Whether or not she is manipulative, she seems impassionate in her love towards Hamlet. She heeds her father and brother and fails to fight for her relationship with him, indeed when Polonius warns against involvement with the prince, Ophelia is typically compliant, replying merely, “I shall obey, my Lord”. To Hamlet and the audience it may seem as if Ophelia is unloving and cruelly rejecting, but perhaps she does love Hamlet, but only as far as her childlike capacity allows, without the passion and conviction of a more mature, independent character.
Ophelia confuses Hamlet. When he cries, “Get thee to a nunnery”, he perhaps cannot decide whether she is as chaste and virginal as she seems or in fact as whorish and sexually motivated as his mother. If she is what she seems, the world of lust, murder and incest is no place for her, but if she is like Gertrude, perhaps ‘nunnery’ in its other sense, i.e. brothel, is a more appropriate place for her.
Shakespeare’s creation of Ophelia as a weak and childlike character, with a distinct lack of heroism, is necessary. Shakespeare did not want to place great emphasis on the love story; if Hamlet had been madly in love with Ophelia, it might have interfered with the main storyline. She had to be a subordinate character, unequal to Hamlet in spirit or intelligence; otherwise she would have been more inspiring and able to help Hamlet. This is demonstrated when, under her father’s advice, she ends her blossoming relationship with Hamlet without question – hardly the actions of a Cleopatra or a Portia. Had she been more heroic, the entire course of the play would have been altered.
Gertrude is a contrasting character to Ophelia. She is far older and worldly-wise, having dealt with motherhood, bereavement (albeit brief) at the death of old Hamlet, and love, erotic and familial. She is very sexually aware and seemingly far less dominated than her youthful counterpart. It is fairly easy to come to the conclusion that Ophelia is manipulated, not a manipulator, but with Gertrude it is far harder to ascertain. It could be argued that Gertrude is weak, stupid and co-dependant, pressured into marriage by a powerful Claudius, and her need to have someone. She may be so stupid or short-sighted that she doesn’t see her swift marriage to Claudius as inappropriate and hurtful, and only realises the effect it has had on Hamlet when he points it out to her in the Closet scene, where she is apparently hit by a sudden wave of remorse. It is in this scene that we can conclude that Gertrude, whatever her character, had nothing to do with the murder of her late husband. When Hamlet says “ ‘A bloody deed!’ Almost as bad, good mother, to kill a king and marry with his brother”, Gertrude repeats “To kill a king” in genuine astonishment. This innocence is further proved when she unwittingly drinks from the poison cup in the last scene.
In the case of Gertrude, there is a more credible argument for her being manipulative. She marries Claudius at “most wicked speed”, only a few months after her previous husbands death, which suggests an ulterior motive, perhaps a desire to remain in a powerful and influential position as queen of Denmark. Her apparent happiness, disregard for mourning and frenetic sexual activity would have been very shocking to an Elizabethan audience, as they are to Hamlet. Gertrude seems to care little for the effect that her insensitivity, disloyalty and incest are having on her son, which could be explained by extreme stupidity and short-sightedness, but is more feasibly explained by utter selfishness. She freely admits a previously unseen guilt and self-disgust, (which seems to manifest itself as “black and grained spots”), under Hamlet’s vehement criticism in the closet scene. This leads us to the conclusion that Gertrude is merely complying with Hamlet’s wishes to remain in his favour. She is apparently malleable to the wills of the authoritative men around her, when in fact she is using her sexuality over them, whilst keeping them sweet so she can remain in a powerful position.
Gertrude was used by Shakespeare to show a side of women that would have been contradictory to the expectations of an Elizabethan audience. Powerful, sexually aware, manipulative women were socially unacceptable, yet obviously in existence, and Shakespeare’s portrayal of Gertrude may have served to awaken in his audiences the awareness that many women were not merely passive and quiet, and challenge the assumption that all women were weak and stupid.
Central to any reading of Hamlet is the debate about sexuality and sexual mortality. Gertrude is the most overtly sexual character in the play, we are given this impression by the text in references like “Why, she would hang on him, as if increase of appetite had grown…” (“him” being old Hamlet). This phrase is riddled with imagery; old Hamlet is depicted almost as a piece of meat, which Gertrude longed to devour, her apparent sexual desire is presented as a physical hunger. The choice of the word “hang” prompts images of a leech-like parasite, using it’s host to survive, as perhaps Gertrude was to old Hamlet and is now to Claudius. The reference presents sexual desire as if it were something negative and depraved, and shows Gertrude to be a sexually motivated being. A production of ‘Hamlet’ would probably further emphasise this sexuality in the non-verbal aspects of Gertrude’s character, such as body language.
Hamlet is utterly disgusted at his mother’s wanton displays of incestuous lust, as he frequently and eloquently articulates, describing his mother and uncle as living “In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed… stew’d in corruption…”. Again, this reference uses imagery. The adjectives used to describe the bed have associations with rot, decay, depravity and putrefaction. The word ‘rank’ carries with it these connotations, and ‘enseamed’ means, literally, steeped in animal fat. In the context of the play, these words suggest the grossness of sexual behaviour, though physical metaphors of disgust. As in many of his other plays, one element of Shakespeare’s writing style is the use of imagery to convey certain points. This is shown in the previous reference, which eloquently communicates Hamlet’s feeling towards the incestuous relationship of his mother and uncle. The use of imagery was essential as it conveyed aspects of the storyline clearly to all members of the Elizabethan audience, groundlings and royalty alike. We see many examples of this in Hamlet, and it is particularly pronounced in an incident in Act IV scene v. Ophelia has a lucid moment in her madness, and reveals or emphasises aspects of the personalities of some of her fellow characters through the use of imagery. She hands out flowers, fennel and columbines to Gertrude, which signify marital infidelity, and ‘rue’ to Claudius, for repentance. The metaphorical meanings of these flowers would have been widely known throughout an Elizabethan audience. In the Elizabethan era there was much less scope for spectacular stage scenery and special effects, so imagery incorporated into the script of a play also served to provoke and enrich the imagination of the audience.
From a psycho-analytic viewpoint, Hamlet is suffering from an Oedipus complex. His repulsion and fascination at his mother’s incestuous relationship and his reluctance in exacting justice on his stepfather are a result of his continually repressed feelings and desires. Because of his mother’s over-sensual affection for her son, Hamlet developed a sexual attraction towards his mother. Yet he repressed these incestuous urges, stifling them with a cloak of depression and despair, until he witnesses the sudden rekindling of Gertrude’s sexuality. His intrinsic wish to replace his father as his mother’s lover is reawakened when he sees someone else, a member of his own family, namely Claudius, doing just this. This explains why Hamlet delays in killing Claudius – he cannot punish someone for doing exactly what he has fantasised about doing himself, as he would be punishing himself. He is, however, blinded to the true, subconscious reason for this reluctance, and is furious at his apparent cowardice, criticising himself, saying, “I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall”.
Hamlet’s incestuous desire is emphasised to varying degrees in different productions; some show Gertrude and Hamlet kissing each other sensually on the lips, and some even go so far as to imply Hamlet being sexually violent towards his mother in the closet scene. Some productions of the play choose to merely hint at the incestuous desires in a much subtler manner.
Attitudes towards women have altered dramatically since Elizabethan times. The treatment of women in ‘Hamlet’ may seem sexist now, but was nothing extraordinary in the 16th and 17th century. Shakespeare would have been influenced by the popular attitudes and views held towards women in his time. Elizabethan England was patriarchal. Women were deemed inferior, intellectually, emotionally and physically weak, and unable to think logically. They had no suffrage, few rights and did not hold positions of power within society (the one exception being the Queen). Women were not allowed to act, so boys would have played the parts of Gertrude and Ophelia. They were controlled by men and could only have influence through men. ‘Hamlet’ serves to highlight and examine widespread assumption and treatment of women.
In the 20th and 21st Century, the play is often seen as sexist. Today women and men are much more equal, and there is generally less sexism and sex-based prejudice in society. Women have the right to vote, and to hold high-powered jobs, and are generally not seen as weak and irrational. Much of the criticism of the sexism in ‘Hamlet’ comes from feminists, who seek to challenge assumptions and sexual stereotyping in the play. Literature, especially in the past, is seen to have contributed to the marginalisation and ‘silencing’ of women. Neither Gertrude nor Ophelia are as fully realised as Hamlet or Claudius; they have far fewer lines and far less stage time, although it could be argued that Ophelia and Gertrude are underdeveloped deliberately, so their roles don’t overshadow the main tragic storyline. Feminist criticism looks at the ‘silencing’ of women as an important part of the play’s meaning. Feminism also examines the responses of other audiences and artists to Gertrude and Ophelia, and how they have become, outside the play, symbols of women as victims, for example, in the painting entitled ‘Ophelia’, by John Everett Millais.
The role and portrayal of women in ‘Hamlet’ serves as a basis of major tragic elements in the play, and also reveals and highlights many inherent aspects of the tragic hero’s character. Through the behaviour of Gertrude and Ophelia, opposites in character, one a manipulator and one a manipulated, we glean understanding of Hamlet’s psychological person and his constant struggle between good and evil. This subsequently gives us a heightened grasp of the play – through analysis of the aspects of sexuality between Hamlet and the female characters, we are able to comprehend Hamlet’s misogyny, why he seems depressed, irritable and neurotic, and why he cannot bring himself to exact revenge on his murderous stepfather. Through the use of women in ‘Hamlet’, Shakespeare observes, (hundreds of years before Freud, as noted by Bradley), how the intrinsic human wish to gratify basic desires affects all aspects of our lives. The introspection and revelation in the play prompts the audience’s own introspection and revelation, as effectively now as it must have done in Elizabethan audiences. Shakespeare brings to the surface issues that we recognise and can apply to ourselves. This perhaps explains why ‘Hamlet’ is still the most popular play of all time and continues to engage the intellectual energies of academics. It is my belief that Shakespeare’s portrayal and use of women is fundamental to the main issues that are addressed in the play.
