FEMINIST CRITICISM AND HAMLET Theories:

a) French feminists: focused their attention on language. They have said that the structure of
language priviledges masculinity by associating them with things and values more appreciated by the
(masculine-dominated) culture. Women have to represent themselves as men imagine them or they
become ‘the invisible and unheard sex’. b) American feminists: didn’t philosophize about language
but they anylyzed literary texts. These critics examined women characters by showing how clearly
this tradition of systematic masculine dominance is included in the literary tradition. c) British
feminists: regard their own critical practice as more political than that of American feminists. In the
view of British feminists, the American opposition to male stereotypes that denigrate women has
often led to counterstereotypes of feminine virtue that ignore real differences of race, class, and
culture among women. INVESTIGATION OF OPHELIA: Elaine Showalter is the founder of feminist
criticism in the United States who developed the concept and practice of gynocriticism (gynocritics:
look for how women's writing is different from men's). Showalter wrote an essay called
‘Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism’ which is the
basis of our investigation. Ophelia’s Madness Ophelia’s behaviour and appearance are characteristic
of the malady the Elizabethans would have diagnosed as love-melancholy, or erotomania.
Throughout the 17th century, Ophelia’s madness, in contrast to Hamlet’s, was understood and,
therefore represented as a form of sexual melancholy. To the Victorian mind, Ophelia typified the
kind of mental breakdown women were believed to be prone to during the period of sexual
awakening. Ophelia even embodied madness to such an extent that mad women were expected to
look and behave like her in order to be considered truly mad. Ophelia’s relationship to Polonius and
Laertes Almost as soon as Laertes finishes lecturing Ophelia about her sexuality, her father, Polonius
gives Ophelia his advice about the matter as well. Here, Ophelia is terrified of her father, of her
lover, and of life itself". Polonius scoffs at Ophelia's suggestion that Hamlet's interest in her is
romantic, and instead warns her that she had better not make him the grandfather of a bastard
grandchild. Ophelia feels trapped by the men in her life Ophelia feels. Ophelia's feelings are
immediately negated by her brother and father, and worse, her father's interests seem to lie less
with his daughter's feelings but more with his own reputation. Significance of ‘nothing’ In the
Mouse-trap scene, Ophelia says ‘I think nothing’. Then he says ‘That’s a fair thought to lie between
maids’ legs. She says ‘What is, my lord’ and he answers ‘NOTHING’ (p.176). In Elizabethan slang,
‘nothing’ was a term for the female genitalia. To Hamlet then ‘nothing’ is what lies between maid’s
legs, which means women’s sexual organs. When Ophelia is mad, Gertrude says that ‘Her speech is
nothing’. Ophelia’s story becomes the Story of O – the zero. Susi Muhr, Susi Lackner Jacobethan
Revenge Tragedy