Hamlet Character Analysis

Throughout history, there is not one group that has more stringent cultural norms than women. In the Elizabethan Era, women were subservient to men in almost all aspects of life, both public and domestic.In the eyes of a man, a woman was a piece of property to be owned; a tangible piece of property that one had rights to. Such is the case with Ophelia in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Hamlet forces social constraints of typical womanhood onto Ophelia, which in turn exacerbates her madness. Due to this pervasive sexism, Ophelia and Hamlet’s death’s are views in sexist lights that make readers view Hamlet’s death one that was heroic, and Ophelia’s one of a damsel in distress.

Hamlet can be viewed through a feminist lens by focusing on Ophelia and Gertrude and how various other male characters treat them. Ophelia and Gertrude are dismissed as characters through the entire play because they are women. Hamlet refers to women as “frailty,” implying that they are weak and are dependent on men. Reason suggests that with out the males, Ophelia and Gertrude would simply have no story.

In today’s world, women of all ages are given equal rights and freedom. In Shakespeare’s time, woman’s obligations were to follow the rules of the men and obey the men in their lives’. “Frailty, thy name is woman;” Hamlet implies the powerlessness of the two women characters in the play. In Hamlet, the roles of Gertrude and Ophelia are very important in that they are the only two female characters in the play. Gertrude, the Queen of Denmark and mother of Hamlet, and Ophelia, the lover of Hamlet, are characterized as controlled and lost in their lives because they are being used by the men throughout the play. Fundamentally, Shakespeare illustrates the nature of Gertrude and Ophelia as powerless victims by the women being subjects of men,

Perhaps the most common feminist struggle, even to-date, is regarding a female’s agency over her own body, and her own time. The two leading female characters in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Getrude and Ophelia, both exemplify different aspects of this struggle—Gertrude as the married widow, whose dead husband, Ole King Hamlet, seeks to claim her sexuality, and current husband, Claudius, who seeks control over her; with Ophelia as her contrast, in the role of Hamlet’s peculiar love interest. These women work to develop, within Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the relationship of both Ophelia, as the classic objectified female, to the overarching storyline, and of Claudius and Gertrude as a defining male-female relationship that lends itself to an analysis of gender roles, denial of subjectivity, and woman’s place within the domestic sphere.

As a child born and raised in the age of tolerance I found myself confused by the blatant sexism so heavily featured in Hamlet. The modern woman being depicted as strong and self-sufficient I wondered how women could have been depicted as weak and submissive. Once my confusion cleared I realized that the depiction of women in Hamlet was one sided, controlled by the misogynistic males dominating the narrative. Gertrude and Ophelia, the only women featured in the play are only characterized by the male influence in their lives and lack full characterization. They are depicted as weak and considered supporting characters in a narrative that requires their involvement.

     The treatment of women in Hamlet is very troubling. The leading female characters, Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, are pawns or puppets for the men around them. Like chess pieces, they are moved about and influenced by the men they love with little say of their own; in fact, Shakespeare does not even develop their characters.

The gender approach to analysis involves careful observation in order to find general trends of intergender relationships. Such a focus requires the analysis of characters, their interactions, as well as their actions and corresponding motives. With such analysis, one can hope to uncover the underlying themes regarding the relation of the two sexes to each other, the author's attitude towards gender, as well as the prevailing notions of the gender hierarchy during the time period in which the play was written. Such an approach seemed appropriate because of the interesting and extreme disparity of the notions of gender between the contemporary world and the time period during which Hamlet was written, during the Elizabethan era. The ultimate

The play Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, is set in an anti-feminist era. Women traditionally have been seen inferior to men. This was an intellectual as well as a physical issue. Women were to raise a family, cook, clean, be pretty and not be smarter than any man. The main characters Ophelia and Gertrude are both depicted with these characteristics as powerless and frail people. This illustration of helpless women affects one's understanding of what their true selves could be.

Hamlet, a tragic play written by Shakespeare in the 1600s, portrays the struggle of young Hamlet in the face of avenging his father’s death. While major themes throughout this tragedy include death, loss, madness, revenge, and morality, another important theme to include in discussion is the theme of womanhood. The only two female characters in a cast of thirty-five include Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, both of whom die unfortunate deaths. The importance of womanhood and female sexuality is shown through several literary techniques; though, most importantly, the characters Queen Gertrude and Ophelia are both symbols for female sexuality. Both characters are developed as negative and positive sides to womanhood through dialogue as other characters approach them, their own actions, and most importantly, their individual deaths.

For hundreds of years, Shakespeare’s most talked about work, Hamlet, has left readers speculating over every detail of the play. Hamlet illustrates the dramatisation of the vulnerability and helplessness of feminine qualities in the case of a patriarchal society. “Frailty, Thy name is woman," quoted in this play by Shakespeare, implying to the so claimed weakness of women's character. In Hamlet, the roles of women are minor yet very crucial to how the play progresses. In this particular play, the two main female characters in Hamlet are Ophelia and Gertrude.

Throughout the course of Hamlet, many utterances regarding women and their nature tumble from the players’ mouths. However, none, so succinctly, captures the thematic overtones of the play than “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Shakespeare, 2003, pg. 29). In this scene, Hamlet, exasperated with his mother, Gertrude’s inability to commit to either himself or Claudius, vents his frustrations with woman-kind as a whole. The only other woman in the play is Ophelia, the, loosely, romantically-involved with Hamlet, daughter of Polonius and sister of Laertes – two other in-play forces working against Hamlet.

The topic of female empowerment is a prominent issue in modern day society. The idea behind this rapidly growing movement involves the creation of an environment for women where they can make decisions of their own, for personal and societal benefit. Conversely in the Elizabethan Era, during which William Shakespeare 's Hamlet was written, the societal role of women was divergent to our current beliefs. The play follows young prince Hamlet 's revengeful journey to avenge his father 's murder by his uncle Claudius; throughout which, we see the protagonist constantly delaying his revenge due to excessive contemplation and perpetual doubt. The two major female roles in the play are Hamlet 's mother, Queen Gertrude, and his lover, Ophelia. Throughout the play, these women are silenced to represent how they could be manipulated to serve the male characters ' best interests; additionally it emphasizes the patriarchal standards during the Elizabethan era. Ophelia is manipulated by Polonius who insists she conserve her innocence from Hamlet 's provocative interest. Additionally, Claudius manipulates Gertrude to gain access of the throne and continually ensures she perceives matters that concern her son Hamlet through his point of view. Finally, Hamlet himself seems to develop into a misogynistic character and humiliates Gertrude and Ophelia to further his revenge plot; specifically his apparent madness.

William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest playwright of modern Western civilization. He wrote 37 plays in his lifetime, all of which have some varying degree of fame, such as Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Twelfth Night. Although he has been dead for 400 years, these pieces are still being read and analyzed under scrutiny today. One of the plays that seems to get the most attention is Hamlet. Much of the diction uses double entendre which causes much dispute among critics, and because of this there have been many elements of this play that have been put under a very fine microscope. One of these is the main male characters’ treatment of the women in the play, Gertrude and Ophelia. It is very apparent from the very beginning that on the surface the characters Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and Hamlet think very little of these women as people, often citing sexual references in a few different ways directly in front of them with total disregard for their feelings, yet they also show true compassion toward them and seem to care for their well-being. These women provide much more, however. Ultimately it can easily be said that, based on the evidence, the entire reason for Hamlet’s, as well as the other male character’s, motives have to do directly with the influence these women have on them, so in many ways these women are responsible for the entire outcome of the play. Though they may appear on the surface to be one-dimensional characters, Gertrude

“Let me not think on ‘t; frailty, thy name is woman!” Prince Hamlet of Denmark displays an extreme feeling of disgust towards women, thus foreshadowing how his personal actions will affect women in general. This can be compared to real life situations, where a man’s mentality may focus on its personal ego. Men are more focused on emotional appeal and believe that they are always going to be superior to women in all aspects of life. The same situation applies to Prince Hamlet when it comes to his interaction with the two women throughout the play.

“Frailty, thy name is woman” (1.2. 150)! This controversial line, followed by several more from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, displays a common view towards women that portrays them as being weak and reliant on men. Throughout the play, two women, Ophelia and Gertrude, are shown to be dependent on the men in their lives. They both take on a senselessly obedient state of mind. Even though they share this common characteristic, Ophelia and Gertrude are very different characters. Ophelia is a beautiful, young woman who is the love interest of the protagonist, Hamlet. Ophelia obeys her father, Polonius, without hesitation and has very little experience with making her own decisions. Gertrude was the wife of Old Hamlet, and is now the wife of Claudius, the current king and Old Hamlet’s brother. Gertrude desires affection and status more than she cares about the truth of what happened to her late husband. The men in this play have no sense of how they treat the females. This patriarchal way of life was prominent in the late 16th century and early 17th century which was about the time that Hamlet was written and performed. This relationship between the genders is interconnected within the play and with society during that particular time period. The characters of Ophelia and Gertrude were solid examples of how women were viewed as inferior to men during this time in history.