Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, eds. 2006: Hamlet. The Arden Shakespeare. 3rd Series. London: Thomson Learning.
“Explaining Woman's Frailty: Feminist Readings of Gertrude,” in Hamlet, edited by Peter J. Smith and Nigel Wood, Open University Press, 1996, pp. 83-107.
The sexuality of female characters in Hamlet is a favoured topic amongst critics, especially feminist ones. Feminist critic Valerie Traub explores the sexuality in Hamlet stating the following “in this vile and seductive garden, sexually threatening women poison vulnerable and unwitting men” [3] which I believe to be sarcasm as the male characters in Hamlet are seen to be far more dominant over the female characters, however, this phrase could be ambiguous as the Gertrude, Hamlets mother can be seen in two lights. Hamlet displays his distaste for his mother’s actions in the opening soliloquy, where he is troubled by his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle, he describes this as “incestuous” and with “wicked speed!” these words hint that what Gertrude has done is morally wrong and that Hamlet is deeply affected by it. Hamlet sees his mother as an ‘adulterous Queen’ who could be seen as marrying his uncle to stay in the powerful position of Queen, and using her sexuality to get what she wants, as we also see character Nora do in A Doll’s House. Nora uses her sexuality on her husband Torvald to get money from him and also to deceive him from finding out the truth about her. “[playing with his coat buttons, and without raising her eyes to his]. If you really want to give me something… you might” Hamlet is disgusted by his mother’s behavior as she displays incestuous love so openly and he makes reference to the several times in the play. He sees his Gertrude and Claudius’ love as “In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed… stew’d in corruption…” The use of the word ‘rank’ really portrays his disgust for the sexuality between his mother and his uncle. The adjectives used to describe the bed described is connotations of rot and decay which really builds up the sickly image on how Gertrude is being portrayed, a whore. The way Gertrude portrays herself to Hamlet forces him to believe that his lover Ophelia is also in the same light. He takes his uncertainty makes him say to Ophelia, “Get thee to a nunn’ry, why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?” Hamlet cannot distinguish whether Ophelia is the virginal angel she is portraying, or an adulterous whore like his mother. The nunnery could be seen as a place where Ophelia can maintain her innocence or it could also be another word for a brothel in which Hamlet feels is the appropriate place for her. There is also an uncertainty as to whether Ophelia lost her virginity to Hamlet. He asks her “are you honest?” where honesty here is linked to a woman’s virtue. In the next scene, Hamlet uses a series of puns to insult and degrade her sexually, he says, “shall I lie in your lap” and “between maiden’s legs” where the prepositions suggests specific details as to possible sexual encounters between the two, showing that maybe Ophelia is not as innocent as she seems, however, Gertrude’s actions clouded over and tainted Ophelia’s character, resulting in her death, which concludes Thompsons saying in the masculine world of Shakespearean drama “the only good virgin is a dead virgin.”[4] In contrast to Hamlet, Wuthering Heights doesn’t appear as explicit and sexual towards the body; however the passion between Catherine and Heathcliff goes as deep as their desire to be one. Catherine states “Nelly, I am Heathcliff-he’s always, always on my mind” and Heathcliff in reference to Catherine despairs “Oh God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” They both want to become ‘one’ which can be seen sexually even though it is done implicitly as Catherine is composes herself as a lady and women in those days were very discreet with their sexuality. There is also implicit imagery to suggest the sexuality between Heathcliff and Cathy Brontë tends to use warmth and heat more to represent passion. She often uses Catherine’s fevers to reflect the intensity of her emotion. She declares “Oh, I’m burning”
The theme of women being childlike is portrayed strongly amongst these 3 texts. This is best illustrated by the famous quote by Hamlet “Frailty, thy name is woman”. Ophelia is seen as weak and submissive, just as a child is and her brother Polonius confirms this by calling her a “green girl” (where green means inexperienced and immature). The fact that Ophelia is very obedient to her father just as a child should be also emphasises this point. Ophelia is typically compliant to her father replying, “I shall obey, my Lord”. To Hamlet and the audience it may seem as if Ophelia is unloving but perhaps she does love Hamlet, but only as far as her childlike capacity allows, without the passion of a more mature, independent women. Likewise, in A Doll’s House, Nora is also seen in a childlike manner.
Gender and sexuality in Shakespeare.
The masculine world of Shakespearean drama.
Torvald refers to Nora as “my little squirrel” and “my little spendthrift”. By using this language he is therefore defining her as irresponsible and perhaps even an indulged child. When Nora says “You haven’t any idea how many expenses we skylarks and squirrels have, Torvalds” she is reaffirming the childlike image that her husband has given her in order to persuade him to provide her with money. The fact that she says ‘we’ may also refer to her children as well, putting herself in the same category as them. We also see at the end Torvald putting Nota in the same category as the children when he talks about educating them “Both yours and the children's, my darling Nora” however, as the novel progresses we so Nora slowly unveil to be more of a woman then we first assumed and that in fact, she is a woman that was just putting on a façade for her husband in order to get what she wanted, hide the truth about her borrowing money and, of course, comply with the social norms of the 1870s in Norway. Nora at first also uses very short sentences which are associated with child behaviour, but at the end of the text, we see her character develop to a point where she is using very long paragraph showing she is now a woman.
Male oppressors are dominant in all of the three texts. Each of the texts were set in a patriarchal society in which women had very little rights and were expected to take the In Hamlet, Ophelia is what Feminist critic, Elaine Showalter, calls a "consistent study in psychological intimidation, a girl terrified of her father, of her lover, and of life itself"[5]. She has all the males around her trying to dictate and control her life. Because Ophelia was bought up by male figures, she relies on them greatly and when they die, she is lost which then contributes to her madness, and later death. However strong Gertrude may seem throughout the text, she too is the victim of male oppression, although it can be open for debate. Gertrude’s tragic flaw that ultimately leads to her death is perhaps her need to want to be controlled by powerful men and her need for men to show her what to think and how to which may be consequence of decades of women being oppressed and degraded by the males of society. Wuthering Heights also depicts women also face male oppression, usually in the form of Heathcliff. Heathcliff is described in the novel as a ‘tall, athletic, well-formed man.’ This is physically intimidating, possessing the bodily power to oppress women, who in comparison are portrayed as being fragile in appearance. Isabella, for example, is compared to a ‘sparrow’s egg’ to emphasise her defencelessness against Heathcliff. Heathcliff is also described as a ‘brute beast’ to project how powerful he really is. The use of the word ‘brute’ and the personification of a beast shows how insensitive and inhuman Heathcliff is towards Isabella. When he ‘seized, and thrust [her] from the room,’ we see evidence of this attitude and how it enables him to terrorise Isabella without feeling remorseful. In fact he says, “I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails,” and we can see that Heathcliff uses violence and intimidation as a means to oppress women like Isabella and Cathy Linton. In A Doll’s House, male dominance is shown in a variety of lights. Firstly, the interaction between Nora and her husband Torvald. Nora is compliant to Torvald who is very overbearing towards her. In the beginning, we see him patronize her, even down to what Nora should not eat, Torvald questions whether Nora has made a trip to the confectioner’s and “taken a bite at a macaroon or two” In response, Nora says she doesn’t “think of going against [his] wishes” and eating the forbidden macaroons. The fact that Nora was placed straight from her father’s hand to Torvald also shows that she has never had the chance to be independent, “I was papa's doll-child…” The structure plays a part in showing how the dominance roles are reversed towards the end and shows how Nora is now the one in control and has her husband at her mercy. The fact that in the end she is the person leading the conversation and also has longer sentences shows that she is now the dominant one and the fact that she leaves her home, which was unheard of in those days, confirms it. Nora’s interaction with Krogstav also portrays male dominance. The relationship between Krogstav and still demonstrates the power men hold over women. When Nora struggles to pay back what she owes, Krogstav threatens to reveal her secret to Torvald, knowing full well he has the power to ruin their relationship, “how will you be able to prevent it? Am I to understand
that you can pay the balance that is owing?” He holds this power over Nora, making her live in constant fear. Nora also combats this by coming clean in the end.
5. Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism – Elaine Showalter
Death of female characters is a main theme in all three texts, including A Doll’s House. In the most famous tragedy Hamlet, all the characters die, including the female ones, Gertrude and Ophelia. Ophelia’s death can be blamed on her madness. Ophelia’s madness drove her to commit suicide, although some may argue that it was in fact an accident, which was brought on by her lack of being able to demonstrate any maturity in trying to cope with her losses, and in return can only inflict her madness on everyone else. We can say she finally dies rebellious towards when she wasn’t given the proper burial because of the fact that suicide is a huge sin, using her death to prove a point that she couldn’t being alive when she didn’t stick up for her lover Hamlet, she did have courage. Gertrude’s death can be seen as her guilty of Hamlet’s madness she looks towards blaming herself for her son’s suffering, which is noticed whilst she in conversation with Claudius, “I doubt it is not other but the main: his father’s death, and our o’erhasty marriage.” She drinks the poison to save her sons life and when she is nearly stopped by Claudius she replies “I will my lord, I pray you pardon me” which implies she knew what she was doing. In Wuthering Heights Catherine’s leads her down a road of destruction and eventually death. Her stubborn pride and determination to get her own way pushes her to extreme lengths. Her inability to control her situation any more causes her to declare, “If I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend-if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own.” She self-consciously jeopardises her health to gain the attention of Edgar and Heathcliff. Although both Edgar and Heathcliff do suffer enormously as her health deteriorates and eventually it causes her death. In A Doll’s House, we can say that Nora also died. The fact that she leaves her husband and starts a new life in her home village portrays the death of her old life and the birth of a new independent. The stage directions at the end project this, “(The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.)” In all three texts, all women died as a result of the men in their life but unlike the rest, Nora ‘died’ for the better.
Ending, we see that the women explored in these texts, especially Hamlet are portrayed much more than ‘angels and whores’ as Thompson and Taylor analyzed. They are deep and complex characters flawed and suppressed by the men around them and social conformity roles. Each woman in their own way goes against what was expected of them; Gertrude being overtly sexual and standing against her husband in order to save her son. Ophelia committing the ultimate sin of suicide and, although questioned, maybe even sex before marriage. Catherine’s disregard to her husband Edgar by seeing Heathcliff and also the forbidden passion between the two and lastly Nora’s scandalous behavior leaving her children and husband behind and starting a new life. All of the women make decisions which make them flawed. Catherine places social status before what she knows is right chooses to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff her soul mate. Nora’s sole courage in taking money behind her husband’s back to make him better may not seem bad in current society; however, in those days it was unheard of and shocking, let alone leaving behind your children and husband, making the play very controversial when it was released. Ibsen may have created Nora’s role to raise awareness to the audience and show that women should have rights too and society was too strict in the way the treated women. Overall, the women in these texts show complexity and changed the course on how people view women, even today.
by
kandirayebow (student)
