Stereotypes In Hamlet Essay

William Shakespeare is one of the most well known writers of classical literature in the

world, and his famous play Hamlet Prince of Denmark has become one of the most criticized

literary works ever to be published. The many plots and sub plots that unfold as the play

progresses create a web of events that forces the audience to read into the lines of the characters

and the symbolism of the events in order to fully understand what is happening. This aspect of

Shakespeare's writing shows his true genius because he wrote from the standpoint of human

nature. Rather than writing the events of what really happened into the lines of the play he chose

to add the reality of human nature to the characters in the plot. Shakespeare knew that

However, in Hamlet Prince of Denmark, Shakespeare

used human nature against the audience in order to challenge common stereotypes that to

One may find Shakespeare's challenge of

the female stereotype within the character of Queen Gertrude who leads the audience to assume

her feminine innocence. Yet, whenever Shakespeare's use of human nature is revealed in the

characters of Hamlet, we are able to draw the conclusion that Shakespeare hints at throughout the

text; Queen Gertrude is guilty of conspiring in the murder of King Hamlet.

Shakespeare's challenge of human nature's stereotypes is obvious in Hamlet whenever

one analyzes the characters from the standpoint of the way in which the violent nature of the two

sexes is viewed. The common misconception is men are more aggressively violent and therefore

more capable of acts of aggression such as fighting and killing, whereas women, who are timid

and mild tempered, would be less disposed to such violence. Yet, Hamlet provides a direct

contradiction to this stereotype because the entire plot is based on acts of indirect aggression by

the male characters; the poisoning of King Hamlet by his brother (a nonviolent act), the sending

of Hamlet to England in order to be murdered, and even the killing of Polonius provides