In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare portrayed women as though they were substandard to men and did not need to be treated with any type of congeniality. Women were thought to only be able to raise children and take care of the home. Because of this, the men looked down on the women because they were the ones who took care of the other aspects of a family. .
Throughout the play, Shakespeare portrayed Hamlets treatment of Ophelia as disrespectful and crude in many manners. Hamlet is not the only character in the play that does not treat women respectfully. Shakespeare's negative view of women is installed in all of the male characters. Hamlet treated Ophelia as though she did not mean anything to him but Hamlet did in actuality still love Ophelia. He uses her in his plot to get at his uncle. Polonius, Ophelia's father, treats her as though she is inferior to her brother Laertes. Polonius orders Ophelia around, tells her that she is foolish and nave, or as he says agreen girl?. (I i l. ) Polonius does not want to let Ophelia be her own person and controls her life as much as he possibly can. He tries to stop Ophelia from meeting with her love, Hamlet, and she also embarrasses him because of the way that she acts towards others. Laertes is the only male character who cannot control Ophelia. He tells Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet and Ophelia replies by telling him to practice what he preaches. When Hamlet begins to act mad, Polonius comes up with the idea that keeping Ophelia away from Hamlet is the reason for his madness. Hamlet, Polonius, and Claudius use Ophelia, because of Hamlets supposed madness. Both Polonius and Claudius want to see if Hamlet really is mad because of love and Hamlet takes advantage of the situation and uses Ophelia to support the idea of him being mad. At the meeting between Hamlet and Ophelia set up by Polonius and Claudius, Hamlet starts off being very courteous towards her but then he suddenly turns on her.