Goodnight Sweet Ladies

Goodnight Sweet Ladies: Hamlets and his women

'Eve or the Virgin Mary: women were seen as either terribly flawed or as paragons of virtue. Since few real women approach perfection, they are seen as evil, especially vulnerable to the Devil and his wiles' (ise.uvic.ca)

Throughout Hamlet, Prince of Denmark it is obvious that Shakespeare has thrown the leading man (Hamlet) at the mercy of his female counterparts Gertrude and Ophelia. Not only is Hamlet manipulated and berated but is mindful of his weakness and vulnerability. Hamlets grasp of this concept along with his anger lead to his physical and emotional abuse of Ophelia and Gertrude. To better understand the reasons why Shakespeare has Hamlet interact so violently with his female counterparts, it is necessary to examine the time period the play was written. According to one resource 'It is believed that the play was first performed between 1600 and 1601. In the Elizabethan era there was a huge demand for new entertainment and the drama would have been produced immediately following the completion of the play. (www.william-shakespeare.info. pg. 1)

It is naive to assume that the time period directly influenced the play, the women involved were in fact royalty or of high status making them mostly unavailable to social injustice. Furthermore no hindsight is given to demonstrate Hamlets previous interaction with females in general, much less his mother or ex-lover. With little or nothing to go on, the audience/ reader is left in the dark as to his natural proceedings with Gertrude and Ophelia. As the play suggests Hamlets madness is brought on by his own disposition, his volition to seek revenge and the knowledge of his mothers treachery. These factors combined sour his previous relationships and influence his approaching malevolence.

Hamlet, it seems had always harbored ill feelings toward his mother, since no history is given to their relationship during Hamlet Sr. reign it is hard to establish whether their relationship was always as rocky as it is as the play opens. Shakespeare does little to mask the distinct feelings of betrayal that burn within Hamlet from the outset of the play. Linda Bamber goes to great lengths to explain the origins of Hamlets madness in her work Comic Women, Tragic Men. 'Of all of Shakespeare's tragedies, Hamlet is the one in which the sex nausea is most pervasive. The other heroes all have to be brought by the action of the play to that low moment when their pain is translated into misogyny; Hamlet compares his mother to a beast in his very first scene

O God, a beast that wants a discourse of reason

Would have mourned longer ...

O, most wicked speed to post

With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! (I.ii.50-1, 156-7)

And In the closet scene with Gertrude, Hamlet's loathing comes to its climate.

... Nay, but to live

In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed

Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love

Over the nasty sty.... (III.iv.92-95) (Linda Bamber. p.71)

As Carol Thomas Neely states 'Critics may call attention to the extraordinary power Gertrude has in Hamlet to attract, repel, influence, or obsess all the men in the play--not only Hamlet father, Hamlet son, and Claudius but also Polonius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.' (Neely, Pg.1) The reader may interpret Gertrude's obedience as weakness or instability but it becomes evident that she is the woman behind the man, the driving force behind both Claudius' hatred of Hamlet and Hamlets hatred of Claudius. This characteristic

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stereotype of women as "manipulative" or "premeditating" was one of great popularity at the time and Shakespeare uses it to great affect in his play. Neely explains further the silent and subtly cunning nature of Gertrude. 'Gertrude in Hamlet embodies exactly this appropriate obedience. "I shall obey you," she characteristically tells Claudius as she acquiesces in his plan to trap Hamlet (3.1.37). When, in the closet scene, Hamlet begins to give her orders, she becomes equally obedient to him: "What should I do?" she asks (3.4.181). But in spite of Gertrude's womanly and wifely silence, obedience, and passivity, her sexuality is threatening to both Hamlet and his father, who imagine it as violent, excessive, contaminated: "Nay, but to live / In the rank sweat of an enseamиd bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty" (3.4.92?95); "So lust, though to a radiant angel linked, / Will sate itself in a celestial bed / And prey on garbage" (1.5.55?57). The men's fantasies of a lascivious Gertrude grow out of their jealousy and possessiveness and justify their attempts to control her.' (Neely, p.2)

Yes, Gertrude does play a very powerful and cunning role in Hamlet but she is still less influential then the male characters. Like many women in Shakespeare's literature her influence extends to a certain point before she becomes ineffectivel. Many critics agree that if Claudius had been entirely accessible to his wife she would not have died. As a result of Claudius' mistake Hamlet is thrown into a rage and slays the disloyal dignitary before he himself falls victim to the poison. In James Bierman's lengthy research paper 'Frailty, thy name is woman' the true nature of Claudius and Gertrude's relationship is accounted for. Bierman explains what caused Gertrude's downfall and investigates a common misconception about Hamlet Sr. murder. ' What sabotages Gertrude's attempts to contain the conflict between Claudius and Hamlet is the fact that she is not entirely in the know. Claudius is not entirely forthcoming to Gertrude as a result of his deceit, whereas Hamlet is taciturn. The dramatic irony that increases the poignancy of her position has to do with the fact that we are continuously aware of covert actions against Hamlet that Claudius has kept from Gertrude: the intention to have the English execute Hamlet upon his arrival there, the baiting of Laertes' foil with poison, etc. It is, in fact, one of these covert actions (as usual kept from Gertrude) that causes her undoing. In effect, Gertrude does not know what

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