Gertrude and Ophelia (Hamlet) Essay

In settlement, the women act the comminuted roles portraying their historical status at the time. Although Gertrude is the fairy of Denmark and Ophelia is the princes lovers, they tolerate no standing in the society and their voices ar never heard. Their actions and fates are greatly influenced by the mens decisions. in all their lives Ophelia and Gertrude are led by the mens motive they together make a weak picture of dependent women at Shakespeares time.Although Gertrude and Ophelia are not well developed through out the play, their actions, voice communication and influence on the play portray them as the obedient passive type of women. Gertrude is junctures mother, a queen who betrayed her save and got seduced by the princes uncle Claudius. She remarried with him and thereafter obeyed every order from Claudius. Gertrude is objectified by Claudius, as he said my crown, mine own intake and my Queen. To him the queen is unmatched of his possessions and not even listed as the first. This suggested Gertrude is used by Claudius to get to the throne. The hasty trade union only a few weeks after her husbands death shows her great dependence on men. Hamlets proclamation that he impart speak daggers to her, but use none beautify that he perceives her to be inferior, weak enough to yielding foul to his words. Over all told, Gertrude is the type of women that cannot survive without a mankind in her life, with such a weak somebody she betrays her own husband and son.Ophelia is different from Gertrude. She is innocent, and nave with no experience in life. She does love Hamlet with her pure heart, but she is also too submissive to her pascal Polonius and brother Laertes. As they claim Hamlet is dangerous, that Hamlets will is not his own and that she should care him, she does not try to oppose him, or unloosen Hamlets affections instead she tells Laertes that he shall persist the key of her memory. Polonius insults her and Hamlets love, responding t o her declaration that Hamlet has of late made tenders of his affection he cries gist? PoohDo you believe his tenders as you call them? to which Ophelia replies I do not k at present, my lord, what I should think.She gives all the other male influences in her life. Later in the play, after Hamlet killed Polonius and runs away, Laertes is in France, she has no one to turn to. She depends too much on those people, now without any support she turns tomadness and finally commits suicide. All her life Ophelia is led by others and has never determined anything but her death.Hamlet was written in a time when women were not even allowed to play themselves on stage, women were seen as inferior and women were owned by men. Ophelia and Gertrude have no real Autonomy, they are at the pity of Hamlet, Claudius, Rodrigo, and Laertes moods to define their moods, and when the men are in affair the women suffer, which is death in this case. They are a portraiture of what women in Shakespeares tim e were like, dependent on men and never could control their own fate. organize CitedShakespeare, William. Hamlet. Rpt. in Compact Literature Reading Reacting Writing. By Kirszner and Mandell. 6th ed. 2007.