Cammie Hearon
Mrs. Waite
Honors English 12/ 5
7 December 2018
Stepping Stones for Woman Empowerment
The similarities and connections between the only two female characters in Hamlet are striking. Tied together by their separate connections to Hamlet, Shakespeare brings Queen Gertrude and Ophelia closer together over the course of the play through many distinct hardships. Whether it be holding on to each other’s company for dear life, being used as pawns by the controlling men in their lives, or watching one go quickly insane. These women are depicted as weak female leads who are unsure and irrational, however they have sparked a movement of female empowerment and true feminism.
There is plenty of subtextual evidence to support the conclusion that Ophelia, without a mother, and Gertrude, without a daughter, found in each other a surrogate. This idea is strengthened by the fact that Gertrude is the one to tells the audience about Ophelia´s questionable death, this shows that the devastating news was brought to Gertrude before it was brought to Ophelia’s brother and only surviving blood relative, Laertes. In this scene, Shakespeare depicts to the audience as if Gertrude has truly been a mother to Ophelia and cares for her as such. After Polonius is murdered by Prince Hamlet, Gertrude has to watch Ophelia start to lose herself, starting with Ophelia’s old laud and ending with her potential suicide (Chapman). In act five of the play, Gertrude even expresses how she wants to be connected to Ophelia more than just through family friendships, ¨I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet´s wife; I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid.¨
Another interpretation of the bond between these two comes from the noticeable similarities in their situations. Other than being a mother without a daughter and a daughter without a mother, making for a perfect match, both Ophelia and Gertrude are subjects to mistreatment by men, and are both being used as pawns in the political power games by the powerful men that rule their lives. Both Ophelia and Gertrude do what their society is telling them to do, much like as if any male is the puppet master and they are merely only a puppet. They both eventually die because of it. Showing that no matter how important a Queen may be to her country, her role in this play is nothing but subordinate (Montgomery). This could be Shakespeare's way of making a statement about the helplessness of women in his time, or how men do not seem to realize the powerful impact that their actions have on women who are brainwashed to believe that they have no choice but to let the events that are happening around them unfold, without giving a single opinion or offering to take charge. However, compared to other Shakespearean women, some show that not all women of this era were destined to be submissive, meek, and dared to be called lazy. Lady Macbeth is almost the perfect opposite of both of the women in Hamlet; in fact, she is the driving force behind the entire plot Macbeth. While her actions did not have time best of intentions, she continued to encourage her husband to be a man and to get the job done, and when he fell short she decided to take matters into her own hands and do what she thought needed to be done. “…I have given suck, and know how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums. and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you. Have done to this. (Shakespeare I vii).
When parallelling Gertrude and Ophelia is easy to recognize the similarities between them. Both appear to be naive and unaware of what goes on in the twisted world in which they live in until the evidence becomes too much to handle for them. This could also be another jab from Shakespeare to create women as inferior and dumb compared to the “far superior” men. In addition to being unbelievably clueless, both women are found to be making decisions based upon either lust, romanticism, or blind love, whether it be with Gertrude with Claudius explicitly or Ophelia with Hamlet implicitly.
Gertrude and Ophelia’s loyalty to each other can be viewed as a pre-feminism show of solidarity in which they, as women, who were considered more or less property at that time, bonded together to protect each other from the reckless actions of men that surrounded them. Because of this Ophelia can be argued to be the stepping stones of a feminist symbol.
Although the play is merely fiction, it has touched hearts of those to protect women that experience the same loss of identity that Ophelia represents. There have been many women empowerment resources named in honor of Ophelia, such as Ophelia’s House. Ophelia’s House is a community based program made to enhance women that have fallen onto wrong paths, through mentorship women within the La-Crosse area are given opportunities to improve their chances of long term success. Young girls can be empowered through Ophelia’s Project. This non-profit teaches young girls trades and teaches the importance of being an empowered, independent woman. These girls are the next generation and will run the world! Several women are inspired on the daily because they tune into Radio Ophelia, a radio station that is constantly playing positive, empowering content. While Ophelia was not the most independent women, she set an example for the future generation to want to stand up for what they believe in and make their own decisions.
Another interpretation of the archetypal role of Ophelia is in the A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. She expresses here that Ophelia truly only did depend on the thoughts of the men that ran her life rather than her own very thoughts. Whenever she first speaks to Polonius about Hamlet she says “I don’t know my lord, what should I think?” Ophelia has been brainwashed into thinking that her thoughts are not good enough, that the only so-called “good” thoughts come from her father or brother. "[Virginia] Woolf's modern reading of history allows the reader to interpret Shakespeare's Ophelia not as a source of admiration for her assertion of identity but, rather, as a source of sympathy for her loss of identity after the removal of male dominance" (Brown). Ophelia loses her identity when she loses the male dominance in her life. Sadly Gertrude can not save her from this, because she to obeys the desires of the reckless men in her life. Each woman is torn between the desires of two powerful men in their lives. Gertrude with Claudius and Hamlet and Ophelia with Polonius and Hamlet then after Polonius is dead Laertes and Hamlet.
Hamlet represents what would happen in a male dominated world. If Gertrude and Ophelia were taken out of the play Hamlet’s life would never falter, however if Hamlet was taken out of the lives of Gertrude and Ophelia, they would have no story. This future generation of women are taking the story of Hamlet and are not accepting to be weak females without a voice. This generation is correcting the mistakes of Queen Gertrude and Ophelia and will make their own decisions and have their own independent thoughts. This generation will learn to take care of each other like these women have demonstrated. This generation will be the stepping stones for true women empowerment.
Works Cited
Brown, Heather. “Gender and Identity in Hamlet.” LinkedIn SlideShare, 16 May 2014,
www.slideshare.net/kimberlyprzybysz/gender-and-identity-in-hamlet.
Chapman, Alison A. "Ophelia's 'old lauds': madness and hagiography in Hamlet."
Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, vol. 20, 2007, p. 111+. General OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A169311540/GPS?u=avlr&sid=GPS&xid=54bd196. Accessed 16 Nov. 2018.
Montgomery, Abigail L. "Enter Queen Gertrude stage center: re-viewing Gertrude as full
participant and active interpreter in Hamlet." South Atlantic Review, vol. 74, no. 3, 2009, p. 99+. Literature Resource Center, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A301283615/GLS?u=avlr&sid=GLS&xid=e84e564d. Accessed 7 Dec. 2018.
Shakespeare, William, et al. Macbeth. BiblioLife, 2009.