Masculinity In Hamlet

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Katherine Thompson Dr. Schott EN 407 8 April 2024 A Comparison of Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Twelfth Night William Shakespeare, arguably the most notable playwright in human history, is known to have taken unpopular stances on different issues during his life and to have expressed his opinion through his writings. While Shakespeare never explicitly lectured the public on politics, he certainly found ways to embed his politics through his characters. One scholar, in an essay on the politics of Shakespeare, argued that Shakespeare “held personal views of all kinds; and inevitably expressed these views in his writings to a moral purpose” (Friesner 1). There are multiple instances of this over his many plays. For centuries, scholars …show more content…

In Act 1, Scene 2, Hamlet addresses his own masculinity through the form of a soliloquy. He is reflecting on his father’s death and his mother’s remarriage to his father’s brother, and says, “.My father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules” (1.2.153-54). Hamlet deliberately compares himself to a famous figure of masculinity, but as something he is not. In the first half of the speech, Hamlet recognizes his father as this figure of masculinity that he could only strive to be, but one that he will never reach. He seems to have emotional outbursts because of his inability to compare himself to his father or even to his uncle. Over and over, these tensions surface between Hamlet and the other characters of the play, and all of the tensions seem to make Hamlet question his masculinity. Related to Hamlet’s masculinity and his strange relationship with his mother, is an interesting study by Sigmund Freud, renowned neurologist and psychoanalyst. Freud believed that the biggest reason Hamlet questioned his masculinity relates back to his uncle but is driven by his sexual …show more content…

In Part V of his larger work, “The Interpretation of Dreams,” Freud writes, “Hamlet is able to anything but take vengeance upon the man who did away with his father and has taken his father’s place with his mother- the man who shows him in realization the repressed desires of his own childhood” (The Material and Sources of Dreams). Freud’s theory, commonly known as the Oedipus Complex, suggests that Hamlet questions his masculinity because of his unconscious desire for her affection. Again, this theory has been debunked by most scholars today, but it does give some explanation for this strange relationship seen in the play. The only other female Hamlet has any type of relationship with in the play is with his lover, Ophelia. As with the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, readers do not get much background on the emotional connection between the two before the setting of the play, however, there are many instances where the characters hint at Hamlet and Ophelia’s past and their possible future together. Apart from her relationship with Hamlet, Ophelia also falls victim to the strange gender roles Shakespeare presents across his

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