Essay on "Gender Disparities in Hamlet"

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Identifying Differences

Hamlet's first description of his mother Gertrude is one of disgust: he is angry that she has so quickly forgotten his noble father and wed the ignoble Claudius. "Woman thy name is frailty!" he asserts in a moment of prophecy later fulfilled by the frail Ophelia's mental collapse under the strain of losing both a lover and a father. Hamlet, on the other hand, who loses both a father and a lover, does not collapse as entirely as Ophelia does. He does sink to a point at which he knows not what he is about: when he slays Polonious he has become so frenzied that he cannot even say who it is he is killed nor what he has done; Gertrude cries, "What have you done?" And he responds, "Nay, I know not." The shock of being confronted with his rash actions, after a seeming lifetime of meditation, contemplation, brooding, and consideration, compels Hamlet to the ultimate crisis point: either stay a course to madness and death (which waits him in England) or confront himself, assume responsibility (for both his actions and the execution of justice at Elsinore), and resolve the conflict. He ultimately chooses the latter, thanks both to serendipity (the pirate attack at sea is truly fortuitous) and the example of masculine resolve (as shown by Fortinbras and his march to war).

Moreover, Hamlet has a confidant in the form of Horatio, whose virtue and goodness is unparalleled in Elsinore. Neither Ophelia nor Gertrude has any such confidant. Laertes does not suffice as one for Ophelia because he merely parrots his father's speech, insisting on prejudicial platitudes and pat observations that take no care to reflect the reality of the situation. Ophelia does love Hamlet, but her love is discouraged by Laertes, who suspects all young men of being unfaithful, and chastised by Polonius who all but obliges Ophelia to deny Hamlet's suit and his affections. This advice is against Ophelia's nature: she believes Hamlet to be true and has been given no reason by him to suspect that his courtship is feigned. Yet, out of a sense of duty and obedience to her father, she rejects Hamlet -- much to his and her own misfortune. Made to love (Sheen 125), she is denied her natural outlet and instead unwittingly assists in the "overthrow" of Hamlet's mind by supporting his suspicion that all women are untrue.

The Woman's Nature

Gabrielle Dane asserts that it is because of the men of Elsinore's misperception of Ophelia's true nature as a woman that they cannot fully relate to her needs or wants: "Ophelia is angel to Laertes, she is asset to Polonius, a commodity to be disposed of, ideally at the greatest profit to himself" (406), and it might as well be added that she is life-support to Hamlet, albeit stripped away from him at the time he needs it most, when he is troubled by his vision of the ghost. In other words, the men of Elsinore see her as a "thing" to be enjoyed rather than as a young woman who is also in need of sympathy and salvation. Laertes wants her to be a pure angel, which is why he discourages an earthly relationship with another young man; Polonius wants her to be a pawn and an infant, which allows him to neglect her very adult yearnings for companionship and love, and so that he might also use her position to spy on Hamlet; and Hamlet wants her to be his salvation after his spirit and faith are rattled by the appearance of the ghost. Dane rightly observes that after Hamlet orders her to a nunnery so that she might avoid breeding sinners, "no line exists to suggest that either [Claudius or Polonius] moves to comfort or to help Ophelia from the site" (Dane 406).

It may be argued that Ophelia's sense of obedience is false, since she obeys Polonius despite the unfairness of his command. This argument, however, is not wholly sustainable, for it cannot be certain that Ophelia knew or realized the danger of what she was doing by rejecting Hamlet at such a perilous point in his own mental state. Once she realizes what has happened, she crumples to the floor, where she is ignored by her father and the King, who have used her only as a means of gauging Hamlet. Gertrude, who ought to be a source of feminine comfort to Ophelia is too wrapped up in her love for Claudius that she fails to see the ramifications of Ophelia's plight until it is too late. Indeed, after Ophelia's drowning, Gertrude gives a heart-rending account of Ophelia's death that shows exactly how aware the queen has become: Ophelia's death, in a sense, recalls Gertrude to herself and gives her an air of self-possession that she retains until her death at the end of the play.

Gertrude's self-absorption prior to Ophelia's drowning may be seen as the effect of her somewhat appetite-driven love, which Hamlet identifies early in the play: "Why, she would hang on him [King Hamlet] / as if increase of appetite had grown / by what it fed on" (1.2.147-149). Her love, Hamlet suggests, is immoderate, intemperate, unrestrained and sensual. It is not surprising, therefore, to find that Gertrude has attached herself so completely to her new husband King Claudius. Unable to see or care for anything but the man to whom she is wed, she has no eyes for the only other female at Elsinore. Moreover, she is not jolted out of her vacuous attachment until the only other female is drowned. It is then that Gertrude speaks with eloquence and force: her narration of the circumstances of Ophelia's death to her brother Laertes is one of the most touching and sorrowful moments in the play.

In this moment, Gertrude speaks with such truthful simplicity that it seems she sees Ophelia as though for the first time -- a girl brought low by sadness and dejection under the weight of an overwhelming environment that did nothing but pull her down. The imagery is full of the notion of what might have been: a marriage to Hamlet, Ophelia made princess of Denmark, all lost because an "envious sliver broke" -- a reference perhaps to the source of trouble, Claudius' envy and murder of King Hamlet. Thus, Gertrude seems to intuit a complete chain reaction of events that has so far culminated in the death of the innocent Ophelia.

Moreover, Gertrude's speech is completely sympathetic for the first time and bears repeating for its symbolic representation of the tragic course of events: "There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds / Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke, / When down her weedy trophies and herself / Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide, / and mermaid-like awhile they bore her up, / Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds, / as one incapable of her own distress / or like a creature native and endued / Unto that element" (4.7.196-205). Gertrude finally recognizes Ophelia as one who has been helpless, "incapable" of maintaining her sense of self amidst the unbridled masculine and manipulative forces at work at Elsinore. She likens Ophelia to a creature who is so "native" to her surroundings (the feminine-eradicated walls of Elsinore) that it seems… READ MORE