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The portrayal of women in shakespeare plays
William Shakespeare's representation of women
William Shakespeare's representation of women
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Hamlet’s Ophelia tragically falls victim to the prevailing and unquestioned female stereotypes of her day. Trapping her within the type of the chaste and dutiful woman, Polonius strips Ophelia of her individual identity and silences her voice. He reduces her to a mere pawn, whoring her out to serve his own selfish agendas. It is only in madness that Ophelia is offered an unexpected respite from this puppetry, one that even the finality of death is unable to offer.
When the reader first encounters Ophelia within Hamlet, she is speaking with Laertes, her brother, and Polonius, her father. From these interactions, Ophelia appears to be the true embodiment of what a woman was expected to be. She listens respectfully to her brother and father, speaking only twenty-one lines as opposed to their combined one hundred and twenty. She dutifully responds to their advice: “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep” (1.3 l.49) and “I shall obey, my lord” (1.4 l. 145). Yet aside from this expected and somewhat boring picture, the reader learns little of Ophelia. In response to the play’s call to “Stand and unfold yourself” (1.1 l.2), Ophelia appears to have nothing to say.
However, while Polonius is satisfied with this one-dimensional and limited picture of his daughter, the reader should not be. According to the early 17th century context of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “chastity was the quality most frequently praised in women” as it directly influenced and determined male honor. Thus, Polonius’ command to Ophelia that she “not slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with the Lord Hamlet” (1.4 142-143) cannot be read simply as the words of a loving father concerned with the fragility of his daughter’s heart. Rather, it must be r...
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...ng more than the goaded words of boy eager to prove his manhood. King Claudius’ response is no better, using Laerte’s grief over Ophelia’s death to motivate his revenge: “Strengthen your patience in our last night’s speech…We’ll put the matter to the present push. This grave shall have a living monument…Til then in patience our proceeding be” (5.1 ll. 313-314;317; 319). Thus, once again Ophelia emerges as the scapegoat – her death guilty of motivating the deaths of Hamlet, Laertes, Gertrude, and Claudius.
While Hamlet indeed comes to a tragic close, it is an ending dominated by men. Fortinbras arrives on the scene in all his manliness, commanding that Hamlet be born “like a soldier to the stage,” restored to his prior, sane identity. Ophelia however, goes unmentioned, faded from the memory of Denmark, her “monument” never constructed as King Claudius promised.
Since everyone is unaware of Hamlet’s true feelings of his mother’s new marriage and knowledge of Claudius poisoning his father, Polonius convinces Claudius and Gertrude that Hamlet is driven mad by love for Ophelia. So once again, Ophelia follows the orders of her father and the king to meet with Hamlet in a place where they can test this theory and watch the two young lovers in secret. Maki then quotes a scholar, “ ‘Polonius [and Claudius] snoop behind the arras, and she becomes the bait to catch the conscience of the Prince’ (Hunt 15)”, this sets up the scene that Polonius and Claudius quickly learn that a lot of Hamlet’s nonsense does in fact have truth and meaning. An example of this is when he crushes any of Ophelia’s hope of Hamlet still loving her with this reply, “If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery” (3.1.135-37). This is the second time that Ophelia is told she will have no value if she has any pre-marital sexual relations and during the time period of Hamlet, a woman who does not follow tradition could potentially be ostracised by her family and remain a maiden the rest of their life. So in the end, Maki draws the conclusion that, “Hamlet then rejects
Hamlet shows much anger and disrespect to the women in his life. Ophelia’s believing her father’s words breaks Hamlets heart, being the reason for his treatment towards not just her but his mother. Ophelia
Living in an environment of deception and hostility, the reader can easily identify with Hamlet's anger. Most all compassionate audiences will be sympathetic to his plight. However, the origins of Hamlet's vehement actions toward his once beloved Ophelia can be debated from several different points of view. Whatever his reasoning may be, it is probably correct to assume that he regrets deeply every harsh world spoken toward Ophelia. He only realizes again what a beautiful and kind person she was- after her death.
Ophelia is portrayed as a sensitive, fragile woman. Easily overpowered and controlled by her brother and father, Ophelia is destined to be weak. Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, warns and pushes Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet and is further supported by their father Polonius. “Polonius enters and adds his warning to those of Laertes. He orders Ophelia not to spend time with Hamlet or even talk to him. Ophelia promises to obey” (“Hamlet” 95). Ophelia’s obedience to her father’s directions prove the side she
In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Shakespeare developed the story of prince Hamlet, and the murder of his father by the king's brother, Claudius. Hamlet reacted to this event with an internal battle that harmed everyone around him. Ophelia was the character most greatly impacted by Hamlet's feigned and real madness - she first lost her father, her sanity, and then her life. Ophelia, obedient, weak-willed, and no feminist role model, deserves the most pity of any character in the play.
Leaving her only with the response saying “I shall obey, my lord”(1.3.145 ). Why Ophelia is unable to say more than a few simple words is made clear by societal expectations of the time. During this time daughters were the property of their fathers and were obligated to do their bidding. Campbell says “if she refuses Polonius, she risks social ostracism and grave insult to the man who capriciously controls her future” (58). Ophelia fears the backlash of disobeying her father, believing there is no other choice than doing what he has asked her to do. Even though a woman's virtue is a sacred and a very personal choice, her father leaves Ophelia with one option: to do what he says. “The issue of Ophelia’s chastity concerns Polonius as a parent and a politician—a virginal Ophelia has a better chance of attaining Hamlet’s hand in marriage” (Floyd-Wilson 401). This relationship Ophelia has between her father is very one-sided and unhealthy. It is formal and proper with very few emotions attached to each other. However, because Polonius is the only parental figure Ophelia has and loves him, his death was extremely difficult for her. Her father, hasn’t left her like Laertes and hasn’t rejected her like Hamlet. Making his unexpected death the final straw to her losing her sanity. Without someone to guide her, she is lost. She is unable to blindly follow a man but is to racked with emotion to think clearly.
The story of Hamlet is a morbid tale of tragedy, commitment, and manipulation; this is especially evident within the character of Ophelia. Throughout the play, Ophelia is torn between obeying and following the different commitments that she has to men in her life. She is constantly torn between the choice of obeying the decisions and wishes of her family or that of Hamlet. She is a constant subject of manipulation and brain washing from both her father and brother. Ophelia is not only subject to the torture of others using her for their intentions but she is also susceptible to abuse from Hamlet. Both her father and her brother believe that Hamlet is using her to achieve his own personal goals.
During Hamlet, Polonius and Laertes use Ophelia for their own self-gain not taking her feelings in consideration. In the article “Jephthah's Daughter's Daughter: Ophelia,” Cameron Hunt reveals that Polonius disregards Ophelia’s wants for his ...
...hat elevates the tension between Laertes and Hamlet to its peak. This passage encases all of the themes in the play: revenge, death, and doomed innocence. Hamlet discusses suicide throughout the play, but it is Ophelia who, at last, takes action against her own despair. Her final deed forces the other characters to act toward a resolution, pushing them to turn words and threats into events. Ophelia lives her life striving to make her own decisions and trying to find purpose in a world dominated by men. She is used as a pawn in a game of revenge and hatred, and only in her act of suicide does she finally make an impact on the people who control her life. The lines describing Ophelia's death are imperative to the play, obviously marking the point where schemes and thoughts become reality, but also showing the lack of women's power during the time of Shakespeare.
...nation to her inevitable death corresponds to her limited (vacant) freedom of speech and license to develop her own convictions and individual identity and question authority. Secondly, Ophelia’s surrender to her imminent fate also echoes her unstable, manipulative, and emotional abusive relationship with Hamlet and the hierarchy in her dynamic, as she always obeys without hesitation. Regardless of how Ophelia’s death began, the result was a suicide, as the pure (graceful), serene, and beautiful imagery of her suicide implies that her death was a last effort to recover her dignity, rebel against her oppressors, and exert her free will. For Ophelia, a life of oppression and blind obedience drove her to a frailty of mind, and in her last moments, she chose death over dishonor to defeat the inner demons threatening to condemn her to an otherwise hopeless existence.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, women are oversexualized, and are given no role other than to be the item of a man’s desire. The promiscuity of the only two women in the play, Gertrude and Ophelia, detracts from their power and integrity, and allows Hamlet a certain amount of control over them. Gertrude’s sexual lifestyle is often mentioned by her son, Hamlet, and Hamlet uses his knowledge of Gertrude’s sexuality as a means to criticize her. Ophelia’s sexuality initially appears to be controlled by Laertes and Polonius, and Hamlet takes advantage of the naive image that she is required to keep. However, in her later madness, Ophelia taints this image by revealing that her innocence is feigned. By exposing the sexual natures of both Gertrude and Ophelia, Hamlet strips these women of any influence they may have had, and damages their once-honourable names.
In Elizabethan times, Ophelia is restricted as a woman. She is obedient to the commands of the men in her life although she often attempts to do the right thing. Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet all have a grasp on Ophelia and who she is. She does not have the freedom to change her fate as Hamlet does. Shawna Maki states, “Ophelia’s life is determined by the whims of men who control her” (1). Polonius takes advantage of his relationship with Ophelia by using her to achieve a better relationship with Claudius. Polonius and Laertes teach Ophelia how to behave, therefore, abusing their power in allowing Ophelia to become who she wants to be (Brown 2).
In this essay I will attempt to compare and contrast the relationship of Ophelia and Polonius in Shakespeare's play Hamlet, with the relationship my father and I have. I will analyze the similarities and differences between their relationship and ours to show how even though the play takes place in a much different time period, we still have things in common. First, I will characterize the relationship I have with my father. Next, I plan to define the relationship Ophelia has with her father Polonius in the story of Hamlet. Finally, I will discuss how the two relationships relate to one another.
In the play Hamlet Ophelia is portrayed as an innocent young woman who does not have a say in anything. All the men control Hamlet, her father Polonius, and her brother Laertes. She is portrayed as inferior to all of them and lets herself be pushed around by them. She is unable to convey her opinions or emotions throughout the play. The men dominate her thoughts and behaviors. In Hamlet, Ophelia’s obedience to her father and brother, along with her dismissal by Hamlet, reveals that women were not allowed to assert their opinions, emotions, or desires in a courtly setting.
Ophelia’s betrayal ends up putting Hamlet over the edge, motivating him in his quest for revenge. Ophelia is one of the two women in the play. As the daughter of Polonius, she only speaks in the company of several men, or directly to her brother or father. Since we never see her interactions with women, she suppresses her own thoughts in order to please her superiors. Yet, however weak and dependent her character is on the surface, Ophelia is a cornerstone to the play’s progression.