Act1 Reflective Blog Post

Women: How are women portrayed in Hamlet?

     Throughout Act 1 of Hamlet, there are only two scenes which give us an idea of how women are portrayed. In each of these cases the two women, Gertrude and Ophelia, are portrayed as weak and subject to the men.
     The first instance of this is in scene 2 when Gertrude marries Claudius just after her husbands death. In his soliloquy, Hamlet indicates the amount of time his father has been dead for: "But two months dead! nay, not so much, not two" (I.ii.138). He is emphasizing that his father has not even been dead for two months before his mother was manipulated into marrying Claudius. He further goes on to say, "So excellent a king; that was, to this,/Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother" (I.ii.139-140). Hamlet tells of how much his father loved his mother. Hamlet is trying to understand how his mother could move on so quickly even though Hamlet's father was so good to Gertrude. This proves how subject Gertrude is to Claudius.  
     In the following scene Ophelia is introduced. Just before Laertes, Ophelia's brother, leaves for France he takes a minute to caution Ophelia against an affair with Hamlet. Polonius, their father, overhears this and later tells Ophelia that she may no longer see Hamlet anymore: "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,/ Have you so slander any moment's leisure,/As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet" (I.iii.132-134). She replies, "I shall obey, my lord" (I.iii.136). Ophelia is weak, in that she cannot stand up to her father and express her true feelings to him.
     Although there are only two women in this play Shakespeare still portrays the weakness of women and how they are subject to men during this time period and throughout the play.

Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Toronto, Ontario: Harcourt Brace & Company Canada, Ltd., 1988.