Hamlet and a Feminist Argument

An insightful point of view by some astute cultural Feminists is that "both the male and female psyches are a construction of cultural forces, such as class differences, racial and national differences, historical differences" (Cantar). What greater influential cultural force could there have been in Shakespeare's time than that of patriarchy? The patriarchal society of the Western world had powerfully negative implications for the freedom of women to express themselves, and in turn the psyche of the woman was almost exclusively subsumed (artistically, socially, linguistically, and legally) by the cultural psyche of the man. And sadly, the male regard for the female was interminably connected with the female body. It was acceptable, since dominance over women was the tacit assumption of men, that the female body was part of his 'property', and that its sexual objectification could be an open topic of conversation. Many of the Shakespearean plays make this very clear, including Hamlet.

Hamlet's sexual innuendo in his dialogue with Ophelia at the 'play' would have been transparent to a Renaissance audience, and apparently acceptable. Referring to a double meaning of 'nothing', Hamlet says to her: "That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs" (3.2.111). This seems like a tawdry kind of joke for a 'noble' prince to share with a young woman of the court; however, Hamlet is not reticent to speak it, and Ophelia herself seems not at all offended upon hearing it. But then, the author is male in a male-dominant culture, and is representing the dialogue from his point of view, not necessarily from the way a cultured woman would think or feel about such humour.

To Polonius, a little womanizing by his son, Laertes, is fine, but the greatest threat to the male patriarchal ego then, and the most feared disrupter of the social order, was cuckoldry, or unfaithfulness by the female. In that sense, Gertrude is made out by Jacqueline Rose as the symbolic "scapegoat of the play" (Wofford 195). Wofford interprets Rose to mean that Gertrude's actions are responsible for the disruption of Hamlet's possible resolution of his oedipal complex, and for the further disruption of the "ideal aesthetic unity" of the play (ibid). Marjorie Garber points out an abundance of phallocentric imagery and language in the play which tends to reveal Hamlet’s subconscious focus on his anxiety over his mother's apparent sexual infidelity as it relates to the complex (Garber 297-331). All these interpretations can only come from the male dialogue, for we have no knowledge revealed by the text concerning Gertrude's actual feelings or thoughts on these matters. In a sense, she is denied a voice in her own defence or representation. Likewise, "the object Ophelia" ("that is, the object of Hamlet's male desire") also needs representation--by someone outside the play--for as Elaine Showalter says she is portrayed in the play as "an insignificant minor character" created mainly as a catalyst for Hamlet's representation (220). Yet, as observed already, she is one of only two women in the play (excluding the 'player' Queen) and she has a larger part than Gertrude. Furthermore, as Showalter demonstrates, hers is an image that has been eclectically prominent and a character highly scrutinized in Western culture over the past four centuries. Paradoxically, Showalter's summary of Ophelia's character within the play is spectral-like in its descriptive power: "Deprived of thought, sexuality, language, Ophelia's story becomes the Story of / O—the zero, the empty circle or mystery of feminine difference, the cipher of / female sexuality to be deciphered by feminist interpretation." (222)

This depiction is reminiscent of many of the women in Shakespearean drama and comedy. Perhaps it begs for the efforts of interpretation that, by Showalter's account, so many have tried to make of Ophelia's character. An eloquent and scholarly interpretation of many of Shakespeare's women would surely be welcome.