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THEMES IN HAMLET
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11 mind maps of 11 most relevant themes in hamlet. points for argument, quotes and critics appropriate to the theme are all included. great for ideas and essay planning.
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The theme of women in hamlet• there’s only two women in the play: gertrude and ophelia
• They are both presented to have unleashed sexualities and they are used by male
characters for their purpose: ophelia more than gertrude
• “frailty thy name is woman” portrays a lot of what is part of how women are treated in the
play
The role of Ophelia in the play:
• the main relationships that ophelia has in the play are hamlet, laertes and polonius. They
all do her a great deal of wrong in different ways.
• Hamlet: he begins to court her and send her affectionate love letters. However, because
of what goes on with the ghost and claudius, hamlet decides to put an antic disposition
which also affects ophelia. He begins to assult her physically and verbally, he goes from
loving her to not loving her and he expresses his antic disposition with her the most as
she is likely to report back to polonius and claudius.
• Laertes main shortcoming is when he is hypocritical with her, as he tells her to not sleep
with hamlet, despite the fact that he is going to Paris and no one knows what he will do
there
• Polonius, as a father, uses her for the sole purpose of pleasing Claudius. Despite the
scene in act 3 where ophelia gets physically assaulted by hamlet, he only cares about
weather Claudius knows. His sycophancy leads to him treating his daughter terribly.
• “Affection? Puh! You speak like a green girl”
• You do not need to tell us what hamlet said, we heard it all”
• “Get thee to a nunnery”
• “I did love you once”
• “He hath made many tenders of affection to me”
• “your chaste treasure open to his unmastered importunity”
• “wise men know what monsters you make of them”
• “Before you tumbled me you promised me to wed”
critics: “suffers a series of patriarchal oppressions” emi hamana
“She only appears in 5 out of the 20 scenes in the play” elaine showwalter
“Her character is that of simply unselfish affection” A. C. Bradley
The role of gertrude in the play
• overall, gertrude doesnt have much say in the play, other than the scene in which she kills
herself
• She doesnt make any decisions, but she does play a crucial role in terms of how things
are: claudius kills for her sake, as many critics argue.
• gertrude’s main relationships in the play are Hamlet and Claudius
• Her relationship with claudius is consistently good throughout the play, however, she does
end up drinking the poison despite him telling her she shouldnt
• he includes her in most of his decisions although she is a lot more concerned about how
hamlet feels than he is.
• Her relationship with hamlet is complicated: its bc of their relationship that hamlet suffers
a lot. Their relationship impacts how hamlet sees women, which impacts his relationship
with ophelia.
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