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Feminist Lens Essay On Hamlet

1176 Words5 Pages

In the famous tragedy Hamlet by William Shakespeare a reader can clearly see the outlines of the feminist lens thought the female characters. By looking at the interactions of the female characters with the male characters a reader will be able to pick out all of the feminism examples. Both the mold breaking feminism and the conformist feminism. A reader can fully see how women were treated and how they acted during the 15 century thought Queen Gertrude and Ophelia. A reader can also see the few instances where they break out of that mold to instead think for themselves. Ophelia, the daughter to Polonius, holds the classic image of a women in the 15 century. Only ever breaking out of this mold when deciding to enter a relationship with Hamlet …show more content…

In this quote it goes on to tell a story about a young girl who is crossed with the choices of having sex with a man she loves, outside of marriage and becoming impure or not having sex and instead waiting for them to be wed. In the end this young women decides to have sex with the man she loves with the promise he will marry her still. The man breaks this promise whoever and the young women is left heartbroken and no longer pure. The passage Ophelia sings to the kings is eerily close to her own experiences with love. Minus becoming impure, Ophelia is left brokenhearted and distraught as Hamlet breaks his promises to her of marriage. This broken promise is also one of the stones that later drives her mad. So a reader may find it interesting that even in her state of madness she is able to communicate her heartbreak and touch down on topics most would never consider. While Ophelia does show some good examples of feminism, Queen Gertrude shows even more compelling evidence of feminist lens in the form of Gertrude holding the perfect image of a proper women. The reader can see the feminist lens in Gertrude through her love for her son and when she is always being overlooked by the men in her life. An excellent example of one such instance is when Hamlet confronts Gertrude in her closet. Gertrude can be seen confronting Hamlet about his rude nature towards King Claudius, Gertrudes second husband and Hamlet 's Uncle, but Hamlet ignores Gertrude and turns it around on

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