Hamlet Feminist Analysis

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In the play “Hamlet” by William Shakespeare, it demonstrates that by being constantly controlled by men, Ophelia is brought to insanity proving that repressing one’s true desires and feelings can lead to a worse outcome than expressing your authentic self. Men such as Polonius, Laertes, and Hamlet all were the reasons Ophelia was led to insanity. It soon became too extreme that she decided to take her life away,
All the male characters that Ophelia was affiliated with shows how feminism was represented in the play. Feminism is all things that are described as “prejudice against women.” (Bressler 180) This is often depicted as “the male by nature is superior, and the female inferior.” (180) Ideas such as these led to the numerous stereotypes …show more content…
The article describes the conversations she had with her father Polonius. Throughout the conversations, Ophelia made “quiet responses” (Finkelstein 7) towards her father. Ophelia’s father makes the rules and expects Ophelia to follow his commands. This showed one of the first introductions the article states of the ways behavior played a part in the problems of subjectivity Ophelia faces. Polonius being a loving father only wants the best for Ophelia. He never wants to see Ophelia get hurt which is why Polonius often controls Ophelia. This leads to the reason why Polonius was concerned for Ophelia of Hamlet. He believes that Ophelia needs to show more respect for herself and not fall for every word Hamlet offers. Ophelia has true strong feelings for Hamlet and truly believes in the vows he expresses towards her. As she explains the ways Hamlet backs up his feelings Polonius then says “do not believe his vows, for they are broken” (I.III.127) to signify a distrust in Hamlet. He becomes a very protective father and thinks the only way to help her is to listen to what he says. The greater power men had against her. Once again, Ophelia is left to listen to his command, “look to ‘t, I charge you.” (I.III.135) Sadly no matter where she thought the relationship going, she had to cut it off because her father didn’t approve. She was too innocent to disobey his command. She listened to her father and …show more content…
Ophelia’s brother, Laertes actually shows his thinking about Ophelia’s body. It begins with Laertes being against the relationship Hamlet and Ophelia has just like Polonius. Being that this is Ophelia’s brother he is watching over his sister in order for her not to get hurt. The reason for his concerns is he believes that she needs to “keep you in the rear of your affection, /Out of the shot and danger of desire” (I.III.34;35). Laertes believes that she needs to have control. Ophelia’s sexuality plays a role in subjectivity due to the challenges that were faced. Her body is viewed to be “erotic” (Finkelstein 14) especially to a male character. Finkelstein’s article describes the “female body as dangerous” (15) as it “[grants] sexual favors”(15). The article actually discusses how the female body actually “challenges to male authority” (14) and this is because of the idea of how controlling the female body is. Ophelia’s body becomes controlling because if she does not keep control she can easily fall into what lust can provide. As a young woman, it is easy for her to believe that what Hamlet and her have is love when really all it is, is lust. Laertes believes that this lust will make her open to her sexuality, especially with Hamlet. His goal is to get his sister as far away as she can from pre-marital sex. He is opposed to premarital sex because he believes it to be just like “The canker galls the
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