The women in both plays seem to be to quite an extent at the mercy of men, simultaneously defined by their relationships with men both familial and romantic, and only really able to exert power through men through who they do or do not sleep with, which would have been normal to Shakespeare’s contemporary audience.
Both Ophelia and Gertrude are restricted and scrutinized by their relationships with men, and often used as pawns in the game of power. Gertrude doesn’t have any asides of soliloquys, always appearing in scenes with the two most prominent men in her life; her husband and son, so therefore is only even represented through her interactions with them and in their presence. In addition to this, Hamlet does his best to blacken her name in front of the audience, calling her ‘wretched’ and ‘incestuous’ even when she is not on stage, poisoning her name just as her relationship has poisoned not only Denmark but her relationship with her son. This is in contrast to Ophelia who Hamlet only ever compliments behind her back on stage, calling her ‘fair’ and ‘nymph’, ending his ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy by spying Ophelia, with the commanding tone of ‘soft you now’ contrasting with the gentle sound of the word ‘soft’, almost as if Hamlet awakens himself out of his reverie to talk to her or that he is commanding himself to regain control in order that he may manipulate her. He precedes to do this, laying traps for Ophelia and swinging between gallantry and abuse seemingly having her feelings at his mercy as Ophelia answers grow shorter as she seemingly shrinks beneath his scorn. The fact that he ‘made her believe’ he loved her could perhaps signify she feels that Hamlet was just using her for sport or laughter, which is echoed in Lussiorio’s desire for Castiza’s body without her personality or indeed a commitment to her through marriage. That Vindice uses this as an opportunity to question Castiza’s chastity reveals how a woman’s sexual relations with men defined her and how they were at the mercy of public opinion in a patriarchal society, with Hamlet also asking Ophelia is she’s ‘Honest’. This is also an example of how the women in both play’s loyalty to different men is tested, with both Gratiana and Gertrude failing to make the grade in the eyes of their play’s tragic heroes. Hamlet’s plan for revenge may even have a multitude of layers, punishing Gertrude and Ophelia to their loyalty to the men of the new regime, Claudius and Polonius, by his madness. It seems to occupy much of Ophelia and Getrude’s mind, with again their emotions being at the mercy of a man’s behaviour towards them, with Hamlet’s madness being the subject of Ophelia’s sole soliloquy and many of Gertrude’s lines. Therefore the female character’s relationships in the play encourage them to be at the mercy of men, especially as their relationships to men would have defined them in an staunchly patriarchal Elizabethan society.
The female character’s in ‘Hamlet’ words are also at the mercy of men, who manipulate and interpret them in different ways. Hamlet never listens to Gertrude’s protestations of her innocence, choosing to interpret everything she does from his preconceived ideas of her behaviour, as when he still believes her to be ‘false’ even when she doesn’t fall for his play trick. The word ‘false’ connotes that he believes her untrustworthy and deceitful, perhaps explaining why he discounts all she says, even though the fact Gertrude doesn’t recognise Hamlet’s vision of herself, calling it a ‘lady’ in a rather objective and confused tone, suggests that she doesn’t conform to his vision of her. That Gertrude notices that the lady is ‘protest[ing]’ perhaps indicates that Hamlet thinks that she uses words to manipulate others and to have them at her mercy, when in fact his whole ‘antic disposition’ seems calculated to cause her pain, and the majority of Gertrude’s lines are taken up with the subject. Hamlet also manipulates Ophelia through words whilst also manipulating her words, making her lines into lude jokes. Hamlet’s reinterpretation of when Ophelia says ‘nothing’ into a sexual joke shows him using her language for his, and the audience’s entertainment, laughing at her and contrasting her innocence with his greater knowledge. The fact Ophelia has ‘no thing’ could also be a inside joke that she was played by a man, again indicating the lack of female voices on the Elizabethan stage and in society, as women did not act or write plays. Ophelia’s despondent and short answers show that she is at his mercy, being publicly humiliated, though Shakespeare does evoke the audience’s pity for her, creating an aura of quietness and sweetness about her through her conversations with all the male characters who attempt to use her. Hamlet’s rudeness to her is echoed in Polonious’s calling her a ‘green girl’, and Shakespeare could perhaps be criticising the dampening down or dismissal of women’s voices along with their opinions and feelings. Indeed, Ophelia is the only character in the play not allowed a voice about their death, dying offstage and in ambiguous circumstances, with Shakespeare perhaps using the injustices done to her, a pure and innocent girl who didn’t deserve to die, to illustrate the problems of repressing women’s voices.
Also, all the time that Ophelia is alone with Hamlet she is aware of Polonious’s presence just as Gertrude is ordered to ‘be round with’ Hamlet. Hence their behaviour would change and be checked, with their words controlled by an authoritative male figure who ‘looses’ them in order that they might act the part to get information about a man they care about. In some ways this is similar to Vindice’s use of Gratiana in his testing of Castiza in ‘The Revenger’s Tragedy’, but whereas Gratiana acts for money Gertrude and Ophelia’s ability to love is manipulated by men, with Ophelia affection for her father and Gertrude’s for her son driving them to act in the way that a man has told them to, with horrible consequences for both. Hence, Shakespeare seems to criticize the control of women’s voices in a patriarchal society, as Ophelia and Gertrude seem to be undeserving of the consequences they face for putting their voices at the mercy of men, and even when they are speaking without being told what to say their words are scrutinised and deliberately misinterpreted, with whatever they say seeming to be at the mercy of a man to use.
The differences between the married and single women in both plays indicate the way in which women’s status and respect were at the mercy of men. Gertrude’s syntax is much more assured and confident than Ophelia’s for example her occasional use of imperatives such as ‘Let not’, as well as the fact that Gertrude’s lines are far longer than Ophelia’s which rarely exceed 1 or 2-line at a time. This may be because Gertrude is represented as less sexually pure than the ‘honest’ Ophelia, as she lies with an ‘incestious beast’ ‘in the rank sweat of an enseamed bed’ which connotes unhealthy and unnatural lust, the the words ‘rank sweat’ also connoting the illness which has inflicted the state of Denmark which may have been caused by the ‘incest’. In this case Gertrude’s sexual immorality means that the Kingdom is at her mercy, and yet without remarrying the new King Gertrude would have lost her position of power as Queen, showing that her fortune is at the mercy of the men with whom she has relationships with, and perhaps it is her ‘fear’ for her son that drives her to do so. Gertrude’s status as married, and particularly married to the King gives her security which Ophelia does not have as an unmarried woman, which could also be why Gertrude is more confident and speaks more freely. Both Castiza and Ophelia are judged on their chastity, and they both seem to pass the test but both the older women in the play seem to have more reproachable sexual morals and are more sinful. This is perhaps because both of the older women’s husbands are dead and without their husbands they have no guide or not enough sex to satisfy them as Elizabethans and Tudors thought that women were more promiscuous and more susceptible to temptation than men. It could also be because in a patriarchal society women’s worth is amountable to their child-rearing activities, so both older women are worth less as they are less fertile, although the younger women do not get married either even though men have made romantic passes at them. Castiza however, is the only one of her siblings to survive whereas Ophelia’s chastity does not save her from an unjust death, or indeed from being embroiled in romantic entanglements. Laertes and Hamlet’s struggle in her ‘grave’ perhaps reflects how the ownership of women passed from her immediate family to her new husband, with Ophelia on the cusp of this, with both fighting to claim ownership of her and her love. Ophelia’s unmarried body is therefore left to the mercy of men to build an illusion or image of, with men controlling her ‘fair unpolluted flesh’ even after her death. In fact it may be because her flesh is ‘unpolluted’ that they want to control her, with Hamlet similarly obsessed over his mother’s sex life, perhaps indicating that women’s importance lies in their sexuality and bodies rather than because of their personalities, with women becoming objects to control rather than people to the male characters in the play. Hence, Shakespeare seems critical of patriarchal attitudes towards women as this desire for control becomes his obsession as he mentally tortures both Ophelia and his mother leading to her madness and breaking apart the relationships between the female characters and the ones they love.
In conclusion, Shakespeare seems to criticize to some extent the way that women were secondary citizens in Elizabethan society, with his contemporary audience recognising the injustices done to the female characters in the play, particularly Ophelia. He presents women at the mercy of men through their speech and relationships, particularly romantic ones, and by showing the abuses against them and creating pity for the women in ‘Hamlet’ Shakespeare appears critical of an overtly patriarchal society despite Elizabeth being queen.
