Throughout the novel women are constantly oppressed, Ophelia and Gertrude specifically.
In the majority of the speeches this idea is apparent, the women have no say, and are constantly manipulated. They are portrayed as an object, or tool, rather than an actual human being.
The oppression starts out fairly early in the novel when Polonious orders Ophelia to spy on Hamlet, regardless that he is the man she is in love with. Her father manipulates her so much that she begins to question whether or not the love they share is genuine. (that is just a start to what I will explain about the oppression of Ophelia) I will further show the oppression by breaking down speeches to show how exactly the women are oppressed. for example- conversation on page 131 between Hamlet and Ophelia.
Gertrude is also mistreated tremendously, she has no problem believing that there wasn't any foul play when her husband was killed. Claudius manipulates her so much, that he is able to convince her to marry him. She married him only a few weeks after she lost her brother, which goes to show that women would do whatever men told them to do, without standing up for themselves. Women were so oppressed and brainwashed that she began to believe Claudius would provide her with happiness even though he killed her own BROTHER.
Overall I am going to show through the speeches in the novel that women are mistreated and presented in a poor way.
You may want to reference to the scene in which Ophelia has gone mad within the castle and talks about how Hamlet promised to marry her if she had sex with him. This shows that man doesn't stick to his word and that they are using women for their own selfish needs. But overall I believe you are off to a great start
ReplyDeleteAlso talk about the scene when Hamlet is talking to Ophelia during the play. You might also mention that both women died because of the man they loved, Gertrude drank Claudius's poison cup and Ophelia died because Hamlet killed her dad. You are off to a good start though.
ReplyDeleteI think you could talk about why Gertrude was mistreated. Because here you talk about her as a villain who did a lot of bad things, and so I think the question you need to ask is does the mysoginy come in the fact the people mistreat her or that she is just portrayed as a bad person? Because if you in fact agree that she did horrible things, then weren't the characters justified in their treatment? Just food for thought, but an excellent topic.
ReplyDeleteI like your thesis and I think that there is a lot that you can use from the book. I think that you could even mention how the new king treats Gertrude and how he kind of just uses her
ReplyDeleteGriffin,
ReplyDeleteThis seems a great approach to the play (it's not a "novel"), but as the comments above suggest, your readers will want to make sure that you anchor your analysis in the actual language of the play. So, the first thing you need to do is go back and consider the way these men--sons, lovers, fathers, brothers--speak to these two women in the play. Go back and review Polonius' speech to his daughter (after Laertes has left), Hamlet's words to her in the hall (once he suspects he's being listened in on?), Hamlet's tirade against his mother (after he's just slain Polonius (he doesn't even consider what effect this might have on his lover). And, of course, Ophelia's songs (as mentioned in the comments above) will probably be useful to you in explaining how, indeed, this mistreatment by the men in her life has driven her mad.