Ophelia And The Elizabethan Period

What is the true power of a time period? That is the question. In the tragedy Hamlet written by William Shakespeare, the time period shaped everything – the being the Elizabethan era. The Elizabethan era was a time of abundance in the field of poetry and literature, which was the time when Hamlet was written and published. It was also an era of male dominance; all aspects of today’s society were molded by domineering male figures. Part of Hamlet revolved around a frail, timid, feminine figure named Ophelia and their relationship together. Elaine Showalter notes that Ophelia only appears in five out of the twenty scenes in the play, in which that itself reflects male dominance of the Elizabethan era; in other scenes she is merely added as a flashback (Showalter 221). Despite her relative absence in the majority of the play, however, Ophelia still gets attention from readers and play goers. But why? It is because of in her few scenes, the tragic circumstances she faces stands out more. Lee Edwards, also a renowned feminist critic, states that “we can imagine Hamlet’s story without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet” (221). Ophelia, who lived in a patriarchal society, struggled to express herself because in a patriarchal society, it is almost impossible to create a representation of femininity other than madness, incoherence, fluidity, or silence” (222). Ophelia being a frail woman, her choices in society were very much limited, thus making her unable to