Essay On Femininity In Hamlet

A Rue for You, and Some for Me William Shakespeare is a renowned playwright widely known for writing dozens of plays. Hamlet, a play about a son who plans to avenge the death of his father by his own uncle, is one of his most retold plays as it is acted out time and time again over the centuries. His characters, predominantly male, are three-dimensional figures whereas the females in Hamlet are condemned by many shakespearian critics for failing to be strong characters. However, in Elaine Showalter’s article, “Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism”, she describes Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest, as a character who is more than what modern culture depicts her as. She argues that Ophelia is symbolistic

Showalter begins her essay quoting critic Jacques Lacan, first giving reason that he failed to examine the characters, namely Ophelia, thoroughly and gives preference to Hamlet instead. Ophelia exists solely to be Hamlet’s significant other and nothing more, Lacan believes. However, Showalter states that Ophelia has largely influenced cultural mythology, due to her historical representation of what suffering and femininity are portrayed as. The first example Showalter gives of Ophelia’s portrayal dates back to 1580, where actresses had their lines cut and mostly sang, and were depicted as innocent but emotional. This emotion was defined as melancholy, and it was a normal behavior at the time as it made males more sensitive to their counterparts. The next era that Showalter describes is a Romantic period where Ophelia’s emotions were more expressed and not repressed through song, but instead through art and performance. However, she states that the critics of this period felt that Ophelia’s appearance was all that was necessary to carry her through, as if she was an untouchable, but pleasant object to be looked upon. The Victorian period gave life to Ophelia's character between mid- to late-1800s. Ophelia’s