Patriarchy In Hamlet

Shakespeare’s writings can be viewed through the lens of Kristeva’s feminist, motherly perspectives based on Gertrude’s relationship with her son and Ophelia’s lack of motherhood. Despite the tensions between Gertrude and Hamlet, they still have a special bonding relationship with one another. There is a strong separation between the two during the swift marriage of Gertrude and Claudius. This event was a means of instability in the text that creates a powerful divide. However, the audience recognizes the best of feminist literature when they are united through the Ghost of King Hamlet. After his apparition to Hamlet during the accidental killing of Polonius, Hamlet changes his attitude toward his mother. He becomes more caring and concernful
Kristeva features that events like this one are threats to patriarchy because of the unique bond. In a sense, the timing and context of the situation are a threat to Claudius’ dominance as Hamlet continues his assassination plot while dealing with his mother. On the other hand, there is a lack of motherhood for Ophelia. Rather the bulk of her senior guidance comes from her father and brother. However, in the feminist lens of Kristeva, by not putting a motherlike figure for Ophelia in the plot, she does not represent a real obstacle in male dominance. Therefore, this foreshadows Ophelia’s death through drowning. Dr. Elizabeth Woledge explains the perspective of feminist literary criticism: “Feminist critics accounting for Ophelia’s madness and death have also suggested that she represents the female side of Hamlet which must be rejected and killed” (Woledge 3). Symbolically, Ophelia represents the passiveness that ignites men to be violent towards women; therefore, she must die. Nonetheless, another key aspect of feminist theory is the recognition of male
Male dominance is mostly seen through Hamlet’s perceptions of his mother Gertrude and his former love Ophelia. He reduces their identity and status through many verbal statements. He has great anger towards his mother and associates her with Claudius’ heinous crimes. Therefore, he constantly attacks her infidelity as weakness in her character and even holds a grudge to her. In addition, his patriarchy can be seen in how her cruelly objectifies Ophelia when he tells her to go to a nunnery. Instead of building bridges with a past love, he ironically and rudely tells her to go to a brothel. In spite of that, the patriarchal nature of Shakespeare’s work rewards women for their subordination. Lisa Corbett underscores their powerlessness in the grasps of men: “Women have no choice but to deal with the “male egos” in their world, which gives them no ability to control whether they are made victims” (Corbett 35). She reinforces the idea that male dominance results from men’s machismo, which induces male figures, like Hamlet, to subject their female counterparts to abusive treatment. Nonetheless, when females break social norms, they face dire consequences at the end of the novel. Because Gertrude refuses to heed to Claudius’ orders, she dies due to poisoning. And because Ophelia loses her father, she commits