Melissa D. Williams
Hon. AP English IV
Jennings, 5th hour
March 10, 2012
Feminism in Hamlet
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is a very male-heavy play, in other words, there
are very few women roles. One of the most renowned Shakespearean characters for
feminist criticism is Ophelia, the main character (Hamlet)'s supposed "lover". WC (say
it one way only) In Hamlet, there are many examples of feminism found for/towards her.
WC (OVERGENERAL) In addition to them, there are also a few hints of gender
stereotypes concerning the central character himself, Hamlet, being “womanly”. In
Hamlet, Shakespeare criticizes the view that women are simply seen as a man’s
possession, and to be weak was to be feminine. THESIS
According to Gabrielle Dane, the writer of Reading Ophelia’s Madness, Ophelia
is “used, abused, confused—utterly manipulated by the men in her life: father, lover,
brother, king...” (Dane, 2) Possibly the best example (WHY THE BEST?—CAN YOU
BE MANIPULATED IF YOU ARE DEAD?) of this is the scene in Act V-I, when
Laertes and Hamlet have a showdown at her gravesite over who loves her the most.
Hamlet says, after Laertes jumps into Ophelia’s grave:
Hamlet: I loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers/Could not, with all their quantity
of love,/ Make up my sum … What wilt thou do for her?/’Swounds, show me
what thou’lt do./Woo’t weep, woo’t fight, woo’t fast, woo’t tear thyself/Woo't
drink up eisel? eat a crocodile?/ I'll do't. Dost thou come here to whine?/ To
outface me with leaping in her grave? (V.i.)
MAKE SURE QUOTATION ADDS TO YOUR CLAIM. IT’S THE ACTIONS VS.
THE SPECIFIC WORDS YOU CITE AS IMPORTANT HERE SO BEST TO LEAVE
OUT QUOTATION.
The two men used her death and their supposed love for Ophelia as a chance to “one-up”
each other.
She is also used by her father, Polonius, and Hamlet’s uncle/stepfather, King
Claudius, (as well as Queen Gertrude) throughout the play as a kind of bait. They want to
see if Hamlet would use her as a confidant for any ploys and plots he could possibly be
scheming against King Claudius, as well as to see if his madness was derived from sheer
love for the girl. King Claudius says:
King: …We have closely sent for Hamlet hither,/that he, as ‘twere by accident,
may here/Affront Ophelia./Her father and myself, lawful espials,/Will so bestow
ourselves that, seen unseen,/We may of their encounter frankly judge,/And gather
by him, as he is behaved,/If’t be the affliction of his love or no/That thus suffers
for. (III.i)
In which, Queen Gertrude replies:
Queen: …And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish/That your good beauties be the
happy cause/Of Hamlet’s wildness; so shall I hope your virtues/Will bring him to
his wonted way again,/To both your honors. (III.i.)
SEE PREVIOUS QUOTATION
Ophelia is simply seen as a mere pawn playing in their chess game.
When her father Polonius was murdered by Hamlet, Ophelia was succumbed WC
into a state of utter insanity. She did things WC one would naturally expect from a girl
who has lost her father; sorrow, weeping, and (occasionally) temporary insanity.
According to society in the time of Hamlet, to be weak was to be womanly, as opposed to
Laertes, who is seen as strong and masculine. When Hamlet’s father died, Hamlet was
extremely depressed and, his mother Gertrude (as well as Claudius and the rest of the
characters in the play) thought it was inappropriate that he was acting “strangely” (in an
WC “not masculine” way). When Ophelia died, her brother (Laertes) said:
“…Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,/And therefore I forbid my tears.
But yet/ It is our trick; nature her custom holds,/Let shame say what it will. When
these are gone,/The woman will be out. Adieu, my lord./I have a speech of fire
that fain would blaze,/But that this folly douts it.” (IV.vii.)
In other words, crying is a womanly action; only women can weep. <<UNPACK MORE
Hamlet is seen as a woman, like Ophelia, not a man like Laertes. For if a man was
to cry, it would rip him from his own masculinity. However, if weakness and femininity
were not frowned upon, and were simply normal, gender roles would not have been such
a big deal. OVERGENERAL If that were the case, Laertes would have been the odd
man out, and instead of Hamlet criticizing the treatment of women, it would criticize the
stereotypical view of what a man should be like.
Works Cited
Brown, Heather. "Gender and Identity in Hamlet: A Modern Interpretation of Ophelia."
www.westminstercollege.edu. Web. 10 Mar 2012.
<http://www.westminstercollege.edu/myriad/index.cfm?parent=2514&detail=267
9&content=2680>.
Dane, Gabrielle. "Reading Ophelia's Madness." (1998): 1-9. Print.
<https://fcserver.nvnet.org/~springer/FOV1-0004AF2F/FOV10004B086/S03F889AE.0/"Reading Ophelia's Madness".pdf>.
Dane, Gabrielle. "Reading Ophelia's Madness." Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in
Medieval and Renaissance Studies 10 (1998): 405-23.
CITE HAMLET. IF 2 DANE SOURCES ARE THE SAME TEXT JUST IN DIFFERENT
PLACES, CITE ONLY ONCE.
Melissa: A good central focus here on gender roles. This still looks like an early draft in
need of more explanation and support. Ask if your 2 quotations tell your audience (who
has read the play) anything more than what you have told us when you point to these
scenes. If not, go with your words. Only use quotations if the words show something
you can’t show in your own words, and then use your own words to explain the
connection between the specific words in the quotation and your claims as related to
your thesis. W/o these quotes, your essay’s about ½ way there. The room for
development lies in explaining: 1) What the play tells us about the condition of women
being treated as objects (it shouldn’t happen?) and about the connection between
weakness and femininity (that to suggest men are strong and women are weak is
incorrect?). Either one of these ideas could be developed into a complete essay. If you
still go with both, bring more evidence to support your claims about how gender is
portrayed and explain the connection between 1 and 2. Worth a revision.