Marriage In Hamlet Research Paper

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a significant connection between the play and the Elizabethan Era is the customs and implications of marriage. During the Elizabethan Era, marriage was associated with benefit for both families, prestige, and wealth and women rarely had a choice in who their husband might be (Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings). After marriage, men were granted “full rights over [their] wives” and women “effectively became [their husband’s] property,” after their marriage (Elizabethan Marriages and Weddings). This connects to the marriage between Claudius and Gertrude in the play Hamlet, as following Hamlet Sr.’s death, Claudius “taken to wife [Gertrude]” (Shakespeare I.ii.14). This marriage serves as a major factor in Hamlet Jr.’s