'Discuss Shakespeares Essay\r'

'The women of Shakespearean literature have been know to have a strong emotional complexity, where from each one of them find themselves subject to adversities based around the healthy men who influence them. From Lady Anne’s dramatic romantic confusion in Richard III, to Viola’s challenges in morality done fall out Twelfth Night, much(prenominal) a Shakespearean signature in line drawing women persists in small town; through Gertrude, a female monarch dealing with her question satisfactory actions and Ophelia, who struggles with the pressures of male authority.\r\nIt should rise as no surprise that although organism a sixteenth century converge, the exploration of female issues of tradition, misogyny, romance and mortality rate allows crossroads’s discourse of women to detect a passing signifi cannistert relevance in forthwith’s modern world. Elizabethan women held very teensy social rights and power, with strict roles in child air and h ousehold duties allowing them to have very little snap off tongue to even within their own lives.\r\nDespite distinctly cosmos set in Denmark, Shakespeare who was writing during this time, leng and soed this conventional roles to Ophelia and Gertrude. Ophelia in particular dis athleticss the role more than strongly, with critic David Leverenz noting â€Å"[Ophelia] has no choice but to scan ‘I shall obey, my lord”. In this example of Ophelia’s amenable nature, after her father, Polonius’ arrays her to not â€Å"give words or talk with Lord crossroads- (I. 3)”, the reader is able to enamor the customary relationship between a muliebrity and the male figures in her life.\r\nThough Gertrude does not give any particularly submissive dialogue, even she as Queen reinforces this relationship in her minimal saving in scenes for which she is not provided present, but concerned. It is outstanding for modern critics standardised Leverenz as well as critical womens liberationist readers to recognize that Ophelia and Gertrude are not necessarily weak and passive in ain book of facts, but kind of they are reflection of women (especially princely women) who were oppressed of empowering traits by the socially acceptable customs.\r\nReaders should instead appreciate this traditional manipulation of women, in not only allowing the men in positions of power to be focused on for the sake of theatrical sport and drama, but for as well as extensively juxtaposing with motifs of insanity, revenge, sin, and vehemence associated with the aright male leads; King Claudius, the Ghost of King settlement and Prince village. Though Shakespeare has been regarded as a feminist collectable to his relatively respectful treatments of women, the existence of this respect in Hamlet has been debated ever since the plays inception.\r\nAs previously stated, the traditional portrayal of obedient women cannot be taken out of context, however a s the play increases in intensity, as does it’s treatment of women. In his very runner soliloquy for which he reveals his anger towards his mother’s marriage to his uncle â€Å"two months” after his fathers’ end, Hamlet makes the impinging universal comment â€Å"Frailty thy come upon is woman (I. 2)”.\r\nIn an example of Shakespeare’s unparalleled literary craftsmanship, he supports this citation through their actions, how upon her husband’s death, Gertrude immediately marries his fellow and how after her relationship with Hamlet is doomed, Ophelia begins to go mad herself. The quote is as well infamously regarded as the establishment of the play’s theme of misogyny, the quote indicates how Gertrude’s traditionally â€Å"incestuous” marriage to her deep husbands brother has ruined his faith in women and recognise all together.\r\nIn an almost Freudian pattern, Ophelia then becomes victim to his misogyn y with Hamlet’s refusal to handle their relationship. much analytical readers would then go beyond this basic evaluation and then find come-at-able interpretations of Hamlet’s treatment, or as it seems, mistreatment of women. Those likable to Hamlet’s negative attitude to Ophelia would discern it as a defense mechanism, where between his sadness of his father and desire to please his father through revenge, he must then resort to such(prenominal) discrimination to avoid further pain.\r\nIn oppose to this sympathetic reception, quotes such as â€Å"Frailty thy name is woman” and â€Å"[tis brief, my lord].. as a woman’s love (III. 3)” may be seen as to defend fictional character and be the manifestation of Shakespeare’s own personal opinion, though evidence for this in his marriage with Anne Hathaway is not very strong. Through both interpretation, it is undeniable that so far in the play the women have yet to find themselves in a state of happiness. Another significant aspect of Hamlet’s treatment of women, is how the currently negative treatment is extended to how Shakespeare portrays their knowledgeableity.\r\nFor instance, after Ophelia is warned to not â€Å"lose your heart, or [her] chaste treasure open” by her brother Laertes, she gives her virginity to Hamlet. When Hamlet discards marriage, she says with in a particularly distress tone â€Å"Quoth she, before you tumbled me, /You promised me to wed. /So would I ha’ done, by yonder sun, /An thou hadst not come to my bed -(IV. 5)”. During Act 3, Scene 2 when the ‘mouse-trap’ play is taking place, Ophelia must also be subjected to Hamlet’s sexual innuendo’s such as â€Å"That’s a fair vox populi to lie between maids’ legs.\r\n” for which she cannot reply in order to remain as a respectable lady. Again, Shakespeare indicates other aspect of Elizabethan women, with how fe male sexuality was highly conservative and their virginity very strictly only being lost with marriage with those not doing so being suasion of as a disgrace. The reader’s sympathy for Ophelia is therefore increased substantially, where, who then later on tells her to â€Å"get the to the nunnery †(III. 1)” which shows her as an exploited figure.\r\nGertrude’s sexual behaviour, more specifically her decision to marry Claudius, has come under immense scrutiny not only by Hamlet who defeminised her by saying â€Å"A beast… would have mourned longer… â€Å", but also by critics viewing her as sinful and in blunt Elizabethan terms, a whore. Critic Rebecca smith commented on how this view is commonly translated to stage productions where she is â€Å" a good deal played as a sensual and abortive woman”. For a balanced view on Gertrude, it is imperative to note how she too is attempting to deal with her wo and there is a great possibilit y she is doing this for reasons of maintaining her families power.\r\nAs for being deceitful, Carolyn Heilbrun’s 1957 essay â€Å"Hamlet’s Mother” defends Gertrude, arguing that the text never hints that Gertrude knew of Claudius poisoning King Hamlet. . As Hamlet progresses towards its conclusion, instead of the female characters developments becoming positive, the plot continues to prove devastating for them. Ophelia, upon the death of Laertes and Polonius, as well as Hamlet’s mistreatment seems to drive herself into madness and her death by drowning. Although real saddening, the way in which Shakespeare presents her death reveals the beauty which has been overshadowed by tragedy.\r\nIn expected Shakespearean style, the poetic announcement disposed(p) by Gertrude uses bonny naturalistic tomography to testament to Ophelia’s femininity, with â€Å"When down her weedy trophies and herself/ fierce in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread cons iderable;/And, mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up: /Which time she cantillate snatches of old tunes;(IV. 7)”. From that point on she is referred to as â€Å"beautiful” and â€Å"sweet” by Hamlet and Gertrude respectively, further accentuation her graceful nature. To directly juxtapose with this, is the death of Gertrude, who poisoned by her son makes her last words with grace, â€Å"No, no, the drink, the drink!\r\n-O my ripe Hamlet! /The drink, the drink! I am poisoned. (V. 2)”. Her tasteful demise in the midst of the â€Å"blood” and violence could be seen as her admittedly nature also obscured by the play’s tragic events like Ophelia, where Shakespeare perhaps reveals the real personalities of the women upon their death. However Gertrude sympathetics, may make out that the murder and negative perception of Gertrude by Hamlet whose state of mind is generally perceived as mad and insane, calling her a â€Å"wretched queer” m ay in fact be wild because of this †therefore proving her relative innocence.\r\nShakespeare in both their developments and deaths, shows a treatment of women where through the violence of their deaths they still maintain a pleasant feminine quality that is given a focus that was previously absent in the play. No matter the perceptive of the reader on the play’s treatment of women, they should be able to appreciate Shakespeare’s realistic portrayal, where although he took seminal liberties in some circumstances, he gave true Elizabethan indications of female traditional roles and sexual attitudes on women.\r\nIt was through writing with conviction (not only through staying true to the context but in showing Ophelia’s and Gertrude’s emotion and complexity) that the play attains it’s billet of one of the best of his classics. The two women are thought to be superficial, but considering the devices such as tone, collocation and imagery as well as analysing their character intentions and behaviour it should be extremely apparent that this is not true and that they obviously do display depth.\r\nSecondly, I feel that in the question of whether Shakespeare was a feminist or even a misogynist that the coiffe cannot be found in Hamlet †where his treatment of women in Hamlet is actually neutral. The female characters were designed not for the reader to be focused on who they were, but for what they brought out in other characters. More specifically, Ophelia and Gertrude were therefore created to see how romance, affection and love can truly drive a man insane.\r\n'