Hamlet And Ophelia's Suicide

874 Words4 Pages
In the tragedy, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare, a lot of feminism occurs. Throughout the play, Hamlet is seeking revenge for whoever killed his father, King Hamlet. Polonius and Claudius both want to know the reason for Hamlet's depression so they use both Ophelia and Gertrude, in order to find out why Hamlet is so depressed. Ophelia believes Hamlet is going mad since Ophelia had been avoiding Hamlet, just like Polonius asked of Ophelia. Both Gertrude and Ophelia are unaware of what is really going on. They don’t stand up for themselves and are just being used. In the play Hamlet, both Ophelia and Gertrude pay the price for the men precisely because they can’t make decisions on their own and don’t stand up to the men that treat them…show more content…
First off we have Ophelia who is completely controlled by the men in her life. She explains to her father how strange Hamlet has been acting lately. He ask her what the reason for his madness is and she tells Polonius, “I do not know my lord, what should I think”(3.1.113) Even when he asks her for her opinion, she asks him for his opinion because she can’t think on her own. Polonius believes the reason for Hamlet acting strange is due to the fact that he still loves Ophelia. Polonius asks of her to ignore Hamlet and her response was, “I shall obey my lord”(1.3.145). Ophelia listens to her father because she is not married . If she were to marry someone , she would live by her husbands rules. She does not have any say or control over her choices. Everyone makes decisions for Ophelia. She doesn’t have a female to look up to which is why she listens to the men in her life. She has a hard time determining what is right especially after her dad dies. She can not take it anymore. She doesn’t have her father and she also lost her love, Hamlet. She feels lost and her only way out, she thought, was suicide. Ophelia is so used to men making decisions for her, so when she has to make her own choices she doesn’t know what to do. She pays the price and ends her life. Now, Gertrude is similar to Ophelia. She doesn’t make a lot of her own decisions. When Polonius wants to spy on Hamlet, she goes along with it without any complaining. Even though she is the Queen, since Polonius is a man, she obeys him. There is only one time Gertrude does not obey and that is when she pays the price for not listening to Claudius. When she picks up the drink , Claudius tells her to not drink it and she says, “I will my lord;I pray you pardon me”(5.2.318). She doesn’t obey his orders like she is suppose to so she pays the price which in this case is
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