Gender roles in the play Hhamlet are a major factor dictating the lives of the females
Ophelia and Gertrude. As strong masculinity was cherished, female traits were not
desirable in a man, and this explains the actions of Hamlet, who acts in the realm of
feminine for the first 4 acts. His fathers death bought about this loss of masculinity
and Claudius further strips him of this honor by saying,
“of impious stubbornness. Tis unmanly grief.” (Act 1 sc. 2, 94 )
thus Hamlet is left vulnerable and passive. He recognizes this in his second soliloquy,
‘Oh what a rogue and peasant slave am I,” and he shows his disgust at his feminine
characteristics by loudly disapproving of Gertrude and Ophelia’s blatant sexuality.
This is best shown as he shouts at his lover Ophelia, “get thee to a nunnery,” to
preserve her purity and voice his disgust. Hamlet’s change of feeling towards Ophelia
is a direct result of his dissatisfaction with his own short comings, and Ophelia has no
choice but to conform to this change of attitude unquestionably. Therefore Ophelia
through no fault of her own is faced with the fact she has lost her lover, but also her
respectability, as it is well known she was not the innocent doyenne she is initially
presumed to be, she is in the doghouse so to speak.
Ophelia’s actions in the first part of the play are determined by her brother Laertes and
father Polonious to great extent, as they warn her to stave off Hamlet’s advances. She
states to her father, in response
‘my lord he hath importuned me with love in an honorable fashion,”(act 1 sc.
3)
in such a way that would indicate she believes he genuinely loves her. Yet as he
further challenges she submits without fight, “my lord I shall obey”(act 1 sc. 3) and is
forced into an informant role. This lack of strength of character is in keeping with
typical gender roles of the era, and is further evidence that whilst Ophelia feels
differently, she is perfectly willing to go along with whatever the male figures in her
life decide for her. As the play progresses we as readers gain the full force of the
dependence Ophelia has on these characters, as their absence and later killing, drives
her into the madness from which she never recovers. This culminates in her untimely
suicidal death that sums up the purpose her role had in the play, to merely conform to
the males desires and needs. She is Laertes ‘angel’, Polonious’s ‘commodity’ and
Hamlets ‘spectre of his psychic fears’ . Ophelia could be called an unstereotypical
female in the play, because she does not play the innocent virgin role, and she goes
mad after the death of her father instead of quietly accepting it. However this more
strongly reflects the weaknesses of her character ,the absence of her inner strength and
reveals that she is too easily overcome by emotion, traits that are more prominently
associated with females, especially in the 16th century. Thus Ophelia is dominated by
the males in the play, due to her weaknesses that lead to her demise, much like a pawn
on a chess board.
Gertrude’s role in the play of ‘Hamlet’ is controversial, considering firstly her position
of power, that she has continued to hold despite her late husbands death, as queen of
Denmark. One would assume that Shakespeare, by placing Gertrude in this highly
respected role is empowering her and her authority, therefore moving against broader
cultural assumptions of femininity. This is certainly a possibility, given the lengths
Claudius went to in order to satiate his lustful desires, as with the romanticized story
Helene of Troy. That Claudius the new King would desire Gertrude as his wife,
although she had already been married, had a son and was middle aged puts Gertrude
in yet another position of power, but did this empower her? After all, it is certain
Claudius’s main ambition was to gain the throne from his brother and so his marrying
Gertrude provided, perhaps not love, but for an easy transition that would not bring
about much controversy. Either way, as with Ophelia she does not take advantage of
this power and is entirely submissive to Claudius. This is primarily because she allows
herself to be manipulated. She is aware of the approved role of women and ascertains
to it, as she states when watching the character reflective of herself in Hamlet’s play,
‘The lady protests to much, methinks’,(act 3, sc.2, 226)
Claudius effectively uses her throughout the play, most notably when he arranges
with her agreement, for Polonious to spy on a conversation she has with Hamlet. This
betrayal of trust to the son she loves demonstrates how easily she is led astray by
persuasive men like Claudius and it is a serious weakness in her character. Essentially
her role consists of a pawn, not a queen, passed between two kings who dominate her
and her actions.
This weakness translates to her relations with her son Hamlet, upon whom she dotes,
and this is noticed by Claudius,
‘The queen his mother lives almost by his looks.’(Act 4,Sc.7,11-12)
That the norm of parental roles have almost been reversed, with Gertrude looking up
to her son and idolising him, whilst Hamlet looks down upon her gives him a superior
position, from which he directs her actions. This happens most noticeably in the closet
scene with Gertrude, as Hamlet shames his mother into helping him to convince
Claudius further, that he is in fact mad, despite the fact prior, she conspired with
Claudius over Hamlet. Thus, this proves that she did not intentionally want to hurt
Hamlet by conspiring with the king to spy on him, in the previous scene, but that she
is so willing to be led that she will follow the directions of whichever male instructs
her. This closet scene also gives rise to the climax of Hamlet’s rage, but in this
intense emotional scene, we as readers are given no indication as to Gertrude’s
feeling. It is in fact because her character is so negative, insignificant and
undeveloped that she arouses in Hamlet the feelings that she is incapable of
representing. This translates to her primary role being that of a vehicle for Hamlet’s
emotions-thus she is again manipulated and used as a pawn for Hamlet’s emotional
state. Not only this, but Gertrude can also be seen as the reason, at least for Hamlet,
for the tragedy. Gertrude’s guilt and Hamlet’s disgust at her, had to be maintained and
emphasised in order to supply a physiological solution for Hamlets actions.
As Hamlet shamelessly uses his mother to prove he is mad, to show his emotions and
provide a reason for his anger it gives rise to the question, who the real villain is in
Hamlet. Gertrude and Ophelia, whilst looked down upon throughout the play for
being blatantly sexual and susceptible to her passions and are thus blamed by Hamlet,
are merely acting the role of pawns in a chess game, manipulated by the males. Each
female appear only to fulfill the role of reflecting the males desires as is in keeping
with the representations of femininity by Shakespeare. Whilst readers may emerge
initially from a reading of Hamlet with the impression that Hamlet is the
misunderstood hero, with Ophelia and Gertrude playing the interfering adulterous
‘ugly stepsister’ role, another reading is possible. That, through no fault of their own,
the female’s submissive roles in fact corrupted the males to such an extent that they,
even Hamlet became obsessed with the idea of power. So, although the females were
manipulated by the males, it caused the opposite effect by empowering them, as they
ended up as the reason for the males actions. In conclusion, though controversial, it is
evident that due to the role and function of the females in the play, Gertrude and
Ophelia were used by the males to such a point, that although the end result would
suggest otherwise, their role consisted of nothing more than pawns in a chessgame.
http://www2.students.sbc.edu/young02/hamlet.html
ibid
http://www.turksheadreview.com/library/introlit.html
http://www.freeessays.tv/c2951.htm
T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism. 1922.