Ministry of Higher education and Scientific

Research
University of Karbala
College of Education for Humanities
English Department
Evening Study

Female Characters in Play ''Hamlet''

Prepared by

‫صباح جاسم عبيد‬

‫اللغه االنكليزيه‬
‫الثالثة المرحلة‬
D ;‫الشعبة‬
‫بإشراف الدكتور‬
‫ضياء نايل‬
Female characters in Hamlet

The female characters in this play have less important

roles, but also we cannot say that their part
in this tragedy is not significant in some way.

One of the two main female characters in this tragedy is

Ophelia, who is represented as a woman who is controlled
by others, especially by men. She is used by her father
and brother. Similarly to Ophelia, Hamlet's mother
Gertrude plays not so important role in the play. Hamlet
constantly criticizes her relationship with his uncle.
Gertrude is portrayed as a woman who is very shallow.
She is totally opposite to Hamlet.

Ophelia is a young woman of Denmark, the daughter of

Polonius, sister of
Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet. She is in love
with Hamlet. But, her father and her brother advise her to
stay away from him. This shows how men in her
life are trying to use her and her feelings. She does
everything what her father and brother ask her to do. They
think that Ophelia's love towards Hamlet will diminish
family's honour.. So, they tell her to forget about Hamlet in
order not to destroy the respect of their family. Although
she loves Hamlet, because of the duty to her father and
brother, Ophelia negates her feelings and does whatever
those important male figures in her life wish.
Ophelia is, as mentioned, also used by Hamlet. He
abuses Ophelia's love to him and tries to manipulate her
to defend himself. Hamlet uses their relationship to draw
attention away from his real purpose of killing his uncle.
Again, he is only trying to hide the real reasons because
of which he wants to take the revenge on his father's
murderer
.When analyzing these relations between Ophelia, her
family and Hamlet, we see that
Ophelia constantly feels like trapped. Her feelings contrast
with the wishes of bother family and Hamlet. All of them
want that Ophelia breaks her relationship to Hamlet. But
her heart acts differently. At the end, because of her
obedience towards her father and brother on one hand,
and her love towards Hamlet on the other, she
goes crazy. She becomes unable to cope with those
contradictions. Ophelia, as many Shakespeare's female
characters, seems to have the same tragic element
attached to her – early unnatural death. She kills herself
finding no place in the situation.

The second most important female character in Hamlet, is

Gertrude. She is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark.
Throughout the play, Hamlet is continually accusing her of
remarrying her husband's brother so quickly after the
King's death. According to Hamlet, she scarcely mourned
her husband's death before marrying Claudius. Hamlet is
angry because his mother betrayed her deceased
husband Gertrude is portrayed as a very shallow
character. The readers do not know many
facts about her. It is unknown whether she married
Claudius because of insecurity or
some other reasons. She accepts everything without
much thinking. Somehow like
Ophelia, Gertrude is contracted by the influence different
men have on her actions. It is obvious that her son Hamlet
is disappointed in her actions. But Gertrude does nothing
to change it. Also, as a character, Gertrude
seems to be completely opposite to Hamlet. Unlike his
mother, Hamlet thinks a lot, and
contemplates about his life and many other things. Except
Hamlet, Claudius also has some expectations of Gertrude.
He wants that she stay loyal to him. Just like Ophelia,
Gertrude finds herself in the trap because different men
expect different things of her. So, the both of the main
female characters in Hamlet had come under the
influence of more
powerful male characters. Gertrude's role has also a tragic
end. She drinks a poison
intended for Hamlet and dies. Her last words are: "No, no,
the drink – O my dear Hamlet,-- The drink, the drink! I am
poison's." . In Hamlet, Shakespeare
wanted to present things differently. Here he chooses to
portray women more realistically. In the time this play was
written it was common for women to be used as pawns
and
marionettes by their fathers, brothers, husbands, lovers. In
Hamlet, both Ophelia and Gertrude are represented as
any other women of that time. William Shakespeare made
them typical female characters of an era. In
Shakespeare's time it was normal that men have total
control over women's lives. Women had to obey the rules
applied by the men. In the same way, both women
characters in this play became inferior to men.

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare's most famous and played

tragedies. Except the protagonist Hamlet, who represents
the tragic hero mostly discussed about, by realistically
portraying Ophelia and Gertrude as typical representatives
of Elizabethan
time, the author makes it able to relate the audience to
those characters.
. All in all, it is clear that they stand for the epitomes of the
women who are inferior to men.