Hamlet Gender Roles

Gender Roles in Hamlet

Gender roles allow the characters in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet to engage with these roles and let the story flow. It introduces Hamlet, a young Danish prince who loses his father as a result of his uncle, Claudius, who then marries his mother, Gertrude. Hamlet makes it his duty throughout the play to take revenge and kill Claudius. Early on in the play gender roles are established onto the characters. The only two women in the story, Gertrude and Ophelia, are immediately deemed to be weak, lustful, and inferior to men. While men such as Claudius and Hamlet are said to be more powerful, strong, and leaders. These deemed gender roles allow most of the tragic events to occur. However, as the story progresses it is later

Ophelia’s behavior towards her family shows that she is submissive to her father’s will. After telling her father, Polonius, about Hamlet’s loving behavior, Polonius commands her to stay away because he believes Hamlet is no good for her. Despite her affections for Hamlet, she agrees with her father and says “I shall obey, my Lord” (Hamlet 1.3.136). She relies on Polonius and her brother, Laertes, to help her with every decision that she makes. Her submissiveness towards her father allows the story to progress further as Polonius uses Ophelia as a pawn in many of his schemes toward Hamlet. Furthermore, Gertrude easily complies with Claudius's commands nearly throughout the whole play. This angers Hamlet as she is described to be a lustful beast since she quickly remarried and trusts in Claudius’s decisions. While angrily describing his mother Hamlet states “Frailty thy name is woman” (Hamlet 1.2.146). This comment changes his outlook on women for the rest of the play. It influences his actions towards his beloved Ophelia and his mother. Hamlet believes that his mother was seduced easily by his uncle and only remarried due to her lustful desires, which he sees as the weakness of all women. As a result, he becomes more distant with his mother, this further only fuels his anger and desire for revenge. Due to the misogynistic ideas Hamlet creates in his head, he calls Ophelia “unchaste” and no

Ophelia is the first to defy her gender role when she loses her father. She goes mad and sings songs, one of the lyrics that she sings is “He will never come again” (Hamlet 4.5.191). In this verse she suggests that it is about her father but also Hamlet who has abandoned and pushed her away. She is forced to defy her gender role since all the male-dominant figures are out of her life and cannot make her own decisions. This drives her mad and she dies due to an assumed suicide. Her actions have a big impact on the story as it is the driving force for Laertes and Hamlet to spar right away. Gertrude defies her gender role in the beginning of the play when she remarries. This immediately sets the tone for the play and the reason why Hamlet becomes so misogynistic towards women. The most obvious defiance of gender roles is when Gertrude drinks from a poisoned goblet despite Claudius’s commands and she states “I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me” (Hamlet 5.2.236). These are powerful words as it is the first time she has stood against Claudius’s orders. As a result, when she does drink from the goblet she is poisoned and dies soon after. This death angers Hamlet further to quickly take on his revenge and kill Claudius. Ophelia and Gertrude’s defiance acts as Hamlet’s main driving force which causes him to make the tragic decisions