Shakespeare is unable to present women other than as passive victims or deceivers of men With reference to the characters of Ophelia and Gertrude explore to what extent you agree with this statement.

  Feminist critics like  have defended Ophelia’s position in the play and have argued that ‘without these three powerful men making decisions for her, Ophelia is driven into madness’. I agree with this theory, as I think that the reason she is driven into madness is the fact that she is constantly being ignored and is forced to suffer in silence while others control her life. This is what eventually drives her to commit suicide. Shakespeare constructs her as a victim of men who do not care about her feelings. This is shown again later on when Laertes is more worried about having a pompous funeral ‘Must there be no more be done?’  than his actual sister’s death and Polonius is more interested in maintaining a respectable family reputation rather than seeing his daughter happy; ‘you’ll tender me a fool’ . Polonius continues to treat his daughter as anything but a human being, as we see in Act 1, Scene 3, in which he speaks of her as if she were one of his cattle ‘I’ll loose my daughter to him’. This is emphasised when Shakespeare adds terms of commercial transactions into Polonius’ speech: ‘at a higher rate’, ‘tenders for true pay’, ‘not stirling’ . This shows that Polonius considers his daughter’s love story with Hamlet to be of a commercial, materialistic nature and not of true loving feelings. Again, this shows the lack of consideration towards his daughter’s feelings.

  Further on in the play, in Act 3, Scene 1, Hamlet carries on insulting Ophelia but she is unable to answer back with anything other than monosyllabic, obedient phrases, like ‘At home, my Lord’. Shakespeare’s construction of Ophelia’s language, through end-stopped lines and monosyllabic words is a reflection of her position at the time and shows just how little she is allowed to say. End-stopped lines suggest that she is constantly being cut short by Hamlet who does not give her the chance to speak properly. Shakespeare presents Hamlet as a misogynist, as he criticizes Ophelia strongly, calling her a ‘breeder of sinners’. Shakespeare uses a crude choice of words when Hamlet starts ‘ranting’ at her, but Ophelia on the other side is shown to really care for Hamlet, believing his ‘antic disposition’. This is shown by the use of prose for when he speaks instead of blank verse, and it leads her to thinking that he has gone insane, as we see when she constantly pleads for help for him, ‘O heavenly powers, restore him’

  However, although in my opinion Ophelia is shown to be weak and powerless, as she is not allowed to have a voice of her own, it could be said that her short, obedient responses in Act 1, Scene 3 are actually sarcastic and witty remarks. For example, ‘Do you doubt that?’ and ‘No more but so?’, show that she could be questioning her brother’s authority without him realising the tone in her voice. This always depends on the actress that is playing her because depending on her tone; Ophelia could be constructed to seem weak or witty. Ophelia also openly accuses her brother of being a hypocrite and calls Laertes a ‘puff’d and reckless libertine’ because although Laertes warns her about not giving into temptation, he is the first one that does it himself, so Ophelia has a valid point. On a greater scale, Ophelia herself is shown to be rebellious because of the way she ends her life, by committing suicide, which for Elizabethan audiences was seen as a sin. Modern audiences wouldn’t consider this as a sin though and although it still remains as something tragic, the thought of being a sin wouldn’t be thought of. This is considered in the gravedigger’s scene, where they argue about giving her a proper Christian burial.

  Gertrude is mainly presented as a deceiver of men throughout and it is because of this stereotype that Ophelia has to endure being considered treacherous too. She is presented as the innocent victim of other people’s wickedness. Gertrude, although also largely ignored and subjected to men, is shown to be considered deceitful and evil. She is constructed as a character through what is said about her as much as what she says and does herself, meaning that she is open to constant interpretation. Romantic critic A.C. Bradley reads her as ‘dumb and sensual’ , a view that would have been accepted by Elizabethan audiences. However, feminist critics might see her as a caring, loving mother, whose sexuality shouldn’t be a cause for condemning her.

  Throughout the play, Hamlet sees Gertrude’s sexual misconduct as a source of ‘moral pollution’ that has affected his relationship with Ophelia ‘blurs the grace and blush of modesty…takes off the rose…and sets a blister there’ This imagery which contrasts a delicate rose, symbol of innocence and youth, with a blistered forehead is quite shocking and shows just how much Hamlet disapproves of his mother. Shakespeare’s choice of imagery when Hamlet is referring to his mother is especially crude ‘doom…is thought-sick…rank sweat of an enseamed bed… corruption…nasty sty…pinch wanton…reechy kisses’. This language reflects the common attitude towards Gertrude by Elizabethan audiences, who would’ve seen her as a lustful woman.  When Hamlet is insulting his mother, his emotion is so high that Shakespeare uses blank verse, as it is the only thing that can convey his anger. This is also used when both him and Ophelia express their madness, as it heightens the emotion.

  However, if we were to judge Gertrude solely on what she says, the reality about her character would be very different: in the very few occasions in which she speaks, she comes across as a weak but loving and caring woman whose only concern is pleasing others. She is divided in between her husband and son’s demands and the culmination of this division is shown at the end of the play when, in order to honour Hamlet, she disobeys Claudius’ orders and drinks from the poisoned cup. It is ironic that the one time she disobeys a man, unexpected in those days, it leads to her death, showing perhaps that women making their own decisions could lead to tragic consequences. Gertrude is also shown to be emotional and delicate when dealing with tragic situations, unlike Claudius who is shown to be unable to deal with Hamlet’s ‘antic disposition’. She describes Ophelia’s suicide in a poetic and lyrical way, where images are used to enrich emotional force and intensify the poignancy, ‘glassy stream…fantastic garlands… mermaid-like…melodious lay’. This shows Gertrude in a different light, the complete opposite to what the ‘combatants’ in the play -the ghost, Hamlet and Claudius- see her as: a malleable, submissive sexual object.

  Overall, Shakespeare does present both Ophelia and Gertrude as weak and dependant on men, as neither of them have the chance to express their own voice. However, this was the common view of women at the time, so this presentation, which at first strikes a modern audience as misogynist, could simply be a reflection of women’s position during the Elizabethan era. Ophelia, who is initially constructed as pure and virginal has to then suffer due to Hamlet’s stereotyping towards his mother, considering her a whore and a prostitute for her behaviour after her husband’s death. Ophelia’s reputation is tarnished due to Gertrude’s apparent incestuous attitude and in consequence, her position is undermined even more, leading to her descent into madness and eventual suicide.

Word count- 1795

Bibliography-

-‘Hamlet’ Cambridge Student Guide by Rex Gibson, Cambridge University Press, 2002.

-‘Reading Hamlet’ by Bronwyn Mellor, Chalkface Press, 1989.

-‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare, Penguin Popular Classics, 2001.

-‘New Casebooks: Hamlet’ Essay by Rebecca Smith, 1992.

-‘Hamlet York Notes’, Jeff and Lynn Wood, Longman/ York Press, 2003.

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