Portrayal Of Women In Hamlet Essay

To what extent are women in "Hamlet" victims in a man's world?

Although Shakespeare's primary concern in his plays is not to portray women as victim's, to an outsider looking in this is what it may seem like as there are only two women in the play (Ophelia; Polonius' daughter, and Gertrude; Queen and Hamlet's mother) and both end up dying. Some people say that Shakespeare presents women throughout "Hamlet" as easy to convince and submissive to men and their demands. This is not too strange for a play of Shakespeare's time however as in the past, women were regularly portrayed as socially and mentally weaker than men. A prime example of the weakness shown in the women is in act three, scene four in which Hamlet confronts his mother for the first time about her "incestuous" marriage to his father's brother. From the very start of the scene, Hamlet ultimately has control over the conversation which already shows weakness on
Gertrude's side. Gertrude is the Queen and you would expect her to have power over Hamlet especially also as it was initially Gertrude who was the one that wanted to talk to Hamlet. It starts with Hamlets mother rebuking Hamlet but he simply dismisses everything she says and when she tells him she "will send for someone he will listen to", he physically grabs Gertrude and sits her down. This shows that already Hamlet is more dominant than the female character in the scene. Hamlet feels betrayed by his mother's actions to re-marry so soon after his father's death and accuses her of being in an incestuous and wrong relationship with Claudius. Gertrude does not at this point see what she has done wrong as she has obviously had time to think things through and has decided out of her own accord to marry to Claudius. However, Hamlet makes it seem like Gertrude is not allowed to make her own decisions and feels that his views on everything must be the right views. He clarifies this when he says "You go not till I set you up a glass where you may see the inmost part of you" meaning he will show herself what she has become. This shows that women in this part of the play have no rights compared to the man as she is not allowed to live her own life and make her own decisions in life without a man telling her what to do and what she has done wrong. In this scene, Hamlet kills Ophelia's father, Polonius, as he thinks it could be Claudius as he is hiding behind a curtain. He shows no remorse for this deed and he compares his killing to his mother's actions of marrying Claudius. He is making Gertrude feel worse and worse and even compares her marriage (which she chose to do of her own accord) to a murder and is controlling her thoughts and almost forcing her to believe him. Hamlet is out to make her feel bad and succeeds with relative ease. By the end of the scene, Gertrude does see that it is Hamlet she should be trusting instead of Claudius and this emphasises how easy it was to convince her that she was wrong. However, although some people may look at this plainly and state that Gertrude is a victim to Hamlet's harsh ways, you could also say that even though Hamlet is being harsh in his approach, he is telling his mother information that is true and will help her to realise that she does need to do something about Claudius. So although Hamlet may be seen as bullying her, he is only trying to help in the long run but that doesn't change the fact that Shakespeare has shown her as an easily convincible fool. Shakespeare has portrayed the woman in the scene as weak and easy to sway which is how Ophelia is portrayed too. Ophelia is the only other female character in the play (which again shows Shakespeare's ruling out of women characters) and she ends up going mad and dies. Again, to an outsider this may look like the women are deliberately shown as victims as she dies but it is an important piece to the play. Ophelia is the daughter of Polonius and the love of Hamlet yet she is not really very free in her relationship as her Polonius is very authoritative over her. This shows that again, the men in the play have more power than the women even in making decisions for them. Ophelia does not just suddenly turn mad and it is a series of events that drive her to insanity. Firstly, she is in love with Hamlet but her father tells her she cannot be with him which is obviously very distressing for her as she wants to be with Hamlet but cannot. The fact her father controls her decisions makes her feel unimportant and helpless as anyone would in a situation such as hers, which in turn causes her to develop a lack of emotional confidence. Not only is she controlled by her father but her brother, Laertes, also tells her what to do and agrees with their father telling her Hamlet is not for her and she is forced to tell Hamlet she can no longer see him. This can be seen as Ophelia being a victim in a man's world because even though she is in love with Hamlet, she is forbidden by men to see him. Her loneliness that ensues is what may be seen to contribute to her madness and inevitable death. When Hamlet next sees Ophelia, he says nothing and storms away. When Ophelia goes to tell her father, he tells her that she has made him mad when really it was Polonius' fault because he was the one that banned her from seeing him yet Ophelia has to deal with the troubles "she has caused". Again this shows the poor treatment of women in the play and the fact Ophelia is convinced it is her that has made Hamlet mad just makes matters for her feelings worse and brings her lower and lower. The love of her life is now not talking to her and making her feel horrible all due to the fault of a man. When Hamlet does speak to Ophelia he says "…I loved you not" which drives her even closer to the madness that shall ensue for her. Hamlet's stabbing of Polonius in act three scene four is also a heavily contributing factor to Ophelia's madness.
Hamlet stabs Polonius thinking that it may be Claudius and even though this opens a new world of freedom for Ophelia, it is also obviously very upsetting and traumatic for her to deal with, especially as it was her love that killed him. After the death of Polonius, Ophelia goes insane and spends her days singing songs that make no sense to anyone but herself. She is found dead later on in the play drowned and it is quite possible that she killed herself to escape her madness. The only reason for Ophelia's madness is the men in the play and the way they treated her throughout; her father controlled her and caused her to unfairly loose her love, her brother agreed with Polonius and forced Hamlet and Ophelia apart and Hamlet was rude and hurtful and ended up murdering her father. In this way, Ophelia can be seen as a victim in a man's world because they lead her life for her and drove her to insanity that in turn killed
her. After having read the whole of Hamlet and seeing that both women in the play die and having also seen the incorrect ways they have been treated, many people may say that the female figures in the play are ultimately victim's in a man's world but it has two sides. Without the madness of Ophelia and the fact that she was in love with Hamlet helped make the play better and without Polonius being so authoritative, maybe Ophelia wouldn't have gone mad when he died as she would have Hamlet to confide in but the fact he did treat her unfairly allowed the play to evolve into something better than a love story. However, many people would say that even though the women's lives help to make the play what it is, they are still being treated badly and are in fact victim's in a mans world which is acceptable as the fact that Ophelia has been driven to madness and a possible suicide and the fact that Gertrude is told she isn't nice and forced to listen to Hamlet's harsh ways shows that the women are victim's in more than way. I personally do not believe the women are "victims" but simply fit in with the time setting of the play as women's rights have only become a big thing in the last century but viewed by a modern audience, the women in Hamlet can be seen quite easily as victims in a man's world