the character of Ophelia and Gertrude in the play hamlet as a feminist thinker

1. PAPER NO. 1
THE RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
UNIT- 1
HAMLET BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
TOPIC- THE CHARACTER OF OPHELIA AND
GERTRUDE AND FEMINIST APPROACH

2. Feminist approach
• It is very strong approach and it attacks
other approaches for their false
assumption about women
• Marginalization of women in a
patriarchal culture( a culture organized
in favor of men)
• Literature is politics- its politics is
male(Judith Fetterley)

3. Main feminists and their work
• Kate millet- ‘sexual politics’
• Simone de, Beauvoir- ‘the second sex’
• Betty Friedan- ‘the feminine mystique’

4. Elaine Showalter
Three phases of
modern
women’s
literary
development
•

5. The feminine phase(1840-1880)
The feminist phase(1880-1920)
The female phase(1920-present)

6. The
feminine
phase-
during
which
women
writers
imitated the
dominant
male
tradition
The feminist
phase-
when
women
advocate for
their rights
The female
phase-
When
dependency
upon
opposition,
uncovering
misogyny in
male text is
replaced by
the
rediscovery
of women’s
text

7. MULTICULTURAL FEMINISM
• The most prominent of feminist minorities are
women of color(black) and lesbians
• Like lesbian feminists, black feminists argue
that they face additional layer of the
patriarchy that discourage their coming out.
• Gender is less determined by nature than it is
by culture.

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

9. Relation of Ophelia
Daughter of
Polonius
Sister of
Laertes
Potential
wife of
Prince
Hamlet

10. • Loves hamlet
• Hamlet left her heartbrokenLove
• Gone mad after father’s death
• Sing ‘mad’ and bawdy songs
Mental
instability
• Committed suicide
• Drown into the brookSuicide

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

12. Relation of Gertrude
Wife of king
Hamlet
Wife of
Claudius after
king Hamlet’s
death
Mother of
Prince
Hamlet

13. From feminist point of view
Ophelia is innocent, she is used
as a tool even if she did not
want, she has to go against
Hamlet as per the instructions of
her father and brother. Hamlet
speaks to her very roughly
without knowing her inner
condition and left her
heartbroken.
Hamlet killed Polonius, Gertrude
is very concerned about Hamlet
and intelligently she brings that
news to Claudius by saying that
hamlet weeps for what he done,
she did not directly blame
hamlet. On the other side
Hamlet dislikes her.

14. 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 and overhasty
marriage of his mother to his uncle so
threatens Hamlet’s ego that he finds himself
splintered, driven to action even as he resists
action with doubts and delays.

15. • Hamlet directs his fury towards his mother and to
a lesser degree, 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, whether she
actually had a hand in the elder hamlet’s murder
or not.
• His fear and hatred for women turns inwardly and
destroy him.

16. Meena- a story of girl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Dyn9O-LSRgE