Kevin Wang
Streckenbach
Senior English P.7
8 February 2015
Formless
Throughout history, men and women side by side were never equals. In fact even now, inequality persists however incomparable to the past. Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare explicitly revealed the treatment of females during his time through his play. In the play, Polonius’s daughter, Ophelia, evidently presents herself as a puppet that adheres to her master’s will until the strings that control her loosens. In her conversation with her father, Polonius, he attempts to fashion her relation with Hamlet. As she “do not understand [herself] so clear/as it behooves my daughter and your honor”, implying that she lack the ability to fully comprehend the situation, but more importantly his language reveals his true patriarchal nature (1.3.105-6). First, his sense of …show more content…
However, it was only then that she came free from the strings that once controlled her. Gertrude, when reporting Ophelia’s death, said that she acted “as one incapable of distress” as “she chanted snatches of old lauds” (4.7.175-176). Implying that she acted like someone who doesn’t realize the danger she’s in. It was almost as if she was at home in the water in which she drowned in. Water takes shape of its container. Metaphorically speaking, Polonius and Claudius were her containers. However, without the containers water will take no shape as she finally frees herself from their grasps. Ophelia’s death was the “first autonomous choice […] while the notion that suicide […] is undeniably tragic, [her] choice might be seen as the only courageous—rational death” (Dane). The death of Polonius led to an internal conflict in Ophelia’s mind, not knowing what to do. Without an identity to live with she made the very first choice for herself, suicide. This thereby freed her from her destiny as a
Streckenbach
Senior English P.7
8 February 2015
Formless
Throughout history, men and women side by side were never equals. In fact even now, inequality persists however incomparable to the past. Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare explicitly revealed the treatment of females during his time through his play. In the play, Polonius’s daughter, Ophelia, evidently presents herself as a puppet that adheres to her master’s will until the strings that control her loosens. In her conversation with her father, Polonius, he attempts to fashion her relation with Hamlet. As she “do not understand [herself] so clear/as it behooves my daughter and your honor”, implying that she lack the ability to fully comprehend the situation, but more importantly his language reveals his true patriarchal nature (1.3.105-6). First, his sense of …show more content…
However, it was only then that she came free from the strings that once controlled her. Gertrude, when reporting Ophelia’s death, said that she acted “as one incapable of distress” as “she chanted snatches of old lauds” (4.7.175-176). Implying that she acted like someone who doesn’t realize the danger she’s in. It was almost as if she was at home in the water in which she drowned in. Water takes shape of its container. Metaphorically speaking, Polonius and Claudius were her containers. However, without the containers water will take no shape as she finally frees herself from their grasps. Ophelia’s death was the “first autonomous choice […] while the notion that suicide […] is undeniably tragic, [her] choice might be seen as the only courageous—rational death” (Dane). The death of Polonius led to an internal conflict in Ophelia’s mind, not knowing what to do. Without an identity to live with she made the very first choice for herself, suicide. This thereby freed her from her destiny as a