Shakespeare chooses to present the female characters as being second to the male, a prime example being the way Hamlet treats his mother after the marriage. Hamlet makes clear his disapproval of the marriage by asking how she can go from his father to his brother, ‘would step from this to this’. This reference is delivered in a nasty, stressed tone showing how he is using his mother to vent his anger on showing a lack of respect for her. She asks him to stop twice by saying ‘Hamlet speak no more’ but he continues indicating that he is gaining some sort of joy seeing his mother feeling bad and weak. When this is first seen, the viewer would tend to think that Gertrude is indeed no disgusting and that hamlet has every right to be angry. However, to a modern audience, Hamlet could be seen as disrespectful and misunderstanding. To a modern audience this treatment of his mother would be looked down on as a shocking disrespect towards the maternal figure, the male today would be looked down upon for these actions and we would expect the mother to defend herself but she does not. His mother says ‘These words like daggers…no more sweet Hamlet’. This makes Gertrude look like she is begging sweet ‘Hamlet’ to stop giving control and power to Hamlet and showing the subordination of women in Shakespearian times.
The other female Character in ‘Hamlet’ - Ophelia is also controlled and directed by the males around her, because she is not married, she is still her father’s ‘property’. For example, when she is told by Polonius that she cannot love Hamlet ‘do not believe his vows for they are brokers’. Today we would expect Ophelia to argue her love for Hamlet but she just agrees ‘I shall obey, my lord’ shows that she feels pressured to agree with Polonius and that Polonius has the power to tell her what to do. His telling Ophelia of who she can love shows a lack of respect for her feelings and shows us that he sees her as an object that he has control over. By Ophelia using ‘my lord’ it shows two things, firstly she has respect for Polonius and that he is abusing this respect and secondly with the respect she shows it indicates that Polonius has control over her, as she just wants to avoid conflict with him and agrees to what he says in order to achieve this.
Gertrude also creates the impression of having no mind of her own when she asks Hamlet, ‘What shall I do?’ (Act 3 Scene 4 line 182) this could be due to her social responsibility, as she has always had a male figure in her life to support her and to tell her what to do showing that she needs the support of a man and that she is willing to be controlled by males, as it pleases her and makes her feel like she has some sort of direction. This makes the women appear mentally weak and small without a man to lean on, and creates the impression of an inferior species, which don’t have the capacity to form do things on their own.
Both of these passages show men dominating women mentally and verbally. Shakespeare has given neither woman the poetic balance of the male speech, nor the wit. An example of this can be seen when Gertrude says “more matter with less art” which means that what she says is more important than how she says it, giving the impression that she is aware that her language is inferior compared to the males in the play, adding to the feeling of subordination. Throughout ‘Hamlet’ Shakespeare gives the males in the play a superior grip on the English language, which shows men are more intellectual than women and therefore more intelligent. However, this is just one perception, during the third act, in the second scene, Hamlet is Taunting Ophelia with rude and abusive remarks. Ophelia replies with short simple answers ‘ay my Lord’ to try and stop the conversation without being rude to Hamlet. This shows that she knows her place in society but is clever enough get herself out of difficult and embarrassing situations.
By Shakespeare giving the Women in the play a very weak voice we never see there character develop, suggesting that they are less important than the males in the play, this however in not true as they are also the centre of the plot (Gertrude’s marriage to Hamlet’s uncle)
Also, the play is a tragedy, and both of the women are vital in providing this level of tragedy as and are in anguish throughout the play, Gertrude by the quarrelling of her husband and son and Ophelia by her love and rejection of Hamlet and eventually both die.
Hamlets treatment of Ophelia clearly shows the subordination of the female in question. He plays with the emotion of love to such an extent she goes mad and drowns, although by the account given it could be seen as suicide. To Hamlet Ophelia is an object to be mentally manipulated this is clear by how he treats Ophelia’s emotions, ‘I loved you not’ when before he told her how he loved her. This sudden switch in his emotion would make Ophelia feel that she had no control during any time in their relationship, and that Hamlets feelings towards her were false. Hamlet then makes her feel weak by saying ‘Frailty thy name is women’. This makes Ophelia and women look like they cannot hold their ground against males, it also shows how Hamlet sees women as inferior to himself.
In conclusion, Shakespeare chooses to present the female characters as a minority. This may be because having two poorly developed female characters shows how women were seen at the end of the Elizabethan era and at the start of the Jacobean era which was as objects and property of the husband, father or brother. Actions of the males towards the females create a feeling of injustice towards the women characters. Although the two women are seen as objects they are central to the plot, this is a contradiction that makes us more aware of the treatment they receive, this also heightens the feeling that the males are superior to the females as it shows their domination of the female characters. Overall I believe Shakespeare makes the female characters weak for two reasons, one is shows the subordination of women in his society and secondly, it makes the play more of a tragedy when they die because it could be perceived that they had always acted with the best intentions and they were caught up in the middle therefore it was unjust for them to die.
