Hamlet's Treatment Of Women In Hamlet Essay

Women make up approximately fifty percent of the world’s population. Despite this fact, in William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, the cast of over twenty characters consists of only two females: his mother, Queen Gertrude, and his lover, Ophelia. With the majority of the plot focused on Hamlet and the other male characters of the play, the readers are forced to rely on Hamlet’s ideas and treatment of women to gain a better understanding and perspective of the two female characters. However, Hamlet proves to be an unreliable source due to his biased opinion as seen through his presumption that women are weak based on his mother’s actions. Gertrude is portrayed as a villain in Hamlet’s eyes while Ophelia, a mere bystander, often faces the backlash of Hamlet’s judgement of Gertrude. The dark light Hamlet shines on Gertrude is reflected onto Ophelia. This brings enough darkness into her life to eventually diminish what little light was left inside of her. By analyzing Hamlet’s opinions about Gertrude’s hasty marriage, betrayal of the late King Hamlet, and sexual relationship with Claudius it becomes evident that these opinions develop into Hamlet’s limited understanding of women and the ultimate cause of Ophelia’s

This whole ceremony generates disapproval and disgust from Hamlet who is still grieving the recent death of his father. He finds that the wedding came too soon and he scornfully tells Horatio that they were able to use the leftover food from the funeral for the wedding. Hamlet’s negative feelings are clearly shown through his first soliloquy where Richard Levin, author of Gertrude's Elusive Libido and Shakespeare's Unreliable Narrators, states that, ”Hamlet's principal grievance in the first soliloquy is Gertrude's hasty remarriage, which he feels has made his life unbearable” (Levin 1). In this soliloquy, Hamlet