Love And Ambition in the Female Characters of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Love And Ambition in the Female Characters of Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Introduction

The Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a novel which is a replete of love uncertainties. It depicts the lives of two women characters, which is Gertrude who is the Hamlets mother and Ophelia, his lover. The story depicts clearly the role of women in the society and how they strive to satisfy their quest for love (Pennacchia, 33). However, Shakespeare brings the theme of love on the part of women and how they survive in a patriarchal society, where men rule and decide on the daily actions. As a result of this, these two characters are naïve and do whatever they can to ensure that they satisfy men who come across their lives, for example Hamlet who is he male protagonist in the play. Finally, they fall as victims of love in the society and still die because of the same, after the love which they are trying as much as possible to fulfil turns sour. The most basic love should originate from the family but it is ironical that none of these two female characters can assess it (Finn, 8). However, the behavior and conduct of Gertrude and Ophelia has a moral lesson in the modern society and the mannerisms in which they struggle to maintain their feminine status gives the play a high aesthetic value.  Therefore, even though there are only two female characters within Hamlet, they play a very critical role in the development of the plot of the play. Both women show how they deal with situation through either love or ambition, or may be both.

Ophelia listens to what Hamlet says and does everything for him. She is so naïve that she doesn’t even question but has a major motive of satisfying a man. Initially, the love between Hamlet and Ophelia has a transitioning quality. Once still green, they are seen exchanging love whatnots with trust and understanding. Traub (56) claims that, at first Hamlet demonstrates seriousity by sending love letters to his girlfriend and calling her celestial. This makes Ophelia a victim of the same and once Hamlet realizes that the lady has been moved to a point of no return, he slowly withdraws his one leg, leaving Ophelia to drive it thus turning to be more submissive (Grene, 43). It is clear that Hamlet makes several oscillations between protests of magnificent love towards Ophelia but still in real sense, he uses her as a tool in his plan to revenge. Finally, the future of their love turns to be an elusive mirage as they are interfered with by the family and thus they are separated.

Ophelia goes against what she wants and listens to what her father has to say about her love with Hamlet. It is clear that for a love or rather a relationship between two people to succeed, it has to be interfered by the parent. Not negative interference but the positive ones which involve blessing and best wishes for love progression (Pennacchia, 36). Polonius, Ophelia’s father was loving and caring, best exemplified by how he is concerned with her baby girl. Polonius is very much concerned with what Ophelia has been sharing with her brother Laertes because the father doesn’t want her daughter to be wrongly advised. Nevertheless, the father is concerned with how her daughter will get to a peaceful marriage. The father tells her that she should only marry when he tells her to do and that she should think herself as being a baby, which would pay her trust in future as she compares it to the tenderness of the wind (Flaherty, 99). Due to the love of Ophelia towards Hamlet, she is aware that ignorance is bliss and that she has to act like what her father says. She finally became a victim of the same.

Ophelia listens keenly to what her brother says. Laertes wanted Ophelia to stay pure and celibate and refrain from sex before marriage. According to Traub (65), the relationship between Ophelia and her brother is fantastic.  She has a very good respect for her brother which is built on good relationship and monumental love. Laertes discloses the real character of men especially during their journeys to seek for lovers. He constantly warns her against being too wary with Hamlet and not become very close to her sexually, repercussions not withstanding (Grene, 45). He tells her that she should fear it, “fear it dear sister”. He warns her that she should consider her affection. Ophelia listens but due to the human nature of being forgetful, she betrays those words finally when she becomes much connected with Hamlet.

Gertrude on the other hand is an opposite of what Ophelia does. Gertrude is not tied between the inconveniences of romance love and relationships but she does everything because of her personal ambitions with a motive of safeguarding her power.  Gertrude marries Claudius immediately after her husband’s death thus affecting Hamlet greatly. This is due to the fact that it is an abomination for a man to take his brother’s wife once he dies (Flaherty, 123). This is the same as revealing his nakedness and therefore they should not be in a position to get children. All this is what disturbs Hamlet.

Traub (74) says that Gertrude feels guilty when Hamlet has gone insane, thinking it is her own fault. According to Shakespeare, Hamlet had gone through various sensitive which were as a result of unlucky situations that confronted him. Ideally, Gertrude is a woman who liked maintaining her womanhood as she considered beauty as an imperative for all women. According to the play, there is so much contacts between Hamlet and Gertrude and it is therefore believed that this contributed towards his madness. At first, Hamlet is emotionally affected by her mother marrying his uncle shortly after the death of his father. The only place shoe could find solace was from Gertrude but ironically, she drives him mad ((Grene, 49).

Gertrude wants to remain in power and shows ambition towards the people of her country by marrying Claudius, whom she thinks will make a good leader. This is a depiction of Gertrude falling as a victim of love. According to the play, Gertrude married Claudius with some political desires but forgot the dark history that Claudius had made (Finn, 107). It Is Claudius who killed her former husband and thus Gertrude was not aware that she was to drink the poisonous wine which her husband had prepare. Hamlet accused Gertrude of marrying Claudius claiming that she did the same so as to stabilize her nation as a queen.

Both Gertrude and Ophelia are important characters in developing the plot of the play. Ophelia has a crucial importance in the story because she is hamlet’s love interest (Pennacchia, 100). Ophelia’s father as well as Claudius use Ophelia as a trap for Hamlet thus leading to her breakdown. According to the play, it is so unfortunate that parents to some extend are not showing any significant support towards the love matters of their children. The steps of Ophelia are calculated and that is why her friendship with hamlet does not last for long.

Gertrude is very essential in the play in a way that, she is one of the main reasons for Hamlet’s insanity towards getting revenge to his father’s killer, Claudius, as argued by (Grene, 62). According to the play a ghost reveals that king Hamlet was murdered Claudius, who had a relationship with Gertrude, before the murder was conducted. She therefor goes ahead and through her love triangles, she violently expresses her love which drives him mad. We have hitherto found that Gertrude was a love figure who could use her bewitching beauty as a call for men (Finn, 8).

In the play, women are portrayed as weak and submissive and that men have full of power and control over them, as seen in Ophelia. The story takes place in a patriarchal society where every aspect of life I male dominated. Women have no authority to question in front of men and due to their nature of being naïve, they just submit themselves fully to men thus expressing their weakness (Traub, 126). Again, the act of women submission is a good reason as to why they become victims of love, a good example is Ophelia who becomes too submissive to Hamlet, finally down rating her feminine and social status.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Even though there are only two female characters within Hamlet, they play an important role in the development and understanding the plot of the play. Both women show how they deal with situations through either love or ambition, or both. Shakespeare has brought up the theme of love in different ways in the play. Love is expressed in the form of romance in marriage, friendship and parental love, which has not shown any signs of stability. According to the essay, I can claim that Shakespeare presents himself as a feminist, a noblest of all due to the fact that he has touched much on male entertainment whilst portraying the weaknesses of women in the society. He has brought out the human behavior and the roles which women play towards men. However, with male dominance, then a society cannot grow because all ideas passed will be unisexual.  Finally, he has brought up a conflict state between war & action and the new world of though and philosophy.

References

Finn, Kavita Mudan. “History play: critical and creative engagement with Shakespeare’s    tetralogies in transformative fanworks.” Shakespeare (2016): 1-16.

Flaherty, Jennifer. “Reviving Ophelia: Reaching Adolescent Girls through Shakespeare’s Doomed             Heroine.” Borrowers and Lenders 9.5 (2015).

Grene, Nicholas. Shakespeare’s tragic imagination. Springer, 2016.

Pennacchia, Maddalena. “Culturally British Bio (e) pics: From Elizabeth to The King’s      Speech.” Adaptation, Intermediality and the British Celebrity Biopic (2016): 33.

Traub, Valerie. Desire and Anxiety (Routledge Revivals): Circulations of Sexuality in          Shakespearean Drama. Routledge, 2015.