“Nature intended women to be our slaves. They are our property,” Napoleon Bonaparte stated. Men throughout history have been seemingly comfortable telling the world how they felt about women, whether their opinion was pleasant, or otherwise. Men with high status, such as politicians, famous actors, and writers jeered at women’s expense. The idea that William Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon himself, had a similar view on his own female characters does not necessarily cause concern, but the fact that the heroines in his plays always seemed to cause danger, pain, and suffering to the ever-heroic male protagonist, does. Things that need to be considered are how women are portrayed, how they are treated by male characters, and how they treat male characters. Ophelia is controlled by men that represent a patriarchal society. She is protected by her father as property, and treated by Hamlet as a sexual object. She is refused of an individual identity, and questions what is right and wrong while struggling with her own feelings and morals, ultimately causing her inevitable fate – which is described as “sad but lovely,” and “heartbreaking,” by those who knew her. …show more content…
Laertes, her brother, treats her more as an equal than someone who is below him in status. There is mutual love and respect, as well as his brotherly concern for her. “But, good my brother, do not…show me the steep and thorny way to heaven, whiles…himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,” (1.3.50-54). Polonius, her father, is her superior. He treats her as property and wants her to remain pure and chaste. “I do not know, my lord, what I should think,” (1.3.113). This example indicates Ophelia’s place in society, her obedience to her father, and gives insight to her choices and interactions with others in the