Shakespeare's Treatment Of Women In Hamlet Essay

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Shakespeare literature is very popular even in modern times. Although, it goes unseen on the way he portrays women especially in one of his most famous play Hamlet. In the play, we notice that Shakespeare views women as a weak sense of character. He portrays the women in the play as needing a man in their life to tell them what to do. The two main female characters are portrayed as weak and are always being used and manipulated by the men in the play. They were also very vulnerable to the men in the play anything the men wanted the women to do they would oblige and do it which showed how much power the men had over the women. A Perfect example of this in the play is in Act III Scene I when Polonius Ophelia's father (which is one of the two …show more content…

They show weakness throughout the play and are shown as weak especially when times get difficult for them. They were always being used by the men in their lives. The only main male character that did not take advantage of the women in the play is Laertes which whom actually gives Ophelia advice in Act I Scene III to behave with Hamlet or else she will do something dumb with him. In fact she did in Act IV Scene V she admits to losing her virginity to Hamlet. This shows the reader how easy it was for Ophelia to be manipulated by Hamlet to have sex with her just so that he can leave her in the end. Gertrude also has her times in the play when she gets used by Claudius. He manipulates her throughout the play by making her think that he actually cares for Hamlet which is false because the only reason he is doing that is so that he can gain Gertrude love so that she trusts him enough to give him the throne and let him become king. Because later on in Act IV Scene VII when he agrees to help Laertes kill just so that he may keep the throne. While being manipulated and trusting Claudius to much Gertrude ends up drinking a cup that Claudius had poisoned and ends up dying. This showed the reader how much trust she had in Claudius because she would have never thought that he was capable of doing such a

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