The Importance of Women's Roles in Hamlet

579 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How women are portrayed in shakespeares plays

Women play a vastly important role in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Gertrude, the Queen and Hamlets mother and Ophelia, Hamlets love interest, are the two main women in Hamlet. These women are constantly manipulated, controlled, and taken advantage of by male characters in Hamlet.
In Act I Scene II Lines 142-159 Hamlet condenses the role of women in one simple quote
Hamlet:
Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month—
Let me not think on't—Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she followed my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--Why she, even she,—
O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason
Would have mourned longer,—married with my uncle,
My father’s brother, but no more like my father
Hamlet is speaking about his father’s death and Gertrude marrying his uncle, Claudius. Hamlet feels as if his mother has acted too fast in her decision to marry Claudius. Hamlet considers Claudius as nothing compared to his father. Hamlet is...

Show More
Related

  • Misogyny In Hamlet Essay

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet is one of the most controversial characters from all of the Shakespeare’s play. His character is strong and complicated, but his jealousy is what conduces him to hate women. He sees them as weak, frail, and untrustworthy. He treats Ophelia, the women he loves, unfair and with cruelty. Similarly, he blames his mother for marrying her dead husband’s brother, who is now the King of Denmark. Hamlet’s treatment for women stems from his mother’s impulsive marriage to his uncle who he hates and Ophelia choosing her father’s advice over him.

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in Hamlet in William Shakespeare's Play

    2037 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Role of Women in Hamlet in William Shakespeare's Play Gertrude and Ophelia, the only two women in Hamlet, reflect the general status of women in Elizabethan Times. Women were suppressed by the males in their lives (brothers, fathers, and partners) and were always inferior. Ophelia and Gertrude have little or no power due to restricted legal, social and economic rights that were found in Elizabethan society. The male characters in Hamlet reflect this sexist view point, represented by Hamlet’s judgement that “frailty, thy name is woman”. This view was not uncommon in Shakespeare’s time and heavily influenced Shakespeare to present women the way he does in Hamlet.

    Read More

  • Destroyed by Sexuality

    990 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hamlet possesses an uncomfortable obsession with his mother’s sexuality. For this reason, Hamlet’s soliloquies provide most of the audience’s information about Gertrude’s sexual activities. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet refers to the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius when he exclaims, “Within a month…She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (I, ii, 153-157). In saying this, Hamlet displays how hastily Gertrude has abandoned the late King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father, such that she has already married Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. In addition, Hamlet acknowledges that Gertrude and Claudius have quickly developed a very sexual relationship. Despite the very recent death of her husband, Gertrude is unable to control her sexual desires, and she remarries less than two months after King Hamlet’s funeral.

    Read More

  • The Power Of Heroism In Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hamlet is vicious to the women in this play. He orders Ophelia, to “get thee to a nunnery!”(III.i.121), and he tells his mother Gertrude, “Frailty, thy name is woman,”(I.ii.146) even though Hamlet is not very strong himself. Heroism does not always involve taking heroic actions. Hamlet’s inaction is his own form action. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius has and uses power, Hamlet has power but mostly chooses not to use it, Polonius has less power than he imagines himself to have, and Ophelia and Gertrude have no power.

    Read More

  • Horatio: A True Friend of Hamlet

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gertrude was Hamlet’s mother. She was a selfish and evil woman. She cheated on Hamlet’s father with Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. She married Claudius a month after her husband’s death. Gertrude wanted Hamlet to stop his grieving. She told Hamlet, “thou know’st ‘tis common, all that lives must die, passing through nature to eternity” (I.2.72-73). When Hamlet was depressed and grieving, it reminded Gertrude of the terrible sin she had committed. She wanted Hamlet to be happy just so she could feel better about herself. Throughout the play Gertrude’s motives do not waiver; she looks out for her own well being.

    Read More

  • Hamlet from a Feminist Perspective

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shows strong prejudice against woman especially with such characters of Ophelia and Gertrude. Shakespeare created an interesting character with Gertrude; he created a character that sits in the middle of all the conflict and appears to not partake in much of it. However Gertrude does seem intent in defusing it at every possible chance she receives. Gertrude is a central figure in the play. She appears a great deal but doesn’t say much – implying mystery and creating an interesting uncertainty in the audience. Hamlet spends a lot of time dwelling on her marriage to Claudius and Shakespeare leaves many questions unanswered with Gertrude such as did she have an affair with Claudius behind old hamlets back? Why does she drink the poisoned wine that is intended for her son? Does she know it is poisoned? Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet and although they do not have a typical mother son relationship she does love him. Queen Gertrude is often interpreted by many as an adulterate, incestuous woman. Catherine Belsey states that typical interpretations of Hamlet maintain: ‘Gertrude a slut; and Shakespeare a patriarchal bard’ (Belsey,1997:34). Gertrude’s actions throughout the play could be read to show her to be a very passive character, far from a strong independent woman. This is shown with her obedience to Claudius, three times during the play, Gertrude is told to leave and each times she complies without hesitation. In Act 1, scene 2 Claudius says to Gertrude, ‘Madam, come’ (122). Then again, Act 3, scene 1, Claudius says to her, ‘Sweet Gertrude, leave us .’ (28), she complies with ; ‘I shall obey you’ (37). And finally, in Act 4, scene 1, Claudius say, ‘O Gertrude, come away!’ (28). This obedience that Gertrude ...

    Read More

  • Men Overpowering Women In Hamlet By William Shakespeare

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mostly, men are the ones included in the dialogue while rarely women were allowed to make their own decisions in this play. Hamlet by William Shakespeare shows that females are often looked down upon and mistreated, this is shown through the two female characters Ophelia and Gertrude. Often, women are looked at as objects; this happens to Ophelia when she returns love letters to Hamlet. In act three, Ophelia tries to give Hamlet his love letters that he had written for her back.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Hamlet

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    The power that the men have over the women in the play provides for the comparison between the two genders. The women are portrayed as weak and submissive, so when Hamlet is accused of becoming a “woman,” it greatly offends him. Because revenge and violence drive the play it revolves around the men.

    Read More

  • Role of Women in William Shakespeare's Hamlet

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    William Shakespeare incorporates many themes and ideas into his play, Hamlet. Of the multiple important ideas, one potentially overlooked is the role of women. Only two of the characters in the play are female. Their lines are scarce, but hold huge importance in relation to the progression and plot of the play. Ophelia, the implied lover of Prince Hamlet, and Queen Gertrude, his mother, do not appear significant, but their actions and characters allow for other events to unfold.

    Read More

  • Free Hamlet Essays: Role of Women in Hamlet

    612 Words  | 2 Pages

    For many years in the past women played a small role socially, economically, and politically. As a result of this many works in literature were reflective of this diminutive role of women. In Elizabethan theatres small boys dressed and played the roles of women. In contrast to this trend, in Shakespeare's Hamlet the women in the play are driving factors for the actions of many other characters. Both Gertrude, Hamlet's mother, and Ophelia, Hamlet's love, affected many of the decisions and actions done by Hamlet.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Hamlet And Michael Almereyda's Hamlet

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    To begin, Gertrude is presented in differing manners throughout Hamlet the play versus Hamlet (2000) the film. In Shakespeare’s play, she originally is cast as a woman who has power due to her husband, but sits as a trophy wife. Craving power, safety, and comfort, she depends on men for her position and control. Seeming to have poor judgment, she never expresses self-reflection throughout the play and just seems to be a bit oblivious to everything, ultimately resulting in her death as an unaware victim of a game she ensnared herself

    Read More

  • Shakespeare's Portrayal of Women

    1125 Words  | 3 Pages

    The role women played in Hamlet was complicated. Their distinct purpose as characters in the tragedy was to illustrate Hamlet’s warped view of women and give the audience an obvious understanding of Hamlets madness and distress. Hamlets strong unwavering judgment of women was caused by his mother. He had been delusional about women by Gertrude’s actions. He is consumed by the absurdity of his mother’s love for his uncle and is justified to feel disgust towards his mother, her actions and implications and in doing so provoked hamlet’s unforgivable treatment of all women as a whole. Although Hamlet gives off the illusion that Shakespeare is enormously disgusted by the female race Hamlet’s outlook doesn’t really reflect Shakespeare’s attitude of women.

    Read More

  • The Patriarchal Society in Hamlet

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Leverenz, D. 1978. The Woman in Hamlet: An Interpersonal View. Signs, 4 (2), pp. 291--308.

    Read More

  • Anti-Feminism In Hamlet

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s dramatic works there is no room for the heroic or the strong woman, and therefore many of his plays can be perceived as being antifeminist. Often he portrays women as weak, mad, sexual, and as even witches. Hamlet is no exception. The only women in the play, Ophelia and Queen Gertrude, are given confined and limited roles. These roles are from a male-dominated viewpoint and only add focus to the male characters instead of incorporating the insight and the impact of the women as well.

    Read More

  • Women in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” women are used as method for men to get what they want. The men in Hamlet, either directly or indirectly continuously use women to acquire something from other men. The only two women in the entire play are Gertrude and Ophelia, who are consistently used by the current king, Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet. Ophelia is exploited by Polonius and the King (mainly together), and is also used by Hamlet. Gertrude is used by the King, as well as Polonius. In “Hamlet,” the women throughout the play are used as pawns for men to get what they want, mainly from the other men.

    Read More

More about The Importance of Women's Roles in Hamlet

Open Document