Women are portrayed as what most of society thinks they are. Society portrays women as weak and dependant. In the Elizabethan era and sometimes till this day, society sees women as people who cook, clean, maintain the house and have minimal education. In Hamlet, women are portrayed to be just that. Shakespeare wrote female roles for men because of that he tended to write his female characters as sweet, innocent and fragile.
One of Shakespeare's female characters in Hamlet is Ophelia. She is portrayed to be delicate and pure. She’s also known to be very obedient and a passive person. Ophelia always seems to listen to her father, Polonius and her brother, Laertes. For example, her father asks her to stop seeing Hamlet and she responds to him with "I shall obey my Lord." (1.3.145) Although, she loves Hamlet, she still followed her dad’s
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Her brother also happened to try to define Ophelia’s sexuality. He gives her a warning to not fall for Hamlet’s words because he will “deflower her” and ruin her. He tells her “Then weigh what loss your honor may sustain If with too credent ear you list his songs, Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open to his unmastered importunity. Fear it, Ophelia. Fear it, my dear sister, And keep you in the rear of your affection, Out of the shot and danger of desire.” (1.3, 34-39) Laertes gave her this advice because he believes that women should not be involved in premarital sex because that molds women as “damaged goods”. Shakespeare even went as far as to make Ophelia’s death fragile and poetic as well. “When down her weedy trophies