Autumn Bell

Prof. Walker

ENG 333

30 April 2019

The Victimization of Women in Hamlet

In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, there are only two female characters,

Gertrude and Ophelia. Both of these women play very important roles as they are both close to

Hamlet and are of some value to the royal family, but they are victims of the harsh treatment

they endure by him and the other male characters. The patriarchy is very prevalent throughout

this play and both Gertrude and Ophelia are placed under restrictions by the males that, in the

end, result in their deaths.

Neither woman has as many lines as any of the males within the play and they are not

allowed to speak freely as they are normally hushed by the men or spoken over. Ophelia is

obedient to Polonius, her father and Laertes, her brother and cannot make any decisions of her

own. In conversation with them about her relationship with Hamlet and his affection towards her,

Polonius asks, “Do you believe his tenders, as you call them” (1.3.103). She answers, “I do not

know, my lord, what I should think.” 1 Before he questioned her, she felt certain Hamlet meant

what he was saying when they were alone, but she was persuaded to agree with her father as she

always does, and answered, “I shall obey, my lord” (1.3.136.). She is always verbally dominated

by her male peers and never able to speak her mind. This has conditioned her to be at war with

her thoughts, thinking one thing but not being able to act on it.

The restrictions set for her makes the audience perceive her as weak because she is not

able to speak as she wants. In his journal, Mesut Günenç says, “Ophelia has less powerful voices,
and we do not hear Ophelia” due to Hamlet, her brother and father. She learns to observe silently

because she’ll be treated like a child either way (Günenç 165-166). In her conversations, she is

very reserved. In a discussion between her and Hamlet, he begins to make sexual remarks

towards her, saying, “Lady, shall I lie in your lap?” (3.2.102) Then clarifies, “I mean my head

upon your lap” (3.2.104). Ophelia says yes, and he presses on asking “Do you think I meant

country matters” (3.2.106) or in modern terms - sex. Ophelia answers, “I think nothing, my lord”

(3.2.107). Ophelia has to be very careful in how she responds because she has to maintain her

virgin demeanor. She cannot damage her reputation, and she does not have her father or brother

there to step in for her. This exchange shows the power Hamlet has over Ophelia and their

conversation, similar to the power her family has over her body and what she does with it.

There is one moment early in the play where Ophelia brings the audience’s attention to

and defends herself against one of the double standards women have to face. Laertes advises her

to not have sex with Hamlet because his loyalty to the crown will always come first and it would

be shameful to lose her virginity out of wedlock. Ophelia responds by saying:

I shall the effect of this good lesson keep

As watchman to my heart. But, good my brother,

Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,

Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,

Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads

And recks not his own rede. (1.3.44-50)

She calls her brother out on being a hypocrite and doing the exact thing he’s advising her not to

do. He can get away with it though because as a man he has the freedom to do so. This is the one
part of the play where we see some of Ophelia’s personality break through. Her father enters,

not a moment too soon, Laertes says his goodbyes, and it is just Ophelia and her father. They

also speak of Hamlet and by the end of their dialogue, the spark we got from her before is gone.

It is locked away in our memory, and Polonius has the key.2

Ophelia is isolated from the other characters and begins to lose everyone she loves. All

three of the men she holds closest begin to disappear from her life through death and madness.

Without direction from these men, she no longer knows how to make decisions for herself and

ends up going mad. She blames herself for Hamlet’s madness (as well as her own later in the

play) saying, “And I of ladies, most deject and wretched/ That sucked honey of his music vows/

O woe is me” (3.1.155-160). Being that she is belittled over and over again, it is hard to blame

her for feeling the way she does; all she knows how to do is let the men in her life walk over her

and use her like a ragdoll for their own pleasure. Once she feels there is no use for her anymore

she lets her madness take her over.

It should be noted that only in madness does she break free from the societal rules

surrounding her and act freely. Everyone at court is aware of her madness and still treats her the

same, while also pitying her. It is not until she dies that anyone speaks positively about her. She

was a pure and virtuous woman, but she was always ruled over. The Ophelia spoken about

during the digging of her grave was not the woman everyone perceived her to be. Society never

allowed her the chance to grow into herself and have her own personality. The members of the

court are all speaking about an Ophelia that was shaped and molded by the patriarchy. Even in

death, she alone. For one, it is assumed she kills herself, isolated in the woods and the audience

never sees her funeral. Her death is commented on by those at court, but it quickly becomes a
selfish encounter between Hamlet and Laertes. Even in death, Ophelia is never the center of

anyone’s attention.

Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, is the other women in the play. She has more authority than

Ophelia being that she is the Queen, but Hamlet singles her out many times. At the beginning of

the play, we learn from the ghost of Hamlet’s father that he was killed by Claudius. The same

person his mother married only two months after his father’s death. This leaves Hamlet

suspicious of her, and he soon grows to hate her. He blames her just as much as Claudius for his

father death, even though she had no part in the murder. Hamlet and the ghost of his father can

be viewed as unreliable narrators because it is never actually confirmed if the ghost is his father

or if the ghost is even real. It is also never confirmed if Hamlet was always faking his madness,

or if it slowly consumed him making him actually insane by the end of the play. The ghost tells

Hamlet not to harm his mother as she was not to blame for his death, but Hamlet was already

angry with her. His disgust with her was made even more obvious after this encounter.

Although both treated poorly, Ophelia and Gertrude’s experiences were very different.

Not many people had authority over Gertrude like they did Ophelia but that didn’t stop Hamlet

from speaking hatefully towards her and about her. Ophelia was barely paid any attention, but

Gertrude was constantly targeted by Hamlet and regarded as an incestuous whore. Hamlet

remarked,” She married. O most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets”

(1.2.156-157). Although she had much to say, she stayed silent for most of the play. She could

not protect herself from the version of herself that Hamlet created out of malice and hostility.

The audience does not get to make an unbiased judgment about Gertrude before we learn

Hamlet’s feelings towards her. She is only spoken about spitefully by Hamlet, which is most of

what the audience has to judge her by. The other male characters are not always quick to defend
her from Hamlet either. Even though she is their queen, many of her “loyal subjects” are

unphased at the remarks made by Hamlet.

Hamlet is a firm believer in patriarchal ideology and it is painfully obvious when he is

dealing with his mother. He cannot accept that his mother is capable of such strong emotional

feelings towards Claudius and that she possesses the power to remarry (Günenç 168). Her

marriage to Claudius gets in the way of Hamlet’s claim to the throne and of all people, to the

man who killed his father. His disappointment only adds fuel to the fire. In her senior honors

thesis, Emily Graf explains why Hamlet was lashing out and said, “Gertrude's duty to Hamlet

was to be a passive custodian to his inheritance, to guard the family line until Hamlet could gain

the throne. However, by making the active choice to marry Claudius, she is abandoning her duty

to her son and replacing it with a duty to her husband and their potential new line of inheritance

together. Suddenly, Hamlet's anger towards his mother and his obsession with her sexuality

seems more practical and understandable” (Graf 28). While this may be true, it doesn’t excuse

how he treats her. It is also important to note how obsessed Hamlet is with his mother’s

sexuality. There are many obvious and understandable reasons why Hamlet is so disgusted with

his mother for marrying Claudius, but a son shouldn’t have any say or opinion on his mother’s

romantic life. This just further proves how much privilege men have in this play.

In the final act, during the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, Gertrude raises

her cup to Hamlet and “carouses to thy fortune” (5.2.284), then beckons to him saying, “Come,

let me wipe thy face” (5.2.290). She tends to her son as any mother would and in his last

moments, Hamlet gets the thing he wanted most, her affection and attention. This was only

moments after she drinks from the poisoned cup and she collapses soon after. Claudius says she

fainted from seeing the blood from the duel, but Gertrude responds by saying, “No, no! the drink,
the drink! -O my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poisoned” (5.2.312-313). At this

moment Hamlet is ready to avenge the traitor who killed her. It takes the entire play for their

relationship to evolve.

Both Ophelia and Gertrude fell victim to the patriarchy. Every action they made was

scrutinized by the men in the play. Although they were limited in what they could do or say, they

were both very impactful characters and without them, Hamlet would not be the same. Their

roles are not as strong as the males and they have limited speech throughout the play but both

characters should be viewed as independent. They are still significant even while been restricted

by societal norms.
 Notes

1. William Shakespeare, Hamlet, in The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 7th ed., ed.

David Bevington (New York: Pearson, 2014), 1.3.104. Future citations of Hamlet are to

this edition and will be noted parenthetically by act, scene and line numbers in the text.

2. This is in reference to the quote by Ophelia, “’Tis in my memory locked, And you

yourself shall keep the key of it” (1.3.86). It is an actual play on words from the quote in

the No Fear Shakespeare version of Hamlet which says, “It’s locked away in my

memory, and you’ve got the key.”

Graf, Emily (2013). Gertrude’s Role in Hamlet, Senior Honors Theses, Honors College, Eastern

Michigan University, Print. Hashim, Ruzy S. and Safaei, Mohammad (2012). “Gertrude’s

Transformations: Against Patriarchal Authority.” English Language and Literature

Studies; Vol. 2, No. 4: 83-90. Print.

Günenç, Mesut. “OPHELIA AND GERTRUDE: VICTIMIZED WOMEN IN HAMLET .” The

Journal of International Social Research, vol. 8, no. 41, Dec. 2015, pp. 164-

172. Www.sosyalarastirmalar.com, doi:10.17719/jisr.20154115007.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. The Complete Works of Shakespeare 7th ed. Ed. David

Bevington. New York: Pearson, 2014. Print.