Naive Women In Hamlet

To Be Naive In the Elizabethan era, women were seen as the property of a man. The men saw them as naive, weak and dependent. Shakespeare saw women in this way, and portrayed his female characters the same way that society thought them to be. Shakespeare's play Hamlet is no exception in this pattern of female characters. Characters Ophelia and Gertrude are written as naive women that are used, helpless, and dependent on others. Being naive ultimately leads to the demise of Ophelia and Gertrude. In his play Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses his female characters to teach the dangers of being naive.
Naive is defined as “having or showing a lack of experience, judgement, or information; credulous”. Shakespeare uses Ophelia and Gertrude to show that being naive leads to being used by others, and being victimized. Both characters are used by the male characters in the play because they do not know any better. They do exactly as they are told throughout the play and become victims. Act one, …show more content…
Ophelia undergoes a great amount grief and suffering, and due to how naive she is, she is unable to handle things and goes mad. Her madness then leads to her death when she is out picking flowers and falls off of a branch. It is later debated amongst the gravediggers if her death was truly an accident, or if it was suicide driven by her madness. It is decided that Ophelia shall receive a Christian burial, and that she did not willingly end her life, though the gravediggers believe that it is due to her father’s status in the kingdom, and the fact that she is a woman. She receives a Christian burial out of pity and belief that she is naive. If Ophelia was less naive, and better able to take care of herself after the death of Polonius she would not have gone mad. She would not have needed Hamlet’s love, or Laertes’ presence to stay sane, and she would remain