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Roles Of Gertrude And Ophelia In Shakespeare's Hamlet

932 Words4 Pages

For numerous years in the past, women always play a smaller role in society politically, economically, and socially than men do. This was a norm for everyone living during that time period; everything that people do was reflect by it, including the literature written. In William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, the roles of women are just as society would have displayed them during that time. The leading women, Gertrude and Ophelia, are seen as less valuable than men and insignificant because of their dependence on male authorities, obedience, and are easily manipulated by others throughout the play. To begin, Gertrude and Ophelia are less significant in the play because of their heavy dependence on male authorities in their lives. For example, when …show more content…

Furthermore, knowing that Gertrude and Ophelia are dependent and obedient towards their male authorities, they are a little more than pawns for the scheming men in their lives. For example, when Polonius discovers Hamlet 's craziness from Ophelia, Polonius says, " Come, go with me: I will go seek the king / That is the very ecstasy of love / Whose violent property fordoes itself / And leads the will to desperate undertaking / As oft as any passion under heaven / That does afflict our natures"(2.I.101-106). With this information that Polonius receives he cannot wait another minute, and goes to see the King right away. Hoping, by explaining to the King, that Hamlet is actually in love with Ophelia, there would be a royal wedding in the near future, making Ophelia Princess of Denmark. Polonius see 's the situation as a great opportunity for him to raise his social status in the community. Likewise, when Gertrude marries Claudius, while addressing the crowd, Claudius says, "Therefore our sometimes sister, now our queen"(1.2.8). After killing his brother, Claudius uses Gertrude to get to the throne. He marries Gertrude, so he could take away the crown from Hamlet and call himself King of Denmark. Claudius gains Gertrude 's trust by showing a concern for Hamlet craziness and tries his best to be caring to the queen. This shows this mock side to the queen so it would be easy for him to become king, and that he has control over how he uses the women …show more content…

Clearly, Shakespeare has shown that the women in Hamlet and during his time, were seen as worthless and irrelevant to society than men. They have these traits because they could not do anything without the presence of a dominant male, they would always do what their male authority wants, and would not think twice about the intentions others have for them. Even though, in today’s day women are looked upon as equal to men, there still are some aspects present from decades ago that show that women are still second to men. The task is to make women stronger than ever before, but the

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