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Kurdstan Regional Government

Ministry of High Education and Scientific Research

University of Sulaimani

College of Languages

English Department

Graduation Research

Shakespeare’s Criticism of Women in Hamlet and Macbeth

Supervised by
Tayeb Abdulrahman Abduallah

Prepare by
Slemany Adil Mohammed
Bayad Mohammed Namiq

2019-2020
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Abstract

This paper explains Shakespeare’s view of female characters, compared to that of his

time period. And we have to know what women were and were not allowed to do and what was

the difference between men and women at that time, especially by Shakespeare. In this research

we are going to talk about two of his works in which women have been shown as less than men.

And throughout the research you will be familiar with Shakespeare criticism of women. At that

time women were not allowed to gain equal rights and they were not independent, but in most of

Shakespeare works, women have been treated as something weak, liar, manipulative and bring

evilness. These can be clearly see in his works for instance in (Hamlet and Macbeth) he shows

his view through his works.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare shows his view of female role through couple of characters

Ophelia and Gertrude. Shakespeare tells us through these two characters that how was the life of

women at that time and how they have been treated and behave, and he tells how Gertrude had

involved in murdering king Hamlet, and then we have Macbeth again we see how she provokes

her husband to kill the king and to gain the throne.

Key words: Hamlet, Macbeth, Ophelia, Gertrude.


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Introduction

In the history of English literature, William Shakespeare is known as the master of

renaissance and history of the world drama. This great writer Shakespeare was really better at the

picturing female character than the other play writers in that period. When he wrote Macbeth and

hamlet Shakespeare to be sure attempted His best to show the real life, but the time he lived in

there was a lit difference between genders. In the time when Shakespeare wrote female

acknowledged narrowly and Shakespeare was a masculine gender and that is why women in

Hamlet and Macbeth suffered so much, and women have been showed as one kind of slaves in

the history since they did not have any choice to do for their own sake. In the play Hamlet,

Gertrude and Ophelia are only two women characters in which the attitude of the dramatist

explores. Gertrude married Claudius (murder of king Hamlet) second time just after only two

months of king Hamlet’s death. even she is hated by her own son prince Hamlet, and Ophelia

another female character she controlled by his father and his brother. And also in Macbeth we

see how Lady Macbeth takes a huge role and she pushes Macbeth to kill King Duncan and the

representation of the witches is another example of showing women as a bad character, they

represent bad fate of Macbeth by giving him three prophecies. The study is a comprehensive

analysis on the tragedy of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth. The main hypothesis of the study

is that women in Hamlet and Macbeth are represented as less important and negative labels and it

has reinforced and toughened the patriarchy and patriarchal. (Sarkar)


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Shakespeare’s criticism of women in Hamlet and Macbeth

Weakness

In Shakespeare’s two plays, Hamlet and Macbeth, women are represented as weak

characters. Women in Hamlet are weak and morally suspected. The female characters depend on

men because they are weak and cannot stand by themselves. Gertrude depends on Claudius to

make her happy, and Ophelia cannot decide alone: she is doing whatever her father and brother

ask to her do, According to the time when William Shakespeare wrote his plays women had no

rights and their responsibilities were located at home: raising children and keeping the house.

These views were reflected in many documents complied by Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and

women were often showed as a metaphor for weakness. Another example of Shakespeare’s

unconventional attitude concerning women is found in his play “Macbeth” the representation of

the witches and on the other hand Lady Macbeth cunningly controls her husband into the murder

of King Duncan; she cannot do it by herself.

“Frailty thy name is women” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 2, lines 146): the origin of this quote

is from Hamlet. In reality he is remember his father memory. He mourns the death of his father

and changing nature of women, referring to his mother, Gertrude, as she married his uncle

Claudius. By saying this and using “women” he refers it to his mother, Gertrude. Here he means

that her mother as women she is morally weak, because she has betrayed her husband by this

hasty marriage with her brother-in-law, Claudius, just one month after the death of king Hamlet,

her first husband. (Shakespeare)


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The meaning of this quote is that he is saddened by the death of his father and the hasty

marriage of his mother. In Hamlet’s mind, women represent weakness, meaning women are

breakable, weak and delicate in nature. He alludes to inherent weakness in women’s character.

His mother, Gertrude, epitomizes frailty or weakness. Also Hamlet by calling women weak

human he means that his mother is emotionally, spiritually, morally and physically weak. By her

hasty marriage she is morally and emotionally weak. Morally weak because it was not for more

than two months since the death of her husband, she wanted to marry again with the one who is

the brother of her first husband. She is emotionally weak because she could not stand alone for a

long time; in a short period of time she wanted to remarry. Gertrude to be happy could not just be

herself, she depended on Claudius to make her happy. Gertrude is spiritually weak, because she

has committed a sin, and physically weaker than men. As the result of her weakness, she will die

in the end of the play. Her weakness in character led her to death.

The literal analysis of this quote that criticize women. As it is clear that Hamlet, grieving

for his deceased king Hamlet, denounces the swift remarriage of his mother. He thus calls

women kind weak and frail in character. He describes his mother as an archetypal woman

because Gertrude not only weakened her credibility by her second hasty marriage, but she also

failed pathetically to understand the reasons for her son’s prolonged mourning. That shows

Gertrude’s weakness. Therefore, Hamlet speaks his feelings loudly, denouncing the over hasty

marriage of his mother, degrading her for ignoring fresh memories of his father’s death. He was

angry by her marriage to a lecherous creature like Claudius, who was no comparison with a

celestial figure like his father. And it also can be a foreshadowing for Ophelia, who chooses to be

on her father’s side. (Pedram)


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Ophelia, who used to follow the decision of her two major men in her life, and not stand

up for herself. In the beginning of appearing Ophelia in the drama, we see that her father and her

brother advising and ordering her about her relationship with princess of Denmark Hamlet. They

tell her that how she should be and how shouldn’t be with him, and tell her that hamlet wants to

be with just for his desire not for true love. And it makes effect on her. After that when hamlet

visit Ophelia she says “as you did command, I did repel his letters and denied his access to me”

(Hamlet, Act 2, scene 2, lines 180-110) she did what her father told her, she rejected the love and

letters of Hamlet. Hamlet loved for sure, but suddenly, she rejected him. And even she was

rejected him in front of Claudius, Gertrude and Polonius, just to show them how hamlet would

react. She gave back Hamlet’s letters, which make him to say “go thee to nunnery” (Hamlet, Act

3, scene 1, line 131). It because of in nunnery women are not allowed to marry at all they can’t

be under the influence of men. Hamlet believes that, where women have best chance to be

faithful, and she will cause the least amount of damage. At there she won’t have children to grow

up and be someone useless like his father, Claudius. Furthermore, Ophelia is not strong enough

she is weak, she cannot survive alone, and realizing this she calls for her brother to help her and

guide her, when her father had been killed by Hamlet.” I would give you some violet/but they

withered all when my father died...” (Hamlet, Act 4, scene 5, lines 207-209). The violets flower

are symbols for faithful, and it because of that Ophelia says the violets are gone because she feels

betrayed that her father left her , however it was not his fault he killed by Hamlet. Violets also

has another meaning which is forgiveness, which Ophelia does not feel compelled for Polonius’s

guidance has influenced Ophelia’s emotional growth, it just makes her to think and feel what

she is told to. After the death of his father, she couldn’t be strong, she was just as same as she

was before. In the end Ophelia’s weakness led her to her death, after her father death by Hamlet
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and the distance between herself and her brother she has no more men in her life to depend on

and make a decision for her that is why she couldn’t stand alone and kill herself (Hamlet, Act 4,

scene 7). (Shakespeare)

In the end Ophelia’s weakness led her to her death. After her father death by Hamlet and

the distance between herself and her brother, she has no more men in her life to depend on and

make a decision for her that is why she couldn’t stand alone and killed herself. (Shakespeare)

Lady Macbeth is one of the characters in Macbeth; she has desire for power, yet very

determined that her husband will be king. At the very beginning of the play, when she is first

seen, she is already plotting the murder of Duncan, Showing more ruthlessness and ambition

than Macbeth. But she is weak and she can’t do the murder by herself, as we see in Macbeth, Act

1, scene 5, lines 34-35 ) she says “unsex me”. Upon receiving the letter with the witches

prophecies from her husband, she begins to think that Macbeth lacks the courage for something

like this, she call upon the forces of evil to help her to do what must be done, but she suddenly

think that she is women. She wishes that she were not woman so that she could do it herself and

this is Shakespeare’s perspective of women. (shakespeare)

(Mahamud) Says “I think there is a connection between gender and power and here, that

is true. Many people don’t view women and power together as one but here, Shakespeare shows

Lady Macbeth, along with the witches include manipulation, to achieve certain male powers or

ambition”. And another reference that shows Lady Macbeth’s weakness is that she could not

continue until the end of the play, she committed suicide in (Macbeth, Act 5, and scene 5) and

could not be strong enough to continue with her husband and support him as a good wife and as

a strong woman. In Hamlet, the women play small roles in portraying their historical status.
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Although Gertrude is the Queen and Ophelia is the prince’s lover, their voices are never heard

and their actions are influenced by the men. Although Gertrude and Ophelia are not well

developed throughout the play, their actions, language and influence portray them as the type of

women that are constantly relying on men making them frail human beings. And in Macbeth

Lady Macbeth she is directly ask for changing her gender it is directly criticizing women.

(shakespeare)

Lies

In Hamlet another criticism of woman is that during the play they do not show up what is
true.
Gertrude and Ophelia are lies, and they always hide things.

One of the most important lies that effect the play is that when Gertrude decided to show

that she does not know whether Hamlet is mad or not. She hides it from her king Claudius. When

Gertrude and Hamlet talk they thought it’s better for them to show that Gertrude knows nothing

about Hamlet’s untrue madness, and she will pretend as is she is in Claudius’s side. When

Claudius comes back from England, he would deal with Hamlet. After killing Polonius, Gertrude

shows as if she does not know about Hamlet’s madness and says, "Mad as the sea and wind,

when both contend/ Which is the mightier: in his lawless fit,/ Behind the arras hearing something

stir,/ He whips his rapier out, and cries, 'A rat! a rat!'/ And in this brainish apprehension kills/

The unseen good old man." (Act 4, scene 1, lines 7-12 ). This action of Gertrude makes Claudius

be unaware of Hamlet’s real mental state. (Guitard)

Another lie that cannot be seen in the play and on the stage is that Gertrude lies to herself.

She lies to herself about her husband, King Hamlet. She convinces herself that it is something

normal to marry her husband’s brother within a month after her husband’s death. She constantly
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convinces herself that he is looking out for the family with his actions, and she fools herself into

believing that she has not sinned. (Guitard)

Ophelia is Polonius’s daughter and Hamlet’s beloved. She is also lies and hides the truth.

She lied to Hamlet by taking away her intention from him. Ophelia tried to prove that for

Claudius and her father that why Hamlet is acting like a mad person. And during this meeting,

those two men hide themselves to see Hamlet’s reaction to Ophelia. Hamlet, while speaking with

Ophelia, directly asks for her father’s place and asks her "Where's your father ?/ At Home, my

lord." ( Act 3, scene 1, lines 131-133 ). She again lies with him, and she knows that he is hiding

himself. (Guitard)

Manipulative and Evil Bringer

Firstly, Macbeth considers as one of the best players in the play; he defeats the enemies

and he is a good warier, but he turned into a treasonous murderer by his manipulative wife. In

this play Lady Macbeth is presented as evil because she is the one who designs he plan to kill

King Duncan. It can be seen clearly after she is reading the witches prophecies. (Gupta)

And then she tries to provoke her husband that he is a worthy person to be the king as she

says "...Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest

way" (Act 1, scene 5, lines 15-18). This is a soliloquy by Lady Macbeth. Under the light of this

quotation we see that she believes that she will be the king eventually, but she expressed

something else: she says that Macbeth is not ruthless enough to take the nearest way or the

quickest path to the throne. We see how evil she is; she does not want to wait for Duncan to die.

She wants Macbeth to be the king now, shortly, to kill him as soon as possible. Thus, her

statement shows the reader just as much about her character. In reality she thinks of him not as a
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brave man but as a weak man, and she thinks nothing for killing the king just for her own selfish

purposes. She says: "Come, thick night” (Act 1, scene 5, lines 57-60). Here evilness in this lady

can be seen. She wants to do the murder as soon as possible, In this quotation, Lady Macbeth

personified “night”, she asks upon night to come and cover her deeds from the eyes of heaven or

god and all people around her, she asks night to hide her deed and no one can see her evil crime,

she feels as if no person sees her deed, it will go away without punishment. (Gupta)
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Works Cited

Guitard, Rayan. Top Ten Lies in Hamlet. 28 4 2011. 12 2 2020

<http://prezi.com/fgviztlvcrq/Top_Ten_Lies_in_Hamlet>.

Gupta, Prannav. "Macbeth." 2013. ACADEMIA. 8 1 2020

<http://www.academia.edu/7811038/Macbeth>.

Mahamud, Sayem. "Lady Macbeth Character Analysis." 17 9 2008. ACADEMIA. 15 4 2020

<http://www.academia.edu/35988854/lady_macbeth_character_analysis>.

Pedram. "Two Women in Hamlet." 20 8 2000. Academia. 20 4 2020

<http://www.academia.edu/35552828/Two_Women_in_Hamlet>.

Sarkar, Sajal. "Shakespeare's Negative Attitude towards Women in Hamlet." The Millennium

University Journal (2016).

shakespeare. Macbeth. German, 1812.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Danemark, 1994.

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