Gertrude Hamlet Research Paper

In today's world, man and woman are of equal status. Women have the same right as men and men have the same rights as women. Though some countries still have women portrayed as the weaker gender, society is beginning to stop that mentality. This is not the case back in the 1600s; women during those times were not given the same social, economic or political status as the males. It is written in an article “it was believed that women always needed someone to look after them. If they were married, their husband was expected to look after them. If they were single, then their father, brother or another male relative was expected to take care of them.” This article explains how women were treated as the weaker gender just because they were women.

With this type of mindset that women were weaker towards the male gender during the Elizabethan times in everyone's minds, Shakespeare a (play writer), incorporated that idea into one of his plays which he named Hamlet .In this play, the only two women who are given names, Gertrude and Ophelia are treated as if they were irrelevant. It is thus evident that women in Shakespeare’s Hamlet are the weaker gender due to their inability to live without a male presence, have no voice and the lack of respect given to them from the males.

In the beginning of the play, Gertrude is introduced as the Queen of Denmark. Whose previous husband died and she remarried her husband’s brother. This made Gertrude’s son (Hamlet) whom she conceived with the previous king angry that she had married in less than two months after the death of the previous king. Gertrude could not stay a widow because relies on the male presence to let her know the things she needs to do. An example would

With this quote, Aretha explains how respect is a human right and should be given to everyone. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, women were given little to no respect. After Ophelia had committed suicide, two grave diggers were sent to go and dig up the grave for her to be buried in. While they were digging the whole, they were arguing on why Ophelia should not have a proper burial because she committed suicide. Even at her last moments, the women in this play get little to no respect. Instead of acknowledging that another human being had just taken their life, they disrespect her. Luckily, Ophelia’s family is a wealthy one, so she got the burial one deserves after death. Also, in act five scene two when Gertrude wants to drink the wine in the cup, but she did not know it was poisoned. Claudius thought to himself that if she drinks from that cup, she is going to die. All he does is tell her to stop; he does not try physically to stop her from drinking because he knows if she dies, he still stays a king. Lastly, another situation of disrespect towards women is when Hamlet is watching the play “The death of Gonzago”. After the play has finishes, Ophelia says, “Tis brief, my lord” (3.2.140). Hamlet responds with, “As woman’s love” (3.2.141). Ophelia was making a reference to the play being short. Hamlet is making two references with that statement. The first is to his mother for