The Role of Femininity in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear

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The Role of Femininity in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear

Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear similarly experience an "unhooking" (Tompkins) in the eponymous plays. These tragic figures struggle with internal and external femininity: after realizing their emotions and labeling them feminine, they identify women as the source of this negative femininity. Their inability to deal with the female gender in any form destabilizes their masculinity, causing an unhooking/unlatching within them. The origin of Hamlet's psychological decay lies in his anger towards Gertrude and his inability to adjust to her marrying Claudius. From Hamlet's perspective, Gertrude giving herself to a new husband signifies her failure to honor his father and her abandonment of Hamlet; he is figuratively orphaned, and he resents his sole living parent. Additionally, Hamlet's emotional confidence has been significantly damaged: seeing his mother with another man substantiates the possibility that his future wife could leave him for another man and cause him serious pain. This realization compels Hamlet to mask his feelings for Ophelia with madness, a defense mechanism intended to conceal his vulnerability. Ophelia reports that he appeared "with his doublet all unbrac'd,/No hat upon his head, his stockins fouled,/Ungart'red, and down-gyved to his ankle" (2.1.75-7), but as Hamlet is well-aware of the dress code, he likely intended for his behavior to be viewed as unacceptable and thus mad.

Throughout the play, Hamlet has difficulty reacting to his feelings and the women who cause them. Because he wishes he could act instead of speculating, Hamlet curses his own femininity: "Fie upon't, foh!" (2.2.584-7). Secondly, his anger towards Ophelia is like...

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...ing his death; however, this occurs too late, as Goneril and Regan have left his fate to Edmund, convinced that their father has lost all reason. Similarly, Othello's unhooking is so complete that the only way Desdemona could have survived is if he kills himself first. In contrast, Hamlet could have lived, feeling the grief of Ophelia's death, had he not rejected his characteristic inaction, which he believed to be connected with his emotions and thus feminine.

Works Cited

Bradley, A.C. "King Lear." 20Lh Century Interpretations of King Lear. Ed. Jane Adelman. New Jersev; Prentice-Hall, 1978.

Neely, Carol. "Women and Men in Othello" Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Othello. Ed. Anthony G. Barthelemy Pub. Macmillan New York, NY 1994.

Shakespeare, William. King Lear. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. New York: HarperCollins, 1992.

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