Although Hamlet focuses on the journey of a son in his hopes of avenging his father, Shakespeare uses women to help catapult the story further. In his efforts to tell Hamlet’s story, Shakespeare often comes off as an antifeminist as he characterizes the women, mainly Ophelia and Gertrude, as weak and unfaithful individuals.
Even at first meeting the character of Ophelia, Shakespeare deems her as weak and naïve. When Ophelia tells her father of her meetings with Hamlet, her father pours scorn on her for meeting a man sin chaperon and insists that Hamlet only wants her for sexual favors and nothing else. After her father’s warnings, Ophelia suddenly spurns her relationship with Hamlet even though Hamlet had, as Ophelia previously stated, “importuned [her] with love in honorable fashion.” Ophelia’s insecurity in her relationship with Hamlet and weak character allowed her to be easily overcome by her father’s advice thereby allowing her to reject Hamlet which in turn helped manifest Hamlet’s “madness.” Likewise, later in the play, Ophelia is once more overcome by her weak persona, which brings her to kill herself. Too overwhelmed with emotions and unable to deal with her situation as a strong woman, Ophelia once again demonstrates her feeble character by killing herself (well sort of---we don’t know for sure if she committed suicide but I vote yes.) Although Shakespeare uses Ophelia to develop the story since she serves as one of the numerous figures that help catapult Hamlet on his mission to avenge his father, Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia as naïve and easily overcome demonstrates his demeaning view of women.
Shakespeare also depicts Hamlet’s mother as an insensitive and unfaithful individual throughout the play. At the mark of the play, we find Gertrude has wedded Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle, only a few months after his Hamlet’s father’s death. Gertrude’s quick marriage demonstrates her unfaithfulness to her husband. Even the ghost speaks of her betrayal for when the ghost returns as Hamlet’s father, it acknowledges Gertrude’s unfaithful behavior and tells Hamlet to leave her to be judged by God. Gertrude likewise never shows any sign of remorse after her speedy remarriage for Shakespeare writes, “now our Queen…/ Have we, as ‘twere, with a defeated joy,/ With an auspicious and a dropping eye./ With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,/ In equal scale weighting delight and dole,/ taken to wife.”
Despite both women’s imperative roles in developing the plot of the play and Hamlet as a character, Shakespeare’s characterizations of Ophelia and Gertrude as insensitive and weak individuals mark him as an antifeminist author.
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4 comments:
While I can't honestly say that I agree with your thesis, (we've studied how several of Shakespeare's women are unusually bold) you argue it well. I didn't consider that the two main female characters are both weak and untrustworthy. Ophelia and Gertrude do act, more or less, as Shakespeare's pawns to move the story forward. He paints them as one-dimensional characters and never really deals with their human complexity. Thank you for offering a fresh perspective. You did a great job!
Suchita, you raise some important questions in your blog, and while I believe Shakespeare can extend his characters beyond his own views on life, I was interested by your blog because it raised questions we never discussed in our class. Good job thinking outside the box.
Suchita!
I love that you picked something that no one else did for your blog. It definitely made me pay closer attention to what you had to say. You did a great job expressing the role of the women in the play, who both certainly played supporting roles and did not have particularly beneficial impacts on the action of the play. I definitely agree that their lack of conviction and self-direction caused Hamlet to lose faith in humanity and to spin into madness. Great job on an interesting blog! Oh, and excellent use of quotes.
'Chita--Given the strength of characters like Rosalind, Juliet, and Cleopatra, I'm not quite willing to portray Shakespeare as a misogynist. But I do agree, and strongly so, that in this play the characters of Ophelia and Gertrude are problematic in terms of Shakespeare's failure to give either of them clear signs of strength or decisiveness. Good point.
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