Women in Hamlet. The only two female characters in Hamlet are Gertrude, Hamlets mother, and Ophelia
The Portrayal of Women in Hamlet
By: Fatima Salman
Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a firmly structured revenge tragedy revolving around Hamlet, the male protagonist. Due to the restrictions of the genre, the other characters must remain peripheral to Hamlet leaving many aspects of their stories and mannerisms underdeveloped and shrouded with ambiguity. This is more so the case with the female roles as they would have been initially played by young boys who would have not been able to communicate the complexities of a woman making it harder to understand their characters.
The only two female characters in Hamlet are Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and Ophelia, his lover where questions of their sexual conduct frequently arise. For Gertrude, it is the question of weather she committed adultery or if Hamlet’s accusations are only related to her hasty marriage. At the start we see that Hamlet is troubled by his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle, in his first soliloquy he describes this as “incestuous” and with “wicked speed!” these words hint at a moral wrong-doing to emphasize Hamlet’s disapproval. Hamlet also makes the comparison of his father being a “Hyperian” to Claudius as a “Satyr” demonstrating his disgust at his mother’s choice. After this, he personifies weakness to be a woman, where he concludes, “frailty thy name is woman!” wherein his mother’s conduct has damaged his view of women. These accusations develop with the appearance of the ghost. The ghost refers to Claudius as an “adulterate beast” hinting at him being stained by adultery. Furthermore, he calls Gertrude his “seeming virtuous Queen!” which taints her image as a righteous wife, suggesting that she might have committed adultery and only appeared to be “virtuous”. However this is only a hint that is not proven as the ghost is pressed for time, he says, “my hour has almost come” which prevents a direct explanation, however it stresses the importance of the news he bears. Hamlet’s response to this shows that he is shocked, “O most pernicious woman!”. The exclamation mark highlights his surprise which means that he has learnt something new about his mother from the ghost, he accuses her of being wicked which further plummets his view of women. What deepens the ambiguity of this situation is where the ghost says, “leave her to heaven” which shows that she has not wronged the deceased king too badly and that she may only be guilty of marrying quick.
