The role of women in Hamlet

There are only two female characters in the play Hamlet - Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother and Ophelia, daughter of Polonius. Any debate based upon gender roles must therefore centre upon these two characters.

Shakespeare portrays Gertrude as a woman of power and intelligence - she was Queen for a considerable amount of time - we can safely assume at least 30 years - and she is asked advice on matters by King Claudius - "Do you think ‘tis this?" (II.2.152). Gertrude is a woman who married her own brother-in-law; perhaps to remain in her position of power. It is often debated whether or not Gertrude was involved in the killing of King Hamlet - either way, Gertrude seems to have complied fully in her marriage with Claudius - she doesn’t seem at all offended by Claudius’ presence - perhaps reason to suspect that she was unaware of Claudius’ role in Hamlet’s death, if she was uninvolved.

The ghost tells Hamlet not to judge his mother, or to seek revenge upon her, telling him "leave her to heaven" (I.5.86). This pours doubt upon Gertrude’s ‘guilt’. Further, her seeming innocence, when confronted by Hamlet as she exclaims "As kill a king!" (III.4.31) would indicate her lack of guilt in or even knowledge of, the murder of old Hamlet. Hamlet himself is certainly convinced, as he tries to ‘win her over’, later on in the scene: "Throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer with the other half." (III.4.158-159).

Gertrude’s apparent innocence would highlight Shakespeare’s belief that there are women of virtue.

Hamlet’s attitude towards his mother does change, throughout the play. He scorns the queen’s company for ‘metal more attractive’ (Ophelia) (III.2.119), yet holds a great deal of respect for her - using no daggers when he would speak them to her (III.2.403), and calling her Mother (III.4.214) and ‘good lady’ (III.4.181). Considering that a son without respect for her would call her ‘woman’, or even with respect for her standing ‘Your Highness’, these names are very respectful. It would seem that Hamlet loved Gertrude dearly, and held her in great respect. It would, therefore, be a mistake to brand Shakespeare a ‘misogynist’. However, when he dwells upon her marriage to his uncle, he has no respect, whatsoever. He gives her no credit for the marriage - holding the view that she was ‘whored’ and ‘cozened at hoodman-blind’ by Claudius. Hamlet’s fury at her ‘o’erhasty marriage’ (II.2.56) makes Hamlet soon forget the respect he had for her, though this seemed to return, once he had judged for himself the fact that she did indeed seem innocent of his father’s death. He also used word games with her. These word games are certainly not the way a son would be expected to speak to his mother, even though it does fit in with Hamlet’s character and wit.

Ophelia is represented in Hamlet as quite the opposite to Gertrude. She is easily led, and takes instruction from her brother and from her father. This could perhaps be due to her being of tender age. Gertrude must surely be a generation older than Ophelia. Ophelia’s madness shows a weakness that Gertrude did not have. While Gertrude wasted no time grieving over her dead husband, Ophelia seemed to lapse into a melancholic state, over her lost father, and lost love in the form of Hamlet. Surely though, Shakespeare is only guilty of pointing out that people react to grief in different ways. The misogynist attack would really only have grounds if Shakespeare had made Gertrude equally as weak.

Hamlet has immense feelings of love for Ophelia - revealed at her graveside (V.1.265-267). His poor treatment of her (that resulted in her madness, and subsequent death) including telling her to "Get thee to a nunnery"; repeatedly (III.1.120-140) can be interpreted in ways other than the misogynistic. He swore to his father’s ghost that he would "wipe away all trivial fond records" from memory - presumably including his love for Ophelia. He was also, perhaps justifiably, angry at Ophelia for obeying her father and shunning his advances and gifts. She also implies herself in any ‘conspiracy theory’ brewing in Hamlet’s head, when she denies the whereabouts of her father - Hamlet possibly suspected Polonius’ presence in the scene (III.1.130-131). Hamlet would, at this point, before confronting his mother, feel betrayed by both of the women in his life. Hamlet’s suspicion that he and Ophelia were being watched would back up the theory that Hamlet acted to enhance his ‘antic disposition’.

There are a few scenes where Hamlet is very sexually provocative with Ophelia. Whilst some may find this shocking, and a poor reflection of Hamlet’s (and by suggestion Shakespeare’s) feelings towards women, this could just as easily be an indication that Hamlet wished Ophelia to know where his affections lay. At no point does Ophelia cry out with disgust - she merely chides him for being merry (III.2.131).

The majority of Hamlet’s criticism, though, is about his generalisations of women.

"Frailty, thy name is woman." he states in I.2.146. Far from implying that all women are frail, I would rather believe that Hamlet is just disillusioned with women, as a result of seeing his mother marrying his uncle, so soon after his father’s death. As a poor judge of women, Hamlet certainly chose well in vying for the attentions of ‘fair’ Ophelia.

Speaking with Ophelia (III.2.163), Hamlet implies that all women’s love is brief. This, though, would have been a criticism of Ophelia’s rejection of him, and of his mother’s rejection of his father’s memory.

Hamlet laughs off Horatio’s concern of the forthcoming fencing match, saying "it is such a kind of gaingiving as would perhaps trouble a woman" (V.2.210). This, though, could surely be attributed to Hamlet’s male ego, in the same way as a man of today would laugh off accusations of crying - saying it was feminine. (Laertes statement that the "woman will be out" (IV.7.189) means exactly this).

It is true to say that many bad things are said about the female characters and of women in general, during the play; but this would not suggest to me that Shakespeare was a misogynist. The main focus of evil and corruption in the play is on Claudius, a man; and all deaths in the play are attributable to men.

Wow, this is very good! Great job! I am certainly going to read Hamlet now.

Cathy

AWESOME, i have only read part of hamlet before in my english 1 and english 2 combined

thanks for all your great comments! i will notify you when the next class is up- glad you liked it!

Wow! That was incredible! I will definetely read Hamlet sometime in the future now...

For anyone who has read Romeo and Juliet, I have a funny story from my English Lit class at school today (well, maybe you had to be there, but at least share my embarassment) - we were reading the nurse's first part where she is saying how Juliet had fallen on her head and nurse's husband had said to Juliet (who was 3 at the time) that she would be falling on her back later... I was the only person in the class who understood that and resultedly started blushing and laughing to myself, which is when everyone else started to ask what it meant and I was asked to explain it to the rest of the class!

Thought the Shakespeare class might enjoy the humour - if not I'll just be quiet

Thanks again for a great class!

Em

Wow!!!!!! I just learned so much, and I too think I am goin to read the book of Hamlet

Great class That's really useful info.