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Role played by women in Hamlet
Women character in hamlet and his attitude towards them
Women character in hamlet and his attitude towards them
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Shakespeare includes a very generous and young women like Ophelia so, the audience can comprehend to the true essence of the male characters who try to plot and take revenge on each other. Ophelia starts off as a very glowing, beautiful and happy person but then results into a heart-broken and depressed women. Unfortunately, Ophelia has no womanly role model such as a mother to lead her to the right path so she eventually falls into her own sorrows with the addition of male supremacy in that era. Ophelia signifies the real actions/thoughts of the male characters in the play as she remains passive who does not let her emotions loose. Ophelia is an essential character in Shakespeare’s play as she enhances the audience’s ability to emphasize
With the assistance of Ophelia 's character we understand a more in depth look into Hamlet’s actions/thoughts. For instance, he thinks all the women in the world are whores. In Hamlet’s perspective he believes that a woman who looks innocent and pure are really sexual whores from the inside. Ophelia likes Hamlet but the bItter reality is that Hamlet perceives her a sexual object. As Hamlet says, “That’s a fair thought to lie between maid’s legs” (3.2.199).
At the final parts of the play Ophelia sings many songs with has a lot of significance and later gives everyone flowers which are really weeds in her madness. Since, Ophelia can’t really express herself through normal speech instead she expresses her feelings in songs and flowers. The very first song Ophelia goes like this,
“How should I your true love know
From another one?
By his cockle hat and staff
And his sandal shoon.” (4.5.24-28)
Ophelia sings this to emphasize her confusion of how to determine true love. But, this is really sung towards Hamlet since she 's puzzled whether he’s playing her or if he really loves her. But then after this she begins to sing about her father Polonius, to show her mourning towards her father while singing this in front of Gertrude. In this song she
The first two flowers which are rosemaries and pansies they represented her sorrow for her father’s death. The rosemaries connate to the reminiscence of the dead at funerals. The pansies represent a sense of being thoughtful. Similarly in this case Ophelia thinks about her father’s death while still trying to keep the thoughts of him alive. Ophelia starts handing out the rest, “There’s a funnel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, and ...There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say he made a good end…” (4.5.187-193). Ophelia uses funnel to get rid of the evil spirits so, she referred them (funnels) to Claudius whom she thought was the man behind her father’s death and Hamlet’s madness. Columbines represent being anxious and were given to her brother Laertes as he was concerned of his father’s death and wanted revenge. The rue to show remorse. The daisies symbolize unhappy love and innocence she wanted to declare that her father and brother were both innocent. Lastly, the violets meant faithfulness/innocence. This was to show how she announced how she was no longer innocent since she is no longer a pure
In Ophelia’s last scene, she walks around singing bizarre songs and handing out flowers. This scene is essentially Ophelia’s last cry for help as she is pregnant and alone without parents. In addition, her brother, Laertes, would disapprove as he warned her about Hamlet and Hamlet is responsible for killing their father. Furthermore, she sings: “Quoth she “Before you tumbled me,/You promised me to wed./So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun,/An thou hadst not come to my bed” (Shakespeare 4.5.106). Ophelia sings about
Ophelia serves as a mirror or foil of Hamlet throughout the play. Being a weak and sensitive woman, Ophelia compliments Hamlet’s strengths in his ability to cope with problems he faces and the corruption within his family. Where Ophelia is weak, Hamlet is
He calls her a “breeder of sinners” (3.1.132) and suggests that she “get thee to a nunnery” he says these out of anger at her, that she would betray him for her father. (3.1.131) Ophelia becomes heartbroken at this, both by the pressure of her family wanting her to break up with Hamlet, always constantly doing what they want and never making decisions for herself, and her relationship with Hamlet, “And I, of ladies most deject and wretched, that sucked the honey of his music vows” (3.1.13) She is saying here that she was susceptible to his words and deceit. Hamlet becomes so consumed by grief and the desire for revenge that he kills Ophelia’s father Polonius, and this is when Ophelia takes a turn for the worse and goes insane. She gives away flowers to her loved ones, “There’s fennel for you, and columbines. There’s rue for you, wear your rue with a difference… I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died.”(4.5.205) I believe this is her way of saying goodbye, giving flowers to her loved ones, and showing them representations of how she feels and what they mean to
...She had lost her father and her lover while her brother was away for school, and she was no longer useful as a puppet in a greater scheme. Ophelia was displaced, an Elizabethan woman without the men on whom she had been taught to depend. Therein lies the problem - she lacked independence so much that she could not continue living without Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet. Ophelia's aloneness led to her insanity and death. The form of her death was the only fitting end for her - she drowned in a nearby river, falling beneath the gentle waters. She finally found peace in her mad world. That is how Ophelia is so useful as a classic feminist study - she evokes imagery of the fragile beauty women are expected to become, but shows what happens to women when they submit as such.
When reading the text, one can comprehend that Ophelia is caught in the middle between two opposite sides. Her family (father and brother) believe that Hamlet is a womanizer rather then the philosopher that he is. They also believe that he will use her in order to achieve his own purposes, and that he would take her precious virginity only to discard it because he would never be her husband. But, Ophelia's heart mesmerized by Hamlets cunning linguistics is set on the fact that Hamlet truly loves her or loved her, even though he swears he never did. In the eye of her father and brother, she will always be a pure, wholesome girl, an eternal virgin in a sense, (due to a parents nature to always see their offspring as a child) they want her to ascend into her stereotypical role in life as a vessel of morality whose sole purpose of existence is to be a obedient wife and a committed mother. However, to Hamlet she is simply an object used to satisfy and fulfill his sexual needs. He also seems to hold her at a distant which suggests that he may...
Throughout the play, grief takes center stage in many of thecharacter’s lives, but they all choose to react in a different fashion. Grief takes many distinct shapes and forms and until people learn how to overcome it, it will remain an integral part of life. One way to escape grief is to commit suicide, as Ophelia apparently does. Thegravedigger proclaims, “Is she to be buried in Christian burial that willfully seeks her own salvation” (Act V Scene I Lines 1-2). The gravedigger is wondering why a woman who has taken her own life deserves such a fancy funeral. When the Queen informs Laertes and Claudius of Ophelia’s death, she says, “...she[Ophelia] chanted snatches of old tunes” (Act IV Scene VII Line 195). Ophelia did not know how to express her grief, other than in song. In Act IV, she sings of Polonius, “He is dead and gone, lady, he is dead and gone” (Scene V Lines 31-32).
Apart from the ambiguity surrounding her death and her love for Hamlet, Ophelia is described by all as an innocent child, grappling with situations her youth is unprepared for. Even if she had consummated her love for Hamlet, I can still picture Ophelia as a vulnerable and innocent child who has to cope with situations beyond her control in a world where the role of the female is passive. It is this helplessness which Gertrude wants to look after as she “hoped thou should’st have been my Hamlet’s wife” and her madness which Gertrude wants to save her form by allowing Ophelia to make the decision over life and death.
Throughout the play Hamlet, Ophelia is associated with floral imagery. Her father, Polonius presents her with a violet, she sings songs about flowers when she turns mad, she drowns amid garlands of flowers, and finally, at her burial, Queen Gertrude tosses flowers into her grave. Flowers symbolize her fragile beauty, blossoming sexuality, and a condemned innocence. Flowers are not deeply rooted. They are beautiful living things at the mercy of their surroundings. With no means of self-preservation, a flower's life relies on the natural forces around it. Ophelia's life mirrors this frail existence. She is entirely dependent upon the men in her life to make her choices. With no control over the storm brewing in her own life and no strength to withstand it, her shallow roots are ripped from under her. She loses her mind and takes her own young life.
The reader is left guessing on Hamlet’s true feelings for Ophelia through his various insults, sexual innuendos, and admitted desire. Hamlet’s claim, “God hath given you one face, and you / Make yourselves another.” (3.1.155-156) is laced with irony and hypocrisy given Hamlet’s own deception regarding true feelings. This proclamation comes at the end of a lengthy tirade against Ophelia and womankind in general for their conniving deceit leading men astray. The fact that Hamlet cannot see this duplicity in his very own actions shows the double standard he holds for females. Ophelia’s immediate reaction is one of shock and defense due to the aggressive nature of Hamlet’s attack. She calls out “O, woe is me!” (3.1.174) in distress to the ferocity of Hamlet and is unable to form a particularly coherent response akin to the ones seen against Laertes and Polonius. She does show her intelligence and rebellion from this assumption of power by Hamlet in her songs while Hamlet is gone. While many attribute her madness to the death of her father, a large portion of her instability should be attributed to Hamlet and his earlier actions. In her first introduction as insane she sings, “And I a maid at your window, / To be your Valentine. / Then up he rose and donned his clothes / And dropped the chamber door, / Let in the maid, that out a maid / Never departed more.” (4.5.55-60). Due to her references to sexuality and deceit the
This can be proven by the change in Ophelia’s actions and behavior. Ophelia starts to sing strange songs in front of Gertrude about her father’s death and Hamlet’s madness. Ophelia sings to Gertrude and sings, “He is dead and gone, lady, he is dead and gone, at his head a grass-green turf, at his heels a stone” (4.5.26-29).This tells us that Ophelia is a very soft and is a very weak character and can easily get heart broken. She cares about her family and the death of her father has shattered her into pieces, it may cause problems for her to
Two of Ophelia’s difficulties arise from her father and brother. They believe that Hamlet is using her to take her virginity and throw it away because Ophelia will never be his wife. Her heart believes that Hamlet loves her although he promises he never has (“Hamlet” 1). Hamlet: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but not the time gives it proof. I did love you once.” Ophelia: “Indeed, my lord, you made me believe so.” Hamlet: “You should not have believed me, for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock ...
All of the male characters in her life control Ophelia. She is inferior to all the men and has to obey them because it is her duty as a woman. The men in the play can easily manipulate her and use her as a pawn in their plots to gain insight about Hamlet. Polonius uses her to gain more affection from the king and to gain more power. Laertes asserts himself and tells her how to behave, and Hamlet shows that she can be easily manipulated. As a woman she is not able to show her emotions or opinions on events in the play. The men dominate her life. Ophelia is a young woman who is portrayed as naïve and easily controlled. Ophelia cannot show her emotions, her opinions, or her desires within the court because it was male dominate.
Despite Ophelia’s weak will, the male characters respond dramatically to her actions, proving that women indeed have a large impact in Hamlet. Her obedience is actually her downfall, because it allows the male characters to control and use her in their schemes. Ophelia’s betrayal ends up putting Hamlet over the edge, motivating him in his quest for revenge. Ophelia is one of the two women in the play. As the daughter of Polonius, she only speaks in the company of several men, or directly to her brother or father. Since we never see her interactions with women, she suppresses her own thoughts in order to please her superiors. Yet however weak and dependent her character is on the surface, Ophelia is a cornerstone to the play’s progression. One way that her manipulation is key to Hamlet’s plot is when Polonius orders her “in plain terms, from this time forth/ Have you so slander any moment leisure/As to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet,” (1.3.131-133). She complies with his wishes, agreeing to return any tokens of Hamlet’s love to him, verify t...
Another significant female character is Ophelia, Hamlet's love. Hamlet's quest for revenge interferes with his relationship with Ophelia. There is much evidence to show that Hamlet loved her a great deal, but his pretense of madness drove her to her death. Ophelia drowned not knowing what was happening to her. This can be deduced by the fact that she flowed down the river singing and happy when in truth she was heartbroken. Ophelia was very much afraid when she saw Hamlet "with his doublet all unbraced; No hat upon his head; his stockings foul'd, Ungarter'd, and down-gyved to his ancle" (Act #. Scene #. Line #). She described him as being "loosed out of hell" (Act #. Scene #. Line #). In addition to that he scared her when he left the room with his eyes still fixed on her. She is especially hurt when Hamlet tells her that he no longer loves her and that he is opposed to marriage. He advises her to go to a nunnery and avoid marriage if she can.
The Western world in Shakespeare’s time was male dominated, and men only had regards for women when it was connected to their bodies. The sexual objectification of women was normal in that society and women were seen as the property of their husbands. In Shakespeare’s time the word “nothing” had double meanings, one of which referred to the female genitals. Ophelia represents the object of Hamlet’s male desires and in Act three he says to her: