Shakespeare wasn’t known for being an early feminist.  His women need men. They are often greedy and conniving. Sometimes they are nothing but bodacious stage decorations.  In his play Hamlet, for example, Hamlet’s love interest Ophelia and his mother Queen Gertrude are not exceptions.  These women cannot function without men. In fact, they are pliable players to the directions of the men in their lives.

If you can’t remember Hamlet, or more accurately, The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, from high school English class, here’s a little refresher.  Prince Hamlet’s uncle Claudius murders his brother, King Hamlet, and marries Prince Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude.  Hamlet gets revenge on his uncle for his father’s death, but before that can happen, there’s a lot of insanity and incest, drinking of poison and drowning.  Makes for a good night at the theater, methinks!  

Both Ophelia and Gertrude are liars. Although these women pretend to be one thing, the prominent men in their lives make them be something else. Polonius, Ophelia’s father, tells Ophelia to set up a meeting with Hamlet by accident while he and Claudius hide behind a tapestry and listen. Claudius plans for Queen Gertrude to speak to her son as Polonius listens in. Neither woman thinks nor plots to perpetrate these actions against Hamlet, but both are willing to go along with the men’s wishes.

Ophelia and Queen Gertrude can’t live without a significant man or significant men in their lives. Queen Gertrude can’t live her life without a man to direct it. This fact is illustrated by her hasty marriage to Claudius and her subsequent willingness to bow to any of his wishes. She brushes off her first husband’s death because this is what her new husband wants her to do.

Ophelia more literally cannot live without a man. After her father’s death and Hamlet’s betrayal, Ophelia goes completely crazy and drowns herself.  After the play, there have been thousands of beautiful paintings depicting the angelic Ophelia drowning in her magnolia grove.  Ever since, she has been seen as the childlike woman driven crazy by men—Ophelia will stand for the weakness of women for all eternity. 

Some feminist scholars from the ‘70’s and ‘80’s tried to view Hamlet’s women from a revisionist feminist lens.  Sure, one might argue Queen Gertrude and Ophelia have their own minds. Ophelia tells her brother she will follow his advice only he practices what he preaches. In this way, Ophelia won’t take men’s advice if they don’t believe it themselves.  Queen Gertrude defies Claudius when he tells her not to drink the poisonous cup and takes a sip anyway.

These events are irrelevant to the women’s overall characters, however, because the women don’t believe their own minor rebellions are significant. Ophelia simply teases her brother. Queen Gertrude thinks she is cheering on her son; she doesn’t know she is killing herself.

Ophelia and Queen Gertrude are frail creatures with wills easily molded by those who are in power.  But the way Shakespeare treats the rest of the characters in the play, these ladies really didn’t fair so badly.