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To what extent are the women of Hamlet victims of love or ambition?
Love can is described as a profoundly tender and passionate feeling for a person. It can also be described as a feeling of personal attachment to something. Ambition is a huge desire or aspiration to achieve something. The two can easily lead to unwanted decisions the drive someone towards specific goals In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare some of the characters are driven by these two forces.
The play Hamlet has only two female characters, Gertrude and Ophelia. Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother, and Ophelia is Hamlet’s lover. Gertrude and Ophelia are shown separately, but the two women have one feature in common, this is the way the two women are few as compared to the number of men in the Hamlet. Gertrude and Ophelia appear as victims in several instances due to the misconception in the play. There are a number of factors in the play that cause the role of women in the play. The two women in the play clearly appear as victims of love or ambition.
Gertrude loves her son and husband. Her husband Claudius, the king of Denmark, and her son Hamlet but the two men hate each other. Gertrude becomes a victim of love because of this. When Hamlet kills Polonius, Gertrude reports to Claudius that her son stabbed Polonius out of his madness. Gertrude appears to help both of his beloved men. Gertrude succumbs from drinking water from his son’s goblet, which was poisoned to kill him by Claudius. Gertrude drinks from the goblet out of love. Gertrude’s last words in the play to her son, “Here Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows. The queen carouses to thy fortune.” Shows how Gertrude had a love for Hamlet. Gertrude knew about the poisoning of water by her husband, but she sacrifices her life for that of her son. Before she dies, she says, “No, no, the drink! O my dear Hamlet/ the drink, the drink! I am poisin’d.”. She sacrifices her life.
Gertrude becomes a victim of love when he protects her son from being murdered by Claudius. When Leartes asks Claudius why he is not killing Hamlet, the king replies that his mother, the queen, lived by his own looks. This means that the queen was always worried about her son’s life. She lived in fear that her husband would kill her son and was always on the look for her son. This instance brings her out as a victim of love as she could have chosen to love the husband alone or his son alone.
Ophelia also loves her father, Polonious, and her lover Hamlet. Polonious gives her daughter advice to strongly break up with Hamlet. Polonious knows her daughter must listen. As expected, Ophelia replies, “I shall obey my lord.” She says she will obey her father’s command as Hamlet was the one she could go to before she was married. Ophelia is unable to make a decision as she is not married to Hamlet. After listening to her father and agreeing not to meet with Hamlet, he reacts to her with anger, by mocking her that she will never find a better man. She does not defend herself against Hamlet as she could have done anything to win his affection. “Oh, woe is me that has seen what I have seen.” Ophelia cries, wishing she never angered Hamlet.
Ophelia is torn between two worlds to listen to his father, who says that Hamlet wants to use her as a sex tool and take her virginity away, and she would never become a wife. Her heart is convinced that Hamlet loves her, and this improves her dilemma. Is it the family or her lover. At a point, Ophelia lies to her lover Hamlet that polonoius is not home while he is hiding in the room. This shows that Ophelia can only be attached to one side. He lies to her lover and becomes a victim of love for his father.
After her father’s death, Ophelia’s relationship with Hamlet is ruined. This is because Hamlet thinks that all women are lusty and have no control over their sexual desires. “Frailty thy woman,” Hamlet comments. This makes him lose respect for women, including her mother. Ophelia’s life is, to a large extent, affected by the end of their relationship with Hamlet. Gertrude reports that Ophelia died while hanging some beautiful flowers. Ophelia becomes a victim of love.
Gertrude’s ambition to have good supplies in Denmark is believed to make her marry Claudius. Gertrude gets a quick remarriage after the death of her husband. Gertrude is remarried to the man that killed her husband. Questions arise on whether Gertrude knew about the plot to kill her husband by his brother, did she love her husband, Claudius. This instance shows how Gertrude becomes a victim of ambition as she remarries so as to continue getting station in Denmark after the death of her husband. The ambition to have a good life makes her move from one marriage to another. Her son Hamlet says, “But two months dead! Nay, not so much, not two.” Hamlet is angered by her mother as he argues that her mother never took the time to mourn his father’s death.
Hamlet’s ambition to avenge the death of his father makes him act like he is mad. He is so disturbed by his father’s death and wants to take revenge against her mother’s husband Polonious. His words, “As perchance to put on an antic disposition.” This means that Hamlet wanted to like he was mad without actually being mad. In Act 3 scene 4, the queen says, “Alas he is mad” this shows that his plan is working. The queen Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, becomes a victim of Hamlet’s madness makes her mother a victim of ambition. When she calls her son into her room, the king reaches there before and hides behind the curtain. The two are involved in an argument, and Hamlet says, “and would it were so you are my mother” this shows how much Hamlet is angered by her own mother. It is harsh for a mother to receive such words from her son. When Hamlet kills Polonious he accuses his mother of the crime, and he now believes he has avenged his father.
Love and ambition caused pain; two of the two women characters in the Hamlet. Many lessons can be drawn from these instances, among them self control. Self-control helps an individual chose his actions wisely and avoid hurting their feelings with that of the other people they interact with.
Works Cited.
Hosley, Richard, ed. Essays on Shakespeare and Elizabethan drama: in honour of Hardin Craig. Routledge, 2017.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Clarendon Press, 1912.