Shakespeare's Hamlet-Frailty Thy Name Is Women

“Frailty thy name is woman.” (Hamlet, I.ii.146) is a line spoken by Hamlet, the main protagonist in the play Hamlet, a Shakespeare masterpiece from the 1600s. This line is said about Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, when Hamlet is accusing her of adultery with the new king, Claudius. Gertrude’s character is portrayed as weak, and male dependent which plays into her role as a queen. In the 1600s, although the queen was perceived as almost omnipotent, she didn’t have say in big decisions and had very little power; the queen was therefore dependent on a male counterpart to make all of the decisions. Hamlet himself understood this which is made evident in his line that says;
“...Why, she would hang on [the king]
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on…” (Hamlet, I.ii.43)

When Gertrude’s first husband died, she married Claudius almost right away more for the purpose of convenience than love. It shows several times in the play that Gertrude and Claudius don’t share a love connection as much as a business connection to provided Gertrude with the male figure she needed. This is demonstrated when Claudius allowed Gertrude to drink the poison at the end and sacrificed her life for his plan to kill Hamlet. In her last moments instead of trying to get her help, Claudius denies that she is dying and tells the audience that, “She swoons to see [Hamlet and Laertes] bleed.” (Hamlet, V.ii.303) Gertrude drinking the poison shows how woman in that society are naive and compliant. It was an expectation that they are acquiescent to their ‘superior’ male parallels and woman had no problem with obeying it. It is shown that if women did disobey, they would have grave consequences. The queen drinks from the goblet even though the king tells her not