" .
(III, IV, 160 - 161, 166 - 167).
Hamlet's revulsion of his mother's sexuality leads him to misogyny. His mother's "rejection" of him causes him to despise all women. However finds himself attracted to one. He both loves and hates Ophelia; he is deeply confused by the difference between his emotional and sexual feelings. Ophelia is the victim of his emotional turmoil, Hamlet subjects her to fierce verbal abuse beset with bitter sexual innuendo.
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Hamlet: "Wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them." .
(III, I, 134).
Ophelia: "You are keen my lord, you are keen.".
Hamlet: "It would cost you a groaning to take off mine edge." (III, II, 225 - 226).
Hamlet shows that he thinks women are immoral, weak and offensive to God.
Hamlet: "Frailty, thy name is woman" (I, II, 146).
Hamlet: "I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another. You jib, you amble, and you lisp, you nickname God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance" (III, I, 137 - 140).
The only two women in the play have little independent thought. They are dominated and exploited by the powerful male characters around them.
Gertrude has no real power; even though she is Queen, her social status depends on that of her husband. She has been seized in the same fashion that Claudius has seized the throne. Claudius is the illegitimate king, who has "taken her to wife" for further legitimation of his crown. Claudius also uses Gertrude to control Hamlet.
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Claudius: "Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, th"imperial jointress to this warlike state.".
Ophelia is portrayed as weak, simple and immature. She unable to live for herself and is ordered around by her father, brother and lover. She is a victim of excessive sexual repression, her brother seeks to control her sexuality, her father fears that her loss of innocence would reflect badly on him and uses her to spy on Hamlet, and Hamlet vents his misogynistic feelings on her.