Dhafinne Fonseca

Mr. Gallagher

English 12CP, Period 2

3 December 2009

Thy name is woman!

Hamlet’s view of women is most definitely influenced by his mother’s behavior after his

father’s death. All of his anger and thoughts about women are based on what his own mother has

done. I believe Hamlet is a male chauvinist, Shakespeare says that man think women are weak,

and that women can’t give in to temptation. Hamlet’s views of women are generalized by one

woman, Gertrude his mother.

In act 1, scene 5 Hamlet seeks his father’s ghost, in lines 58-64 shows that the reason

why Hamlet thinks the way he does is because his father thinks the same way. Ghost Hamlet

says:” upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine. But virtue, as it never will

be moved, through lewdness court it in a shape of heaven, so, lust, though to a radiant angel

linked, will sate itself in a celestial bed and prey on garbage.” Ghost Hamlet says that even

angels sleep with garbage, he means that no matter how beautiful or angelical a woman is at the

end of the day she will settle for anything. He says women have lust, women are weak. Hamlet

is obviously very disturbed and bothered by the fact that his mother married his uncle within a

month. These very specific lines spoken by ghost Hamlet highlight the way that Hamlet views
women; this shows that not only Hamlet that thinks this way his father thinks the same way as

well. In act 1 there are many parts at which Hamlet says things are absurd, things that are

excessively imagined about his mother.

In act 1 scene 2 in Hamlet’s first soliloquy lines 147- 164 he is extremely upset and he

says: “must I remember? Why, she (would) hang on him as if increased of appetite had grown by

what it fed on. And yet, within a month (let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman!)

….she followed my poor father’s body like Niobe, all tears- why she, (even she)….married with

my uncle, my father’s brother, but no more like my father than I to Hercules. Within a month ere

yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her galled eyes, she married. O,

most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestuous sheets! It is not, nor it cannot come

to good…” in this soliloquy Hamlet calls the marriage of his mother and his uncle “incestuous”

meaning a violation of the laws against intercourse between close kin. He is disgusted by the

thought of his mother and uncle together. Hamlet directs the insult ‘frailty thy name is women’ at

Gertrude, and in some ways this remark is justified. Hamlet is disillusioned with her because of

her hasty marriage to Claudius. He thinks it is incestuous and at times seems angrier about it then

his father’s murder. Hamlet seams repulsed by sex. By the word frailty he means moral

weakness, flaw, and a defect that all women do not have the liability to yield to temptation.

Hamlet only sees the incestuous behavior from Gertrude though and as for him, she represents

women in general, he is suspicious of all women. Hamlet says how sad she was after his father’s

death that “ she followed my poor father’s body like Niobe…” in Greek mythology Niobe was a

woman filled with grief at the lost of her children that she could not cease crying, she was

transformed into a stone from which water continually flowed. He makes this comparison to

Niobe to contrast the fact that she remarried not only to another man but to his uncle, his father’s
brother within a month of his death. He also adds that the salt from her tears had not even dried

form her face, and yet she remarried.

In act 1 scene 5 he promises to remember the Ghost, and only the Ghost, saying, "Yes, by

heaven!" But immediately afterwards he disobeys the Ghost's command to "taint not thy mind"

against his mother, and exclaims "O most pernicious woman!" lines 111-112 the thought of his

mother brings with it the thought of his step-father and Hamlet cries out "O villain, villain,

smiling, damned villain!". "One may smile . . . and be a villain." “O my prophetic soul!” he cries

(act 1 scene 5). The ghost exhorts Hamlet to seek revenge, telling him that Claudius has

corrupted Denmark and corrupted Gertrude, having taken her from the pure love of her first

marriage and seduced her in the foul lust of their incestuous union. But the ghost urges Hamlet

not to act against his mother in any way, telling him to “leave her to heaven” and to the pangs of

her own conscience. Gertrude's marriage to Claudius has shaken up Hamlet's world, leaving him

with a sense that the world is contaminated, like an "unweeded garden" that's "rank and gross in

nature" (act 1 scene.2). His disgust with Gertrude also seems to spread out to encompass all

women.

Shakespeare created the interesting character of Gertrude. Gertrude is wholly ignorant of

Claudius' successful plot against her first husband and equally oblivious of Hamlet's protectively

possessive feelings towards her. Hamlet’s characterization illuminates’ the theme because he

shows that its not only him that thinks this way, all the men in the story think the same way.

Though there has not been many line of Ophelia I can imagine that the way Hamlet thinks about

his mother that it will not be different about the way he thinks about Ophelia. Hamlet is a

character that has anger, and grief because his father has died and now that he knows that his

very uncle King Claudius killed his father the anger in him will continuously grow. Modern

legends suggest women look at a man's relationship with his mother to predict how they will
treat other women in their life. A characteristic of Hamlet's personality is to make broad,

sweeping generalizations and nowhere is this more evident than in his treatment toward women.

His characterization illuminates the theme because it proves that he is a male chauvinist, and is

repulsed by all women.