Women and sex

Throughout the play, Hamlet demonstrates an intense preoccupation with women and their seemingly weak control over emotions (as per the Elizabethan subjective framework). Within Shakespeare’s context, there were a lot of enforced stereotypes, including the roles of women in society. Women were expected to be domestic and submissive, and experienced prejudice as the ‘inferior’ sex. Hamlet feels betrayed by the women in his life, namely Gertrude through her marriage to Claudius, and Ophelia through her rejection of Hamlet’s love. It is worth noting that both Gertrude and Ophelia’s betrayals were as a result of self-preservation and obedience, which was the typical behaviour expected of Elizabethan women. As a result, Hamlet lost his faith in women and tried very hard to reinforce the female stereotypes. His imperative demand to Ophelia, “Get three to a nunnery,” underscores his view that the only legitimate roles of women in society are either chaste lives like nuns, or lustful, sinful lives like brothel workers.