rough draft- not been fixed yet-- hope it helps. from DJG
Hamlet could be interpreted of what happens to a world when it is completely dominated by men. While the women weren’t “completely” dominated by men, in my opinion, they certainly had challenging relationships with Hamlet, Claudius, Laertes and Polonius.
Hamlet was written by William Shakespeare in approximately 1601, during the Renaissance period. During that time young men attended school and learned about math and philosophy. Young women went to school to learn needlework and dancing. Although dancing was a very important class, it is an example of how men viewed women during that time. Generally a young girl had two options, to agree to an arranged marriage or join a convent to become a nun.
There are two main female characters in Hamlet. Gertrude is the Queen and Hamlet's mom. Ophelia is a girl who has a crush on Hamlet.
Both women were controlled by the men in the story, but Ophelia is definitely the weaker of the two.
Examples of male domination, or control is that Queen Gertrude accepted the fact that her husband, King Hamlet was murdered by her own brother-in-law, Claudius. Then she even gave in and married him. Hamlet, the son , ends up with a severe dislike of his mother , after she marries Claudius. Even though Hamlet’s feelings may be justified, generally sons don’t have repulsions or sharp criticisms for their mothers. Hamlet confronts Gertrude "As kill a king, and marry his brother?" (Shakespeare Act 3 scene 4).
Ophelia was controlled by Laertes, her brother concerning her relationship with Hamlet. He told her to not even expect to marry Hamlet because a prince can never marry for love. Princes of the day (even to some extent now) were expected to marry other nobility to carry on the family line. Even Ophelia’s father, Polonius was against Ophelia and Hamlet’s relationship because poor Hamlet was going mad, possibly over Ophelia’s flirtations. However, a counter argument to that is perhaps Hamlet was actually interested in Ophelia but had the inner conflict of knowing that he could not marry outside the nobility.
Some would argue that Gertrude possibly had more control over the situation than the men had over her. It’s possible that she ended up controlling Claudious. After her husband’s death, she may have been forced out of the castle and the life that she was accustomed to. But instead, she made sure that she kept the title of Queen by marrying her own brother –in-law. So she took control of her destiny by staying with her husband’s killer. Her son Hamlet didn’t like it, but by doing so, that’s even more proof that she wasn’t completely controlled by men. Hamlet was mean to Ophelia. He had given her some gifts and when she tried to return them, he denied even giving them to her. And then a famous line from the play, sums up easily how men felt about women’s choices of the day. Hamlet said to Ophelia "Get thee to a nunnery: Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" (Shakespeare Act 3 scene 1).
Following the form of a traditional tragedy, it ends in Tragedy. Both women die, and both because they were in some way dominated over men. Ophelia felt there was no other way to be happy, so she chose death and drowned herself. Gertrude was caught up in the violent last act and between poisoning and stabbing, even though she was not the intended target, she also tragically died.
