Examples Of Sexism In Hamlet

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Sexism towards women have always been in issue throughout history and even within current times, but in the play Hamlet written by William Shakespeare, sexism is a huge part of the play. With careful examination, the two main female characters, Ophelia and Gertrude, were seen as the broken and weaker sex and also as an object by her family as well as Hamlet. Ophelia was seen as a sex object by Hamlet throughout the play, during the play, Hamlet has become extremely sexual towards Ophelia even after she had repeatedly told Hamlet to stop acting the way he had been previously. A good example of seeing this would be during the play Hamlet created about his father’s death and his uncle marrying his mother. Hamlet had decided to sit next to Ophelia instead of his mother, he kept asking Ophelia things such as “lady, shall I lie in your lap?” (III.ii.102) and “That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs” (III.ii.108). He became very persistent during this scene even after Ophelia had continuously told Hamlet no. Hamlet also becomes very hostile and angry, a good quote from The Telegraph UK, author Holly Williams states “…how you present Hamlet’s brutality, and how Ophelia reacts…” (Williams 3). And finally, there are a lot of abusive actions towards Ophelia, another quote …show more content…
Ophelia’s father, Polonius, continues to tell his daughter to break things off with Hamlet. She even states that she “did what you told me to do and sent back his letters and wouldn’t let him visit me” (II.i.108-109). Hamlet may just be acting insane, just like his plan all along before the murder of his uncle. His insanity was previously planned, and this may just be part of it. But the problem with blaming his insanity on his misogynistic views would be that he was acting this way towards his mother even before he decided to plead insanity and murder his
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