Hamlets negative perception of women in Shakespeares epic Hamlet - Essay Example

? 12 December Hamlet’s negative perception of women in Shakespeare’s epic “Hamlet The role of women in Shakespearean plays has been frenetically researched by literary critics. It is generally assumed that there is male dominance in every play which effectively leads to marginalization of female characters. Leaving vulnerable roles for women and giving them no personal agency are the kinds of things for which Shakespeare has attracted much criticism over the years. Hamlet is the name of one such Shakespearean tragedy which clearly is a critically acclaimed success, but keeping in pattern with its predecessors, female characters in this play also are inferior to their male counterparts. Strangely enough, women are often introduced and portrayed as antagonists to the leading hero of the play who have either done something wrong to infuriate the male hero or are just simply misinterpreted and treated negatively. In Hamlet too, both leading female characters, Gertrude and Opehlia, are portrayed in a negative light. Both are singularly vulnerable compared to other main male characters and have no personal agency. It is suggested that Ophelia contributes to Hamlet’s anguish by betraying him on her father’s insistence, but actually Hamlet proves to be the source of her pain. The hotheaded aggressive hero of the tragedy causes Ophelia more emotional distress than she could ever cause to him and also contributes to her tragic demise. The purpose of this essay is to augment this argument that Hamlet has very negative attitudes towards women because he perceives them in a markedly flawed manner. The following discussion will explore and prove this argument in special reference to one female character, Ophelia. Prince Hamlet’s anger is made emphatic by the succession of Claudius to the throne whom he believes to be the murderer of his real father. To cap the matters, Gertrude also marries Claudius. However, irony is that she is not aware of the fact that the man she is marrying is the murderer of her husband. But, Hamlet still blames her vehemently believing he is betrayed by his mother. His personal ideology and belief about women is quite degrading and insulting, but he does not acknowledge this great weakness in his personality. According to Freud’s psychoanalytic perspective on personality, myriad experiences of youth or early family life have huge repercussions and play a momentous role in structuring a road-map for the future. Freud’s biological mother was quite beautiful and when once, he inadvertently saw her naked, everlasting impression of attraction and love was casted on his mind. His positive impression of women and the way he acknowledges their beauty and intelligence in his work stems from that early experience (Friedman and Schustack 70). In the same way, the bitter experience Hamlet shared with his mother in the form of her agreeing to marry Claudius cultivates this everlasting belief in his heart that all women are traitorous creatures who are not to be loved, appreciated, and believed. This belief structures a roadmap for his future life too which is evident in the way he goes on to treat Ophelia, another important woman in his life. Hamlet’s rancorous relationship with his mother develops emotional deficits in him. This is because the kind of attachment he has with Gertrude as a son affects him deeply and shapes his behaviors. He clearly does not share healthy cumulative experiences with Gertrude, due to which he ends up developing a warped sense of attachment and psychological connectedness with Ophelia. Gertrude is not to be blamed here, of course, for negatively influencing her son. This is Hamlet’s innate disposition to perceive things negatively taking them for what they are not in reality. This is why his relationship with Ophelia is so affectionless. A long journey consisting of many manipulative schemes is undertaken by Hamlet to reach his objectives and seek revenge on his enemies. One of those schemes is faking madness. To execute this scheme and make it successful, Ophelia is uses by Hamlet as a pawn. This identifies Hamlet’s negative attitudes towards women due to which he develops a tendency to objectify women refusing them to treat as humans. He perceives Ophelia as a mere object with no emotions and therefore uses her to his advantage. Real love would never have allowed him to take advantage of her in the way he does in the play. But, Hamlet has a warped perception of women and seems them all in the same light. It is truly claimed by Wright that Ophelia is used as a pawn in Hamlet “in many ways” (41).The dramatic irony is that while the audience knows that Hamlet’s madness is a charade and nothing pathological, Ophelia is totally oblivious to this. She is introduced in the play as Hamlet’s love interest. Now in the Elizabethan period, in which Hamlet was published, a woman rarely got to enjoy any sense of autonomy or independence and had to play submissively to either her husband or her father. As Ophelia is unmarried, she is expected to listen to what Polonius, her father, tells her. So, her only fault is that she agrees on carrying on a conversation with Hamlet with Polonius hiding in the shadows. Letting her father eavesdrop on the conversation for once does not lessen the love she has for Hamlet. However, Hamlet in accordance with the negative attitudes he has for all women berates Ophelia ferociously both before discovering Polonius’s presence and after killing him on impulse. Actually, he lives by a firm belief that all women are deranged and of weak character. So when Hamlet says, “I did love you once” (III.i.114), it suggests that Ophelia due to her conniving attitude has lost Hamlet’s respect for herself. So, he suggests that if Ophelia should blame anything for her love loss, she should blame her own manipulative and despicable nature. Hamlet’s view of women is that they are all the same and inferior to men due to their despicable qualities. He is already anguished over self-assumed Gertrude’s betrayal and projects his anguish out on Ophelia by telling her that she is not to be trusted as well. develops a firm belief that women in deed are manipulative and hateful creatures who should never be trusted. That is why when he says, “marry a fool; for / wise men know well enough what monsters you make / of them” (III.i.138-40), he suggests that wise men will never marry her knowing how untrustworthy she is. He maintains that she would only get a fool to marry after losing Hamlet because wise men will know of her tendency to turn men into monsters. It is perceived by Hamlet that Ophelia has inflicted a negative impact on him when actually, reality is the opposite. He rebukes Ophelia unreasonably because he is irrational calling her a “breeder of sinners” (III.i.121-22). He also repeatedly curses her as a degraded woman who should be sent to a brothel. This particular word “nunnery” (III.i.129; 137; 140; 149) which is used many times by Hamlet in his dialogue, translates into a brothel. This shows how degradingly Hamlet perceives and treats women. Despite the fact that she loves her, Hamlet refuses to acknowledge this which makes him a very negative person who has a badly suppressed sense of perception. He prefers to lash out on Ophelia because he knows he can control her, dominate her, and scare her being a man in position. That is why without any hesitation he tells her again and again to get herself to a brothel. Clearly in Hamlet’s world, Ophelia plays a role like all other women of making his distress more powerful and overwhelming. Actually, Ophelia has no agency and like a typical woman of her period, she silently takes Hamlet’s abuse because he is a man. She does not react by hurling all insults back in his face, but only expresses her bewilderment at his behavior near the end of the scene. The contempt Hamlet has for women climaxes with this dialogue, “you jig, you amble, and you lisp” (III.i.144) through which he expresses that he is abominably sick of all women like Ophelia who change constantly and are not trustworthy. In reality, his own opinion about women is very twisted and has little to do with facts. He makes up his mind to always think low of women no matter what after his mother marries Claudius. That bitter experience changes him as a person forever. That change allows him the freedom to question Ophelia’s character, but prevents him from remembering that he has himself used her in the past like a pawn to convey the message of his madness to others. Through this dialogue he suggests that the kind of influence exerted by Ophelia on him has turned him into a monster, but the fact is that he is quite irrational and makes poor decisions. It is due to his irrationality, poor decision-making, and a suppressed sense of self-actualization that thinking low of women, he decides to cut out both Gertrude and Ophelia from his life and seek revenge only. Ophelia is actually innocent. Given the state of her situation, if she is forced to help Polonius spy on Hamlet, it does not make her despicable and worthless as assumed by Hamlet. First, he keeps pushing his mother away causing her grief. Then, he cuts all ties with Ophelia and kills her father right in front of her leaving her shell-shocked beyond recovery. After using her to reach his goals, he pushes her into a state of insensibility by killing Polonius and showing no remorse. In conclusion, the above discussion lends stability to this argument that Hamlet believes all women to be hopelessly flawed creatures because his own sense of perception is flawed. His bitter experiences of life tell him not to trust anyone, particularly women, so he treats Ophelia in a very objectionable manner. He views all women as the source of male frustration. Ophelia is a weak character in the play which has no power herself and Hamlet is man of high social standing which lends him power to treat women inferiorly. She is forced by Polonius to help him spy on Hamlet in the same way she is used by Hamlet before to promote his madness charade. The fact is that Hamlet has never loved Ophelia because of his intimacy deficit and inability to emotionally attach with a person, particularly a woman. He assumes that Ophelia has disappointed her, but in reality he himself has a habit of seeing all women as cruel, dishonest, and unfaithful creatures. Due to such negative views, he ends up losing Ophelia to madness. Works cited: Friedman, Howard S., and Schustack, Miriam W. Personality: Classic Theories and Modern Research. 4th ed. Allyn & Bacon, Inc., 2009. Print. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Classic Books Company, 2001. Print. Wright, Courtni C. The Women of Shakespeare’s Plays: Analysis of the Role of the Women in Selected Plays with Plot Synopses and Selected One Act Plays. University Press of America, 1993. Print. Read More