Ophelia's Treatment Of Female Characters In Hamlet

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Recommended: Representation of women in Shakespeare's plays

Intro statement/thesis: Good afternoon sir. It’s brought to my attention that the female characters in the play are portrayed in a different manner than the male characters, particularly Ophelia! I believe that Ophelia was portrayed in a sexist manner where she was seen as inferior than the male characters.

Point #1: Where this is seen is in act 1 scene 3 with Laertes saying goodbye to Ophelia and Polonius. Laertes warns Ophelia about Hamlet and her dad does the same. The difference here is that Polonius is kind of scolding her for believing that Hamlet actually loves her and tell her to cut ties with him. He makes her look like she’s dumb and isn’t considering her feelings, instead how’ll it make him look as a person. He’s not letting her make her own decisions and she should be able to do what she wants to with her life! …show more content…

Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby.. Tender yourself more dearly… you’ll tender me a fool.” (I.iii.110-118)

Point #2: Another instance where she’s treated poorly is in the part where Claudius and Polonius set up Ophelia to meet up with Hamlet. He knows it’s a set up and he immediately insults her by calling her a “breeder of sinners” and tells her to go to a nunnery, which is misogyny! He basically calls her a slut. Hamlet shouldn’t disrespect her like that especially since she hasn’t done anything and she can’t do anything about it cause it wouldn’t be ladylike, according to the Elizabethan era.

Textual evidence:”Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of

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