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Essay / Frailty Thy Name is Woman: The Feminist Critique of Shakespeare's Hamlet
Shakespeare's works had few women because women were not allowed to perform in London in the late 1500s and early 1600. Although there are restrictions on the interpretation of the female character by prohibiting the representation of women on stage in a play, Shakespeare's plays do not lack many strong-willed, intelligent and daring female characters. For example, Juliet Capulet appears as a shy and innocent girl at the beginning of the play, but until the end, she demonstrated a brave heart, willing to give up life for love. Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most successful plays, although Shakespeare was once famous for creating a strong female character. In Hamlet, the female characters Gertrude and Ophelia do not benefit from the quality treatment that the reader expects from Shakespeare's work. They act either as a theatrical balance for the male characters or as a sounding board for their beautiful speeches and actions. Readers will be able to comment on the lack of influence of the role of female characters in Hamlet. Are Gertrude and Ophelia actually objects of sexual objectification for the male characters in the play or is there something more to them. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayGertrude can be considered one of the minor and negative stereotypes of women shaped by the patriarchal values and society of the Shakespearean era. In the play, she plays many roles; she is the mother of Hamlet, queen of Denmark. Furthermore, her sensitive role as the widow of the Ghost (King Hamlet), but married to the new King Claudius who is her brother by the late husband, presented her in the play as an incestuous woman who only seeks affection. She is the root of the ambitious and hateful hamlet because of the loss of the father and the betrayed mother. Her hasty act of marriage to her brother-in-law Claudius, less than two months after her husband's death, is condemned by Hamlet as amounting to incest; “She got married. O wickedest speed, to post incestuous sheets with such dexterity! (Act I, II, 1404). This action of Gertrude seems unthinkable by today's standards. However, in the play, with the exception of Hamlet and the Ghost, the marriage between Claudius and Gertrude is not subject to any criticism from anyone in the play. Additionally, the public seems to accept this marriage as a normal event. However, Hamlet still uses his set of incestuous marriages to criticize Gertrude and project his anger and disappointment at her across the play. Through this action, Hamlet not only shows his sexist view towards women specifically for the mother's fidelity, but also insults her and causes a psychological struggle. However, this stubborn male point of view is enough to place Gertrude in a negative predisposition. Gertrude could also be seen as a voiceless and silenced character because Shakespeare does not allow her many lines in the play. She doesn't talk much, it depends on the male characters, Hamlet, Claudius and the Ghost, to describe and shape her behavior. The audience does not hear her voice enough and therefore cannot understand what she is thinking. She was described by Hamlet and the Ghost as lustful women, although she herself never gave the audience any signs of lust. His silence is perhaps seen as one of the many signs of weakness that Hamlet cannot ignore. This is why he despises his marriage and Hamlet is also the most ardent critic of him, when he spathis most famous notion of the fragility of women: “fragility, your name is woman!” (Act I, II, 1404). Shakespeare states that his silence is intended to show his weakness. Furthermore, in Hamlet's eyes, Gertrude is guilty and accused of causing the problems in Denmark. She is guilty of not properly weeping for King Hamlet as Hamlet himself wept; “O God, a beast that wants a discourse on reason, I cried longer – married to my uncle” (Act I, ii, 1404). Gertrude is characterized as a "stupid" who lacks the faculty of reason or common sense by marrying her brother-in-law shortly after her husband's death. According to Hamlet's subjective, Gertrude would have to mourn King Hamlet for at least six months, wear mourning clothes for two years, and not be able to participate in public for at least one year. Instead, she even asks Hamlet to "put aside his knightly color" (Act I, ii, 1402), to stop wearing black mourning clothes and "to have veiled eyelids no more for ever" ( Act I, ii, 1402), to stop wearing black mourning clothes. looking down. This seemingly meaningless conversation with Hamlet is a prelude to Gertrude being seen as a shallow and sinful woman, only wishing to maintain her exalted position. Eventually, Gertrude regains fairness in defending Hamlet when the veil covering the truth about the king's death is cut, so that she can wash away all her sins created by Hamlet's subjective vision. She gives her life for Hamlet, the same way Shakespeare always describes her as a calm woman but with decisive actions. Gertrude seemed to be a character with little influence in the play, but this was a misconception. She is the reason that drives Hamlet to frantically take revenge and she is also Hamlet's protector until the end. Shakespeare clearly uses Gertrude as a figure of the most important core values of a woman who never abandons her child. The patriarchal society of Western culture had powerful negative implications for women. In this way, women's freedom of expression was not taken into account by men. Unfortunately, men's respect for women was tied to the female body. It was therefore acceptable for the female body to be the "property" of the man and for domination over women to be a life goal for men during the Renaissance era. Hamlet's sexual conversation with Ophelia during the Mousetrap scene would have been acceptable to a Renaissance audience. Hamlet: Madam, shall I lie down on your lap? Ophelia: No, my lord. Hamlet: Do you think I meant that country matters? Ophelia: I don't think so, my lord.Hamlet: It's a good idea to lie down between the maids' legs. It seems to modern audiences that the “noble” prince is sharing a very inappropriate joke with Ophelia. In Elizabethan slang, "nothing" was a term for female genitalia. Thus, "nothing" is what lies between the legs of the handmaids, which represents the masculine visual system of representation and desire, the women's sexual organs, in the words of the French psychoanalyst Luce Irigaray, "represent the horror of have nothing to do with it.” When Ophelia is mad, Gertrude says that “her word is nothing”, only “unformed usage”. Ophelia's speech thus represents the fear of having nothing to say in public. Deprived of thought, sexuality, language, Ophelia's story becomes the empty circle or mystery of feminine difference, "the cipher of female sexuality to be deciphered by a feminist interpretation." Hamlet uses the power of words as a weapon and uses them against Ophelia. Overall, the direct impact on women of the play comes from.