The Need For Men In Shakespeare's Hamlet

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The Need for Men
The author of Hamlet portrayed the women of the play as reliant on the men in their lives. The queen, Gertrude, relies very heavily on having a man in her life. Ophelia obeys her father throughout the beginning of the play. Because of this, Ophelia willingly sacrifices her relationship with Hamlet to please her father. Hamlet shows us that the queen and Ophelia needed one common thing, a man to rely on.
The queen depends on having a man in her life. Women usually become heartbroken after their husband passes away. After the king dies, the queen immediately turns around and marries her husband’s brother. Hamlet claims she married Claudius “within a month” (Meyer 1459). The queen immediately goes with another man after her …show more content…

Mabillard wrote “She is incapable of defending herself” (Introduction to Ophelia). Ophelia can not protect herself from her fate. Later in the play, the queen interrupts the king and Laertes to explain to Laertes that his sister has drowned. The queen states “your sister’s drown’d, Laertes” (Meyer 1529). She continues by explaining. She says “herself fell in the weeping brook” and “her garments, heavy with their drink, pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death” (Meyer 1529). She fell into the water and didn’t get up. Elaine Showalter adds that “she drowns in a surfeit of feeling” (Showalter). She explains that Ophelia had drowned in her feelings before she actually drowned. Ophelia drowned because she no longer had someone telling her what to do or how to live her life.
While they are carrying Ophelia to her grave, Hamlet does not know that it is Ophelia. He asks Horatio “who is this they follow?”(Meyer 1534). When he figures out that it is the fair Ophelia, he leaps into the grave with Laertes not far behind. They fight for a while before they are pulled apart. Hamlet admits “I lov’d Ophelia: forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love make up my sum”(Meyer 1536). Hamlet loved Ophelia, even if he didn’t always show it. He continues by explaining his love for her. Hamlet explains that his love is greater than everyone else’s love

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