portrayal of women

1. THE PORTRAYAL OF
WOMEN
Hamlet by William Shakespeare

2. Women in England during Shakespeare’s Time
◦ Had very limited rights: they were denied formal education and the chance to hold public office or other
professions such as law, medicine, etc.
◦ Childbearing was considered a great honour
◦ Common belief that women always needed someone to look after them
◦ No woman could vote
◦ Although denied a formal education
◦ many women of this time period were highly educated due to the use of private tutors
◦ Single women often accused of being witches/looked upon with suspicion
◦ Women were encouraged to write literature, mainly religious works.

3. Women in Shakespeare Time
◦ Women were considered the weaker sex and in need always
of being protected.
◦ Women belongs to their father and husbands.
◦ Women could not own property of their own.
◦ Females were not allowed on the stage
◦ In several of the plays the female characters were men
in disguise
◦ So the audience have seen a man pretending to be a women
◦ Married women were expected only to bear children
and to take care of them

4. Two female character in Hamlet
Gertrude
◦ Loyal to The king Claudius
◦ She Loved Hamlet
◦ Her life was surrounded by men who
dominate her
◦ Think about her body and external pleasure
Ophelia
◦ Sweet and Innocent
◦ Dependent on male
◦ Epitome of goodness

5. Ophelia’s character
◦ Her character is murky
◦ Torn between two contradictory poles
◦ The vessel of morality:-
◦ 1. Dutiful
◦ 2. Steadfast
◦ 3. Obedient

8. Gertrude’s character
◦ Shadowy character
◦ Dependent woman
◦ Concern for Hamlet
◦ Maternal
◦ protectiveness
◦ Innocent (unaware about the conspiracy)
◦ Concern for the plight of Ophelia

10. Hamlet and women
◦ Hamlet Is a play written from male point of view
◦ Hamlet is afflicted with the world’s famous
Oedipus complex.
◦ The death of his father
◦ overhasty marriage of his mother to his uncle
◦ Hamlet’s ego is threatened that he finds himself
splintered
◦ driven to action even as he resists
◦ action with doubts and delays

11. Hamlet and women
◦ Hamlet directs his fury towards his mother
◦ lesser towards his beloved Ophelia
◦ A feminist reading indicate a solution of Hamlet’s
delay in avenging his father’s death
◦ Hamlet’s speech signals his perhaps unconscious
thought that it is his mother’s fault for being an
object of competing male desires
◦ Role of hamlets' mother
◦ His fear and hatred for women turns inwardly
and destroy him

12. Conclusion
Women in the play are :
◦ Easily manipulated
◦ Weak women
◦ Object for men
◦ Dependent on men
◦ Only two Female character in Hamlet
◦ Both are dying for men