In many aspects of life, including literary works, women are often overlooked and not given the same importance as men. In William Shakespeare’s tragic play “Hamlet”, the female characters, Queen Gertrude and Ophelia, are given very few lines and are either portrayed negatively, or just seen as sex objects that men can do whatever they want with. The lack of significance they are given allows for them to be merely background characters, instead of playing major roles.
Throughout the play, Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother is portrayed negatively. She is criticized by Hamlet as being less than “a beast that wants discourse of reason [who]/ Would have mourned longer” (1.2.150-151). Hamlet over emphasizes his mother’s mistakes by further saying …show more content…
When Hamlet was doubting her loyalty to him, he asks her “Where’s your/Father?” (3.1.124-125) and she replied “ At home, my lord” (3.1.126). According to H. D. F. Kitto’s article Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet, this “is a final test of Ophelia’s honesty- and Ophelia tells him a lie” (275). Through this, she is represented as being unloyal and decietful, not good qualities at all. Kitto claimed that “Ophelia’s tragedy is that she is innocently obedient to a disastrous father” (272), and this oppression from him led to her betrayal of Hamlet. Shortly after she finds out her father was murdered, Ophelia goes “mad”. She begins singing and giving people flowers, making people believe that she has lost her mind and that this was simply her way of mourning. Through this, she is able to say things to others that she otherwise would not have been able to say because she was a women. She kept repeating to those around her that “No, no, he is dead,/Go to thy death-bed,/He never will come again” (4.5.181-183), showing that she had not gotten over her father’s death. When she sang she actually got people’s attention and was able to voice her opinions, whereas just speaking got her ignored. This shows the extremes she had to go through just to get noticed. Another way that Ophelia is portrayed undesirably is that she is thought to have committed suicide “in a glassy stream./Therewith fantastic garlands did she make/Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples” (4.7.166-168). Queen Gertrude states that she was “one incapable of her own distress” (4.7.177), meaning that Ophelia was unaware of her own pain and how to deal with it. This makes Ophelia appear like a weak woman, that because she did not know how to deal with the death of her father, ended her own life, instead of being strong and moving on from her loss. Suicide is considered a “coward’s” way to die,
Throughout the play, Queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother is portrayed negatively. She is criticized by Hamlet as being less than “a beast that wants discourse of reason [who]/ Would have mourned longer” (1.2.150-151). Hamlet over emphasizes his mother’s mistakes by further saying …show more content…
When Hamlet was doubting her loyalty to him, he asks her “Where’s your/Father?” (3.1.124-125) and she replied “ At home, my lord” (3.1.126). According to H. D. F. Kitto’s article Form and Meaning in Drama: A Study of Six Greek Plays and of Hamlet, this “is a final test of Ophelia’s honesty- and Ophelia tells him a lie” (275). Through this, she is represented as being unloyal and decietful, not good qualities at all. Kitto claimed that “Ophelia’s tragedy is that she is innocently obedient to a disastrous father” (272), and this oppression from him led to her betrayal of Hamlet. Shortly after she finds out her father was murdered, Ophelia goes “mad”. She begins singing and giving people flowers, making people believe that she has lost her mind and that this was simply her way of mourning. Through this, she is able to say things to others that she otherwise would not have been able to say because she was a women. She kept repeating to those around her that “No, no, he is dead,/Go to thy death-bed,/He never will come again” (4.5.181-183), showing that she had not gotten over her father’s death. When she sang she actually got people’s attention and was able to voice her opinions, whereas just speaking got her ignored. This shows the extremes she had to go through just to get noticed. Another way that Ophelia is portrayed undesirably is that she is thought to have committed suicide “in a glassy stream./Therewith fantastic garlands did she make/Of crowflowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples” (4.7.166-168). Queen Gertrude states that she was “one incapable of her own distress” (4.7.177), meaning that Ophelia was unaware of her own pain and how to deal with it. This makes Ophelia appear like a weak woman, that because she did not know how to deal with the death of her father, ended her own life, instead of being strong and moving on from her loss. Suicide is considered a “coward’s” way to die,