"Hamlet": Feminist Approach and Gender Study

The title of the essay ‘Frailty, thy name is Hamlet: Hamlet and Women’ that applies theory of feminism in “A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature” by Wilfred L. Guerin et al demands detail discussion. The authors metamorphoses one of the famous dialogues by Hamlet which originally reads,

“Heaven and earth,
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him
As if increase 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!”

It is spoken in anger to Gertrude due to her hasty marriage.

By replacing women with Hamlet, it seems to me, the authors consider Hamlet’s inability to act as a feminine trait. Are the exponents of feminism themselves being anti feminist? For me, simply ‘Hamlet and Women’ title would be enough. It proves that to bring out someone’s fault, one has to relate him with feminine quality.

He is crushes under the burden of moral dilemma. Not only by means of title, Hamlet is psychologically castrated by his oedipal attitude and his act of letting loose his anger upon two father images, one is good and strong and another is bad and strong. Hamlet unnecessarily attacks on woman around him because he can’t act on his powerful uncle cum father Claudius. Another reason for the same hideous act can be due to her mother’s overhasty marriage and Ophelia’s support to his scheming father, unknowingly.

It is very strange that her mother can’t get married in two three months of her husband's death. After all, who is he to decide whom and when she should remarry? He is adult but still behaves like a kid. He still wants to have a control over his mother’s decision. Or his oedipal instinct forces him to behave like this? A kid can’t stand at the thought of his mother’s divided attention between father and himself.

We see the character of Gertrude through the eyes of Hamlet. But critic Carolyn Heilbrun sees her in wider perspective. She doesn’t find any fault in her as claimed by Hamlet. She shows motherly care in bad chamber scene and tries to console Hamlet. She is not of hypocrite lady of Elizabethan age. She knows she is lusty as inferred from her dialogues. In her speech during burial of Ophelia, she displays her maturity, intelligence, and control over emotions. She makes feel Hamlet comfortable in new court held by newly appointed king Claudius. I don’t have any information about how long a widow should remain unmarried to save herself from the social criticism, two months, or twelve? Again, how can it be termed as unfaithful, when husband is already dead? Had she been married later, would Hamlet be happy? Her love for Hamlet reaches at the summit when she in exaltation over her son’s bout winning performances in the duel. She drinks the poisonous glass of wine. We can’t comment on or prove her role in murdering King Hamlet, but it is evident that she adores her son. Comments Carolyn Heilbrun,

“If she is lustful, she is also intelligent, penetrating and gifted.”

Another reason for her hasty marriage can be political condition of Elizabethan time when widow queen has to either live at the risk of her life or marry new king. Of course, any sane human chooses life over so-called faithfulness. Mourning behind partner and remain unmarried to death sound silly to me.

It is very surprising that the ghost of King Hamlet too is unhappy with his wife’s marriage. He orders to take revenge on his uncle, but advises prince Hamlet to spare her as if she has committed a serious crime and he is showing forgiveness. He says,

“O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there…leave her to Heaven.”

In compare to Hamlet, he though seems soft on his wife. That is very rare case in the play, which is infested by anti feminist words such as whore, whoring, whoredome, harlot, cuckold, strumpet etc. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern compare earth and later fortune with whore, because they are ever changing. The sign of disrespect is seen again, when Laertes cautions Ophelia to stay away from Hamlet and in reply to this Ophelia refers to his escapades with women. That’s the reason why Polonius pays Reynaldo for spying over Hamlet to know whether he is whoring. Ophelia is far better than both his scheming father and his hypocrite brother.

In play within play, the characters compare the fortune with the strumpet. The actors’ feeling of pain is dramatised and fake, but Hamlet’s suffering is genuine. However it is like “whore” who unpacks emotion not action.

Hamlet loves Ophelia but again suppressed hatred and anger towards his uncle is projected on Ophelia. First, he requests her to pray for her well-being but later he starts abusing her, saying her to leave for nunnery, an Elizabethan slang for brothel house. Ophelia completely fails to understand the reason behind such offensive behaviour and prays,

“Heavenly powers, restore him!...O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown.”    

She doesn’t know that she is used by her father to know whether the cause of his insanity is lovesickness. This sort of use of female characters is against the feminist point of view. Hamlet not only hates his mother but whole world, in general all female species as if they all have committed such a ‘crime’ done by her mother. Therefore, his anger on Ophelia can be out of his misogynist attitude. The real love surfaces when Hamlet sees her dead body in the grave and confesses how much he has loved her. It is too late and the damage has already been done. The war is waging between brother Laertes and lover Hamlet. If Laertes fails to avenge the death of his father by prince Hamlet, he considers it’s like having been born of whore. He speaks,

“That drop of blood that’s calm proclaims me bastard,

Cries cuckold to my father, brands the harlot

Even here between the chaste unsmirched brow

Of my true mother.”

Thus, Shakespeare’s use of offensive feminine words mouthed from his male characters show the playwright’s dirty mental makeup or the Elizabethan society’s that may have been using these words to show their anger and hatred to immorality. He could have used other neutral expletives to express the same emotion. Famous for his skilful usage of language, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him.

In the last duel scene, the swords are phallic symbols. The entire idea of duel is the product of Claudius who wants remove his one of the sons, (remember he refers Laertes as his own son in a scene) to have a complete command over kingdom as well as Gertrude. Hamlet kills Claudius only when he comes to know that he is poisoned. It’s too late to act. No one remains except Horatio to tell the ‘frail tale’ of Hamlet who himself thinks of his friend as ‘a bravely fought hero.’ And that is not the case. Later one more offence is committed by Shakespeare. He gives masculine end. Notice that the order in Denmark is restored by the male Fortinbras, the prince of Norway!

Reference

Guerin , Wilfred L, et al. A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. 5th ed. Delhi: Oxford UP, 2006. 242-249. Print.