Despite the general opinion that “Hamlet” contains the weakest women in Shakespeare’s works, the unraveling of the main plot can only be attributed to them. The first case in which we see woman as the catalyst of the play is with Gertrude being one of the main motivations for Claudius murdering his brother. Once Hamlet died, Claudius and Gertrude quickly exchanged wedding vows, maintaining the stability of Denmark during the unexpected death of King Hamlet. Hamlet continuously alludes that he knows what Claudius has done, and seeks to make him feel remorseful for his actions. He achieves this goal through a reenactment of Hamlet’s death, and the exchange of everlasting love between ‘Hamlet’ and ‘Gertrude’, played by the actors at Elsinore.
We have already seen Hamlet express his thoughts about his mother and her marrying “My father’s brother, but no more like my father Than I to Hercules.” (1.2.154-55). His anger towards women is obvious and clear to us, and he even goes so far as to use the analogy “Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words” (2.2.597). I will argue that even in the context of Elizabethan England when women were seen as little more than property, Hamlet ascends such simple sexism expressed in those times to sculpt himself to the most misogynistic character in the entire play, from the loathing of his mother to his condescension of Ophelia. Hamlet’s misogyny may very well begin with his thoughts about his own mother. Early in the play we first see Hamlet as a young prince who has just lost his father.
Shaneeza Rooplall 4U01 December 10, 2012 Passage Analysis Act I Scene II – King speaks to court In this passage, Claudius the new king of Denmark speaks about the fallen king Hamlet whose tragic death has become a shock to the kingdom. Shakespeare go through many themes such as, corruption, power hungry and appearance vs. reality. Firstly, I would like to show how Corruption is shown in this quote. Claudius is putting aside the death of his brother to announce the marriage of him and his sister in law and future wife Gertrude. This is corrupting the mind of young Hamlet, which they think is making him go crazy.
Petruchio forces Katherina (Kate) to change from an abrasive, bad tempered, ill mouthed shrew into a perfect, docile, honey-tongued wife. Written between 1590 and 1594, it has claimed the title of one of Shakespeare's earliest Comedies and also one of his most controversial works. Particularly for modern audiences, Petruchio and his methods are what have earned this play its name as a highly misogynistic text. Via abuse, public humiliation and starvation he finally attains his goal of taming Katherina. Petruchio, a wealthy and unmarried gentlemen from Verona, wishes a wife.
It is a depiction of a noble, along with his wife, who brutally slaughters a King and his kinsman so that he may be the King (Shakespeare xiii). Even after killing the king though, Macbeth realizes that his dynasty will be short. So he tells people to murder his successors. My belief that Macbeth is an example of self-fulfilling prophecy stems from the early foreshadowing in the play. “By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis./ But how of Cawdor?
Why wouldst thou be a / breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but / yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better / my mother had not borne me” (III.i.121-124). In this quote, it is portrayed that Hamlet’s words are emotionally intense and that even if he is acting insane, there is a lot of truth to his current set of words. After his mother, Gertrude, married Claudius, Hamlet’s view on women
By saying these words to her he is crassly calling her a harlot, and making to appear that he never really loved her. Ophelia made one decision and that was to love Hamlet, and now he is using her actions to make her feel inferior and sinful. Up to this point in the play, Shakespeare depicted Hamlet as a mad man hell-bent on avenging his fathers suspect death, however: his cruel outburst at Ophelia is not a turning point in the story in which he goes from being a hero to being a cold-hearted oppressor. Hamlet tells Ophelia that she will have to ‘marry a fool’ because ‘wise men’ would know better than to marry her; he yells at her ‘get thee to a nunnery’, and yet the way it fits into the plot makes it seem almost expected. As the plot progresses Ophelia begins to lose her mind, resulting in her eventually suicide, but at no point his Hamlet called out for his harsh words against her in a significant way.
Perhaps Chaucer’s greatest tale in this masterpiece is “The Wife of Bath”. “The Wife of Bath” is about a woman’s desire to have free will over her husband and it explores the feminist’s struggle for equality. Throughout the prologue of “The Wife of Bath”, the narrator exclaims through the character dialogue that the only way a couple can achieve happiness is if the woman is in control. In one section of the prologue, the Wife of Bath explains how she won control over one of her husbands. She claims “When, by this master stroke, I had gained the upper hand, and he had said ‘My own true wife, do as you wish all your days; you guard your honor and my position’-after that day we never had any more arguments.” (Chaucer 168).
Shakespeare's use of literary techniques and content assist in portraying the presence of power in the text. The famous love bid scene is the extract of the play in which the tragedy begins to unfold. King Lear, instead of utilizing his power and authority responsibly, abuses it arrogantly and naively. Lear feels the need “to shake all cares and business from his age; conferring them on younger strengths." In saying this, Lear suggests he believes himself to be too old to run the roles and responsibilities of King and wants his daughters and son's in law to take charge instead.
The readers introduction to Hamlet and King Claudius occurs in Act I Scene ii where the King explains that he has married his sister in law with mixed feelings but he believes Hamlet’s mourning should seize, to which his nephew replies with disdain and offense. This sets the mood for the relationship between the two characters as well as set Hamlet up for his first soliloquy, seen in Act I Scene ii line 133 O, that is too too solid flesh would melt Thaw and resolve into dew! Or that the everlasting had not fix’d His canon ‘gainst self-slaughter! Oh God! God!