Hamlet

Hamlet

Frailty , thy name is woman

Hamlet is one of the most quoted plays ever written as the dialogue is eloquent while yet still being archaic . It is a tense , multi-faceted play with a variety of emotions running through the characters especially the main character of Hamlet . So much of the play is viewed through his personal statements and his reactions to the other characters but the portrayal of the female characters in the play is far from flattering to women in general "In the comedies women are seen only , mistakenly , to

be evil , but in the tragedies Shakespeare puts the monsters before our eyes . Gertrude is a transitional figure : Hamlet sees her as much worse than she is (MacCary 64

Having been away from the kingdom , Hamlet returns to Denmark to discover that his father is dead , his uncle has taken the throne and his mother has married his uncle . There had been no accustomed time of length of mourning and the marriage between his father 's brother and his mother appears incestuous to Hamlet . He is appalled , disturbed and suspicious of his mother 's behavior

The King 's speech at the opening of the scene will certainly conclude that the marriage has only just been celebrated , and also that it is conceived as involving the accession of Claudius to the throne . Gertrude is described as the 'imperial jointress ' of the State , and the King says that the lords consented to the marriage , but makes no separate mention of his election (Bradley 402

Hamlet bears little sympathy for his mother that she may have been coerced or mislead by his uncle , Claudius . He perceives it only that foul play is afoot and his mother , Gertrude has been a willing participant in it . The line Frailty , thy name is woman ' is spoken during a conversation with Horatio in the opening scene of the play . He is reacting to his mother 's observation that Hamlet seems to be overly grieved by the death of his father , with his preoccupation of his father 's death and his suspicion that Claudius and his mother plotted together to commit an act of murder

Hamlet first expresses a generalized taedium vitae , but he goes on to specify his mother 's infidelity as its cause "How weary , stale , flat and unprofitable / Seem to me all the uses of this world (133-34 "Frailty , thy name is woman (146 . The transition from melancholy to misogyny comes in the comparison of his father with his uncle "Hyperion to a satyr (140 "My father 's brother -- but no more like my father Than I to Hercules (152-53 . She only seemed to love his father she only seemed to be a chaste woman she only seemed to be in control of her desires . In fact , she is bestial in her appetites . Hamlet thus interprets his mother the way Horatio interprets the Ghost , as an omen "It is not , nor it cannot come to good (158 (MacCary 71

Another scene occurs...