Hamlet: Treatment of Woman Characters
Shakespeare’s treatment of woman characters in Hamlet is one of the most debatable issues in the study of Shakespeare. Because, critics like Shapiro ( 1991: 98) goes so far as to claim that Shakespeare was 'the noblest feminist of them all' (p.98) But it is historically incorrect to regard him as a feminist: actually he 'wrote for a male entertainment'. In Hamlet, he shows not only the contemporary patriarchal attitude to women but also the vile characteristics of women. Shakespeare technically reaches Hamlet to such a deplorable psychological state that we are somehow prepared to accept the generalization of vile nature of women. Ophelia, it would seem, wholly at the mercy of the male figures within her life, is certainly a victim figure. He is used by the King, his father, his brother and even by Hamlet, her lover. Courtni Crump Wright ( 1993:41)) rightly comments, Ophelia in many ways is a pawn in this play. (p.41) Ophelia’s brother Leartes ...