The Negative Power Of Women In Shakespeare's Hamlet

In William Shakespeare’s great tragedy, Hamlet, women are portrayed in a negative light through both their roles and status which stigmatizes them. Shakespeare has eliminated the validity of female voice and has transferred all power to the men in the play. He demonstrates this through the only two female characters presented, Ophelia and Gertrude, through their undervalued thoughts and opinions, shortage of freedom, and their lack of ownership. The women in this tragedy are often overlooked when speaking and are frequently perceived as incorrect. Their thoughts and opinions are extremely undervalued. The first indication of this lack of status comes when they are first belittled within the structure of the play, beginning with the cast list where …show more content…
Ophelia, has 58 separate occasions of speech and Gertrude has 69. Whereas Claudius says a total of 102 lines, Hamlet with 358, and Horatio with 109 moments of speech throughout the play. This represents the importance of the voice of men and their content being more valid and constructive, compared to that of women. Shakespeare does this in a way to literally hand over the power to men directly. Their extra opportunities of speech allow the reader to understand that the words of women are less important, allowing the ideas of men to surpass them. This concept, that the opinions and thoughts of women are remarkably undervalued, becomes evident when Ophelia is speaking to her father, Polonius, about her feelings towards Hamlet. Her father supports this notion as he says to her, “Marry, I will teach you. Think yourself a baby / That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay / Which are not stirling. Tender yourself more dearly, / Or...you’ll tender me a fool” (I.iii.105-109). Polonius talks down to Ophelia, essentially explaining to her that her thoughts concerning to Hamlet are