In the Elizabethan Era women were to be silent, obedient, and un-educated.
were portrayed as weak, emotional, and as being inferior to men. The men of the era.
were the dominant, superior gender and this was no exception in William Shakespeare's .
Hamlet. Shakespeare portrays the female characters in Hamlet as being stereotypical.
for the Elizabethan time period. This is demonstrated in Hamlets relationship with his.
mother, Ophelia's relationship with Polonius and Laertes, and the women characters, in .
relation to the play as a whole.
Gertrude's relationship with her son, Hamlet, displays an accurate portrayal of the.
way women were treated in the Elizabethan Era. The Era in which women were not .
respected, as shown in Act 1, Scene 2 ""Seems," madam? Nay, it is. I know not .
"seems"" (79) The beginning of a quote in which Hamlet mocks his mother showing dis .
respect for her and her actions. As the play continues Hamlet's disapproval of his mother.
worsens as demonstrated in "The Mousetrap" he portrays the Queen as being naive and.
easily persuaded in the ways of love. "O Hamlet, speak no more!,.
These words like daggers enter in my ears.
No more, sweet Hamlet!" (Act 3, Scene 2, line 107) .
The words of a mother pleading with her son to stop the verbal abuse, after a vicious .
attack on her emotions. A scene where the female accepts her inferiority to the male,.
as she sits silently and obediently as she is being talked down upon, and personal .
freedom violated. Shakespeare having living in a time period where women were .
thought to be demure, and fragile he demonstrates this belief in Act 1 Scene 2 "Frailty, .
thy name is women." (146) This showing Hamlet making a generalization that all women.
are weak and thus why he does not treat them with respect.
During the Elizabethan Era women were not allowed to have any personal .
freedom, and were the property of their fathers, who had the freedom to do whatever they.
