The representation of women in Shakespeare's Hamlet should be examined to determine the status of women in the seventeenth century. This is because plays often mirror the ideologies that were current when they were written.
Shakespeare condemns the frailty of women in Hamlet and sees it as a continuing thorn in man's side. The only two women in Hamlet are portrayed as weak and foolish victims of bigotry and sexual repression who are dependant on the male characters surrounding them. .
This essay aims to analyse the five main characters, Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Gertrude and Polonius, and examine how they interact, using a Feminist Reading. .
Each character's individual traits, their personality, in particular, their sexual identity and relationships with others takes the majority of the storyline.
Hamlets traits could best be described by what he is not; he is not the king, nor is he a loyal subject. He plays many roles throughout the play, alienated outsider, potential suicide, angry son, avenger and self-critic. The only constant feature of this turbulence is Hamlets sexual identity. Hamlet loves and hates both women close to him. .
He is a severely puritanical fanatic in regards to love and lovemaking. He reacts more against what he views as lust driving the relationship between his mother and Claudius than his father's death. He suffers from an Oedipus complex, and hates his mother for her abandonment of him. This confusion prevents his from having a loving relationship with anyone else. .
Hamlet: "She married. Oh most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets. It is not, nor it cannot come to good." (I, II, 156 - 157).
Hamlet expresses his disgust at Gertrude's sexuality. He pleads with his mother to abstain from her "sinful" relationship with Claudius and to assume a virtuous habit.
Hamlet: "Go not to my uncle's bed; assume a virtue if you have it not Refrain tonight, and that shall lend a kind of easiness to the next abstinence.
