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Gender Roles In Hamlet Essay

1478 Words6 Pages

Throughout Hamlet, the thoughts, intentions, and actions of all of the characters can be explained through predisposed gender roles in the play. Hamlet is a tragedy in which the main character, Hamlet, attempts to seek vengeance for his father’s murder, while the relationships with him and around him begin to strain. In the play, gender plays a huge role in assuming the capability and worth of people. Women are most commonly depicted as being weak, powerless, and confused, while men are commonly shown as being strong, analytical, and intuitive. Hamlet features Ophelia and Gertrude as the only two female roles, and even then they show little independence from the males. The main conflict is shown immediately at the start of the play when Hamlet’s …show more content…

Back around the 16th to 17th century men had very clear gender roles. Society dictated that men needed to be emotionless and powerful leaders. Showing too much emotion or shying away from any challenges was shown as cowardly and weak. These same ideas translate directly into Hamlet in many situations. First off all, in Act I Scene II Claudius makes sure to condemn Hamlet for showing so much grief over his father’s death …show more content…

In Hamlet, Ophelia and Gertrude are the only two female characters. This already shows the imbalance of power and influence the female characters start with. On top of being so limited in numbers, the female characters in Hamlet are very limited in obvious character development. Characters like Claudius, Hamlet, and Laertes are all given obvious goals and desires, whereas the female characters never have the opportunity to take affirmative actions for their needs. Despite not having much influence in the storyline, there are situations where the female characters are able to stand up for themselves. For example when Laertes is lecturing Ophelia about staying away from guys she responds

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Ophelia has captured Hamlet’s love and is also in love with him herself. Hamlet constantly mistreats and deceives her, took her innocence, and eventually leaves her even though he promised that he would marry her. Ophelia is constantly a victim of Hamlet and his treatment of going back and forth between his strong love for her and harsh words towards her; he is constantly using her as a tool to get what he wants. In Act 3, Scene 1, Lines 113 – 117, Hamlet states to Ophelia: “Ay, truly, for the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox, but now the time gives it proof.

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Throughout the play is Hamlet quite spiteful toward women. Some would say to a misogynistic extent. He orders Ophelia, for example, to "go to a nunnery" and tells his mother, Gertrude, "frailty, thy name is woman" even though Hamlet is not very strong willed person. He is always split between his decisions and can never make up his mind. Hamlet is not a solid character with a clear path to achieve his goal.

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They are not held in high regards by their male counterparts. These men frequently use Ophelia and Gertrude for personal gain, making them the men’s most valuable tool. The majority of the time, the women are used for their personal connections. Hamlet is usually the butt of this force due to his connections with both women, but at some points he joins the game. One such example comes from a conversation with his mother.

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He believes they are just there for him to do with what he pleases and to make him happy. This is the case with both his relationship with Ophelia and with his mother, Gertrude. Once his mother breaks from the role he viewed her in, his entire opinion and attitude towards his mother changes. This is what also changes his opinions on Ophelia based solely on the fact that she is a woman. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, he

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Polonius goes on to add that Ophelia’s action in choosing and make her own choice will cause her to bring shame and embarrassment, resulting in him being a “laughing-stock.” This would state male figures in Hamlet sought women as an object that would bring shame to them in public eyes if they spoke for themselves. Polonius is exposed as a man that only sees women as sex object along with every other man, as Hamlet states, “He‟s for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps,”(Hamlet 113) this mean that Polonius only like the sex scenes or dances in a play and would rather only sleep through the rest. As a result, hamlet not only exposes Polonius as a man that enjoys women as sex objects, but also referring to the thought of all men when they see women, seeing how Hamlet came up with the thought. The male characters in Hamlet create a patriarchic

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Thinking highly of himself he gives Ophelia the advice that all youth her age are starting to become attracted to the opposite gender and thus Ophelia is falling in that category. “While (he believes) he has her safely secreted from the clutches of (other) men, Laertes attempts to teach his sister to dread male advances.” (Dane, 407) He believes Hamlet “is merely playing with her affections and that she must not consider his attentions as more than ‘a violet in the youth of primy nature.’” (Camden, 248) Ophelia takes Laertes’ shallow advice with caution for Laertes’ judgment of Hamlet influences his advice. With caution she still listens because Ophelia is the daughter everyone wanted in the sixteenth century.

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Living in the time period in where Hamlet was taken place,gender is completely different from where they are now. The theme gender, which in Hamlet circulated around, ended up being the root of all evil In the tragedy Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the characters Hamlet, Ophelia, Queen Gertrude, Claudius, Polonius, and Horatio suffer consequences through the actions of each gender. Gender roles contributed to the tragedy, which brought a lot of distraught between characters. Gender played a huge role throughout the tragedy In the play, the men acted superior and were also glorified. Women on the other hand were discouraged and mistreated for being females.

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Laertes is trying to warn his sister, so she won’t get caught up. Laertes knows Hamlet’s ways. He comes Ophelia’s beauty to a moon because the moon symbolizes feminine and that she shouldn’t expose her beauty to Hamlet. “Contagious blastments are most imminent” means over and over a precious thing will be injured and its approaching soon. Laertes finally states, “Be wary then, best saftely lies in fear”, Laertes is telling his sister to show caution toward danger because it’s better to be in fear because it will keep Ophelia

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Hamlet: a Feminist Perspective Hamlet by William Shakespeare is considered to be the apogee of canonical texts. Hamlet who is seen to be the hero, seeks revenge of his uncle for killing his beloved father and marrying his mother. In the finale, all characters find an unfortunate end and leave the kingdom of Denmark to prince Fortinbras who coincidentally passes through to invade Poland. The play Hamlet has received great stricture from feminist critics due to the actions and behaviors of many of the characters in the play. Feminism is “the advocacy of woman 's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men” (Dictionary.com).

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Hamlet and Brutus seemingly ignore their female counterparts affections and struggles. In Hamlet his female companion is Ophelia,

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In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the main character, Hamlet, claims and perceives women to be treacherous, heartless, and untrustworthy. The root of Hamlet's hatred for women seems to have began with his mother, Gertrude, and is then taken out on the fragile, young Ophelia. His father’s mysterious, unnatural death is also a possible cause of his beliefs and actions. Throughout the scenes, Hamlet’s mental state worsens and we can see a clear pattern of misogyny in his communication and actions with the female characters in the play. Hamlet’s deep-rooted hatred and confusion of love is much more complex than just the simple fact of misogyny or his dislike for women.

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Hamlet’s dislike of women is shown through his behavior and language toward his mother, Ophelia, and women in general. In the play it is very obvious that he is heartless towards the opposite sex by the actions that he takes and the words that he speaks. During the time that this play was written women were viewed as insignificant human beings. Hamlet found himself having feelings for a woman and he does not know how to portray these feelings because he holds his mother responsible for his inability to love Ophelia.

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Hamlet’s treatment of women in the story hamlet is disrespectful, but loving. The women in the story are both treated terrible by hamlet, but sometimes treated them with love. Hamlet’s girlfriend ophelia was constantly told by hamlet that he doesn't love her but sometimes he would tell her how he loves she is important to him. Hamlet’s mother he hates her for getting married to his father's brother in less than a month, but still loves her because she is his mother.

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He did not innately hate all women, but slowly as he reserved rejection after rejection he snapped. Hamlet’s relationships differed between Gertrude and Ophelia, but both had the same goal of Hamlet having someone to love and care about him. With the goal of compassion being accomplished, he spiralled in a growing hatred of the female population. Hamlet’s misogyny is not the result sexual repression , but rather his environment and the interactions with women. Ernest Jones argues that Hamlet’s misogyny stems from the sexual repression of Gertrude and Ophelia.

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