and the downfall of the ones she loves as well.
His first words in the play is an aside saying "A little more than kin and less than kind" (Shakespeare. 1.2.64-65). Hamlet is already distrustful of those around him, shown in the way Shakespeare uses an aside. This displays a lack of trust and ability to speak his mind out loud. Due to the death of his father and the quick and untimely coronation of Claudius as the new king, Hamlet becomes hostile and distrustful of the people around him as people tell him to move forward and accept his father 's death, just as they have. While he believes his sorrow and mourning is genuine, Hamlet discloses to his mother that the other 's mourning is fake and only "seems"(1.2.83) real. Hamlet believes that their loyalty is fickle and unreliable, there by isolating himself and relying on his inner circle of friends and family to deal with his loss and to loss that support, would leave Hamlet
“Frailty thy name is woman,” is the summary of the feelings towards women for the entire play. Gertrude cannot spare any time to grieve over her late husband; she must find another man to rule the kingdom. That man turns out to be her late husband's bro...
Hamlet has just come from watching Claudius praying for forgiveness, his emotions and his nerves are very brittle, and he has just missed a chance to kill his uncle. Hamlet releases his pent up frustrations upon Gertrude, lashing out at her and condemning her despite the ghost’s order not to. Hamlet lashes out with his id, insulting her and accusing her, she defends with her Superego, innocent in her mind of any crimes he accuses her of.