How Hamlet Presents Its Female Characters
Hamlet is said to be one of the most discussed works of literature in
the world. Shakespeare has generally
presented strong women in his plays; for example Lady Macbeth, Portia
and Rosaline. This may have been influenced by his personal life, as
his wife Ann Hathaway, was eight years his senior. However the women
in Hamlet have weaknesses, both Gertrude and Ophelia show compassion
and neither are ruthless in their attitudes and actions, however
ruthlessness is not always a strength in women. Hamlet is one of
Shakespeare’s most complicated characters, but ironically he sees no
complexity in the people around him especially the female characters
of this play. Hamlet’s complexity makes him a very interesting
character and this reflects upon the rest of the play, giving it
grounds to be one of the most discussed works of literature ever, this
also reflects in the way Shakespeare presents the other characters to
us.
Hamlet sees his mother, Gertrude, from the beginning of the play as no
more than an adulteress, but I believe that these views are a result
of jealousy of Claudius. In his first soliloquy he remarks more upon
his mother’s new marriage than the recent death of his father and I
think that it is not his father’s death which has affected him but the
remarriage of his mother to his uncle; “Would have mourn’d longer, -
married with mine uncle, My fathers brother.” In fact Hamlet spends
most of his time during this soliloquy talking of his mother’s
remarriage rather than his dead father. In contrast with Hamlet’s
view, Gertrude does not think that her remarriage has offended anyone
and she thinks that maybe it has affected Hamlet because the marriage
was rushed and too soon after his fathers death “His fathers death and
our o’erhasty marriage” Perhaps it has not and it is just Hamlet’s
attitude to his uncle but mainly to his suspected Oedipus complex as
thought by critic Ernest Jones, when Hamlet and his mother are talking
alone he says "O, throw away the worser part of it, and live the purer