IndexIntroductionThe genre of madnessCourt life and the oppression of womenOpheliaConclusionWorks CitedIntroductionPast critics have considered Ophelia an insignificant and marginal character in Shakespeare's Hamlet, who only works to further define Hamlet. One of these critics, Jacques Lacan, interprets Ophelia as a mere object of Hamlet's sexual desire: she is essential only because she is inextricably linked to Hamlet. Literary criticism denies Ophelia a story and purpose of her own and, instead, her character remains entirely dependent on Hamlet. Hamlet's suffering and madness are constantly in the foreground, while Ophelia's madness and death are attributed simply to the weakness and frailty of her sex. Since then feminist critics have responded to Lacan and other male critics and attempted to “tell” Ophelia's story, independently of Hamlet and the male perspective; but what is Ophelia's story, and does she even have one? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay As one feminist critic, Lee Edwards, admits, “We can imagine the story of Hamlet without Ophelia, but Ophelia literally has no story without Hamlet” (36 ). It could be argued that Shakespeare's masculinity influenced his constructions of the feminine and that the presence of female characters in his plays serves solely to reinforce stereotypes and further define male characters; or, even if Shakespeare managed to transcend the patriarchal ideology of his time, male-dominated criticism imposed these constructions on Shakespeare's female characters. Whatever the case may be, I disagree with Edwards' assertion that Ophelia does not have a story independent and distinct from Hamlet. In this article I aim to dissolve these gender-distorted representations of the feminine so that we can reconstruct Ophelia's oppressed identity within the patriarchal structure of early modern society and reevaluate the meaning of her character within the play. I am taking a feminist approach to my article because I am interested in investigating feminist issues such as sexual objectification, gender roles, inequality and oppression in patriarchal society. This approach allows me to examine the role and experience of women in society. I am interested in the representation of the female condition in Hamlet, as well as the evolution of madness as a gendered construct and how this cultural stigma offers yet another means of defining gender roles. Furthermore, within this approach I hope to observe how the presence and pervasion of the spectacle in real society pressured, and I would even say forced, individuals to fill appropriate gender roles and behave according to social norms, since at Within the social hierarchy those at the top set the standard for the rest of society and thereby maintain social order and normality. A feminist reading of Shakespeare's text highlights Ophelia's character and the distinctly gendered nature of her madness and death. Through this approach I hope to redefine the character of Ophelia and her meaning not only in the play, but also as a representative of the oppression of aristocratic women in early modern society more generally. The genre of madness In this section I focus in particular on what might be called figurative madness. Contrary to the literal sense of the word, figurative madness has the potential to take on a variety of representational, symbolic, and metaphorical meanings. In thepolitical, patriarchal and royal society in which Shakespeare's Hamlet is set, madness serves as a metaphor for sedition and the subversion of authority and dominant ideologies (Salkeld) (Coddon). This manifests as political ambition in rebellious men and women who have transcended the limitations of their gender role. When Ophelia is first introduced as mad in Act 4 Scene 5, she is consistently characterized as distracted or divided. Right at the beginning of the act, the Gentleman remarks to the Queen, in reference to Ophelia, that "She is troublesome , indeed it distracts" (4.5.2). The stage directions then inform the audience: "Enter Ophelia [distracted, hair down, playing a lute]" (4.5). Shortly thereafter, the king remarks on Ophelia's departure, "poor Ophelia / Divided from herself and her just judgment" (4.5.83-4). Distracted is defined as “separated; divided” or “mentally attracted to different objects; perplexed or confused by conflicting interests” (OED). Shakespeare uses this term specifically to define the type of madness that affects Ophelia. Her madness represents the division and conflict between her internal, private notions and the patriarchal ideology of the external culture that is imposed on her. Within this patriarchal and hierarchical society, the king served as a microcosm for the entire kingdom: this microcosm was represented predominantly through the analogy of the body. Levinus Leminius describes this analogy in his The Touchstone of Complexions: “All the members of the body are so connected and united together, and such participation and consent is among them, that if one of the smallest joints, or the little finger of a bee, is hurt or pained, the whole body is troubled and deprived of rest” (Salkeld 81). All members of the society constituted various parts of the king's body and contributed to the healthy state of the kingdom. Insane or seditious individuals threatened the health of the kingdom and needed to be controlled or purged. In Hamlet, Rosencrantz offers another analogy of the king as microcosm: he is a massive wheel fixed on the top of the highest mountain, at whose [enormous] spokes ten thousand lesser things are dead and united, and when he falls, Every little appendage, petty Consequently, he participates in the turbulent [ruin]. Never aloneThe King sighed, but [with] a general groan (3.3.17-22). Similar to the idea of ​​the body and its parts, the king here is compared to a wheel and its spokes. In this passage lies the idea that the interests of the monarch are synonymous with the interests of the entire kingdom, because all lower social beings are completely dependent on him. These analogies, along with the notion of divine right, support the idea that the voice of authority naturally takes on the voice of reason and supreme sanity. As Duncan Salkeld states in Madness and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare, “the king's body unified social relations and legitimized the hierarchy of ranks that stratified those relations” (57). In other words, the king's body established specific social relationships and prescribed corresponding identities to individuals; since the creator of these social identities was the supreme voice of authority and reason, then any individual who attempted to transcend or disrupt this order would be perceived as mad or careless. Consequently, madness was perceived as a threat to the Crown and signaled the “failures of sovereignty and reason” (Salkeld2). The portrayal of Ophelia as distracted or divided in Shakespeare's Hamlet demonstrates the distinctly gendered nature of madness. Through madness Ophelia confronts her anxieties about identity in a patriarchal world and asserts her difference and opposition to male power. Her perplexity and confusion derive from the conflict that emerges from her double identity: the one imposed on her by society and the other emerging from her own person. The oppressed identityOphelia's life temporarily comes to light when her lover goes mad and is deported, her brother leaves for another country and her father is murdered. The men closest to her who have constantly shaped her identity have abandoned her and for once she thinks about herself and explores her own identity. Carol Neely explores this concept further in Distracted topics: Madness and Gender in Shakespeare and Early Modern Culture. He argues that madness was not a static concept but was evolving and undergoing widespread change during the early modern period: the theater served as a catalyst to stimulate this change. The public stage served to teach the public how to identify madness and distinguish between different types of madness. Madness was represented in new ways, creating new subcategories of distracting conditions such as lovesickness and melancholy, which took on changed gender associations. Neely states, “The gendered boundaries of the secular human subject were redefined through their dislocations and excesses” (2). Men were believed to be governed by their intellect and rational thought, while women, it was assumed, were guided only by their passions. Furthermore, men's madness was associated with intellectual and imaginative genius, while women's madness was seen as biological and emotional. These gender constructs are demonstrated in Shakespeare's Hamlet through the contrasting representations of madness in the characters of Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet's madness is characterized predominantly by his overactive intellect, as demonstrated by his witty wordplay. Polonius observes through private conversation with him, "Though this be madness, yet there is method in it" (2.2.203-4), and Guildenstern describes how Hamlet uses "cunning madness" to evade Guildenstern's attempts and Rosencrantz to identify the cause of his aberrant behavior. Furthermore, Hamlet's madness is not seen as biological and natural, but as something that transcends biology. His madness is more of a strategy, rather than an involuntary disorder. Hamlet warns Horatio and Marcellus early in the play that he may "put an old-fashioned disposition" (1.5.172). This line suggests that Hamlet will act or portray himself as a madman to get his revenge. In contrast, Ophelia's madness is based solely on excess emotions. Instead of witty puns, Ophelia expresses her madness through music (playing the lute) and singing. Furthermore, nothing indicates that Ophelia is “acting” crazy, but instead her madness is described as natural, or part of her nature. Ophelia's constant association with flowers, first when she distributes flowers to members of the court during her madness, and then when the queen gives an account of Ophelia's death, connects Ophelia and her state with femininity and nature. Therefore, the representations of madness in Ophelia and Hamlet are clearly and distinctly gendered. Court life and oppression of women The presence and significance of entertainment in real society pushed individuals to fill appropriate gender roles and behave according to social norms. I am interested in how the spectacle was used by aristocratic society to maintain control over the lower classes and how this might have had further implications affecting the upper classes as well. If the masses were conditioned to learn visually through spectacle, then court society would inherit the weighty responsibility of displaying and embodying correct and traditional social behavior, including abstinence from premarital sex, murder, and transcendence of typical roles of type. In Louis Montrose's book, The Purpose of Playing, he emphasizes the dual natureof subjectivity: “on the one hand, it models individuals as places of consciousness and, on the other, it positions them, motivates them and binds them internally: it subjugates them. their a – social networks and cultural codes that ultimately surpass their understanding or control” (16). Because of the social hierarchical order established in early modern society, certain behaviors, dress, and other external and visible attributions were expected among the upper classes. classes. Outward appearances and displays of spectacle were necessary for the aristocracy to maintain its position as the ruling class. Especially in a time when social mobility was becoming more common, the upper classes especially had to further redefine class boundaries to maintain separation and distinction. Expectations of behavior and conduct in early modern society were decidedly gendered. Literature of conduct during the Renaissance established some rules for women's public and private behavior and outlined ideal female virtues, such as chastity, obedience, humility, and silence. Fathers and husbands were responsible for teaching and enforcing this prescriptive role for women. When we first see Ophelia in the play, she is informed first by her brother Laertes and then by her father Polonius about Hamlet's affection towards her. This scene illustrates the role of men in teaching young women how to behave in society, including the importance of preserving their virtue. Polonius: Do you believe his offers, what do you call them? Ophelia: I don't know, my lord, what I should think. Polonius: Marry, I will teach you (1.3.103-05) Ophelia lacks reason and the rational structures that would allow her to think for herself; instead, she is portrayed as a blank slate where the men in her life can write the conditions of her identity. To all this, of course, Ophelia passively shows her obedience: "I will obey, my lord" (1.4.136). The social restrictions placed on women created a distinction between what women were asked or expected to be and what women actually were. This discrepancy is expressed by Ophelia during her madness when she says to the king, "Lord, we know what we are, but we know not what we might be" (4.5.43-4). Although this statement reveals Ophelia as a woman capable of recognizing the gender role imposed on her, some women have internalized the dominant ideology of their culture so that the external identity imposed on them has become synonymous with their internal one. Men of this time claimed that they could distinguish good women from bad ones only by outward signs. For example, a woman who was full of words, loud, bold, brazen, shameless and wearing makeup was considered a prostitute, while a woman who kept her true complexion and was temperate in her mind, silent in her tongue and shyness in her face was considered a good woman (Aughterson 96). The importance of outward spectacle was central to a woman's identity. In act 3 scene 1 Polonius instructs Ophelia how to act in Hamlet's presence:Ophelia, walk hither.-Gracious, then please, we will indulge. [To Ophelia.] Continue reading this book, that the spectacle of such an exercise can color your [solitude]. We are often responsible for this - it is too demonstrated - that by pious expression and pious action we soften the devil himself (3.1.43-8). Religious piety was also a valued quality in a woman; however, as this situation demonstrates, the outward representation of such piety was far more important than genuine internal devotion. The two most significant things to note about this passage are Polonius' use of the imperative and the references to affectation. The most wayPolonius's convenience in addressing his daughter is with imperative language - "accompany you here", "read this book" - commanding or advising his daughter to behave in a certain way. Polonius' speech is also permeated by affected diction, such as "show", "colour", "face", and "sugar o'er". This very clearly suggests that he is not so much interested in the essential goodness and beauty of his daughter, but in the outward representation of herself. Although the importance of conduct and behavior pervaded society at all levels, it was especially crucial for women of the higher social classes. classes. The social structure of the “nation was regulated by obedience to a hierarchy of superiors that reached up to the King”: this included a hierarchy within the family where women and children obeyed the man of the house (Stone 21). The distinct stratification of different social classes of men was important in maintaining social order, and outward expression and outward spectacle, such as good manners, clothing, and extravagant luxuries, were important in distinguishing classes. Aristocratic society was forced to spend a lot to maintain a lifestyle as the world expected of them. Within a society based on spectacle and self-fashioning, an individual's appearance and possessions became crucial to maintaining a higher order in society. Spectacle pervaded early modern aristocratic culture and was used not only to display and flaunt one's wealth, but also to maintain society. order and authority over the lower classes. Queen Elizabeth is one of the best-known creators of entertainment. He believed in advertising himself by touring the country to show himself to his loving subjects and to sample their hospitality. Elizabeth adorned herself with extravagant clothing and rich jewelry and participated in summer "progresses," which were ceremonial journeys or pageants through her land. In these parades the nobles hosted her in their homes and flattered her with pleasures and expensive gifts. These occasional advances were extremely detrimental to the nobles living in the area, as the cost of entertaining the queen drove many into bankruptcy. In addition to his spectacular performances, his court at home took on theatrical elements, where the “court moved in a romantic atmosphere, with music, dancing, theatrical performances, and the elaborate costumed entertainments called masques” (Greenblatt, “General” 20) . Elizabeth, who was initially deemed unfit to rule due to her gender, was able to gain authority over her court and country through this theatrical construct, which came to be called the “cult of love.” The French ambassador during her reign is said to have remarked of her, “She is a princess who can play any part she wants” (Greenblatt, “General” 21). Elizabeth requested that her subjects address her with love poems, and she also responded in this way1. Furthermore, due to the enormous pressure placed on her to marry and secure an heir, she feigned interest in a number of domestic and foreign suitors without any genuine desire to marry. In this way, Elizabeth used the spectacle to gain authority over her court and her country. Although the show became a tool for aristocrats to gain authority, it also had rebound effects. Catherine Bates observes that from the fifteenth century “the court became a self-conscious model for the exercise – social, bureaucratic and public – of royal hegemony” and that because it was “perceived as a center of political and cultural activity, the court became the center of attention” (9). Since the upper class was associated with entertainment and therefore always "on stage", or in the spotlight so to speak,for people to see and observe it, it became a necessary responsibility for them to embody correct and appropriate social behavior. Such strict provisions would limit sexual relations, violent acts, gender roles and other immoral and unconventional behaviors that could incite the masses to abandon the social order. Stephen Greenblatt in his Renaissance Self-Fashioning: More to Shakespeare, emphasizes “the politically designated self-fashioning of elites who dramatize in their infinite variety of public manifestations those imaginary means through which power seeks to contain and control the ever-undisciplined body of power . state." While this system was mostly successful, the extreme importance that the culture placed on such self-fashioning specified and limited the models of selfhood available to an individual within it; and for women whose identity was limited at all levels of the social scale, this effect was particularly stifling. Throughout the first part of the opera, Ophelia's presence on the stage is marginal and passive. the only action in which she takes part is entirely manipulated and predetermined by the male characters. Only in the second half of the work, through madness and death, Ophelia takes control of her own "story" and acts independently of the men in her life Ophelia dominates Act 4 Scene 5 and offers a striking contrast to her passivity and obsequious role in previous scenes. In this scene, Ophelia barely lets the other characters in the court speak, repeatedly interrupting them with “No, please, report it ". The King attempts to redirect her to her appropriate gender role with his various addresses and responses: "The beautiful Ophelia!" (4.5.56) and "Presumption about his father" (4.5.45). Her reaction to Ophelia's madness illustrates the forces of patriarchal ideology on women. It emphasizes certain aspects of female identity, such as beauty or a pleasant outward appearance, as well as the tendency for women to be imaginative or moody. However, Ophelia steadfastly resists and transcends these boundaries. Ophelia, who has been conditioned to obey and remain silent, now finds a voice through her “madness.” For the first time Ophelia takes control of the world around her and expresses herself freely and without restrictions. Although the members of the court believe her to be mad, it is clear through careful reading that, beneath the shroud of song, Ophelia's dialogue contains truths regarding the current situation. In her first burst of lyricism, Ophelia lays bare the queen's lack of faithfulness and her fickleness in love: "How should I know your true love / From another?" (4.5.23-4) Although the intended meaning underlying Ophelia's songs will forever remain obscure and equivocal, the fact that Ophelia formally addresses her song to the Queen suggests that it applies specifically to her person, and in this case object of extreme guilt and shame for the Queen. Next, just as the king enters the scene, Ophelia sings, “All larded with sweet flowers, / That cried to the ground did not go / With showers of true love” (4.5.38-40). In this passage Ophelia may well be alluding to the dishonorable deaths and burials of both her father and the late King Hamlet. Polonius' murder was covered up and his death remained publicly obscure while his burial was hastily carried out. Likewise, King Hamlet was buried without “showers of true love,” indicating his wife's lack of mourning after his death. In both cases, the men do not receive the formal and honorable burial ceremony they deserve because of the king and queen. Finally, Ophelia's songs evokesexual themes. His last song suggests the nature of his personal relationship with Hamlet. He sings: "He said, 'Before you made me fall, / You promised to marry me.' / (He answers.) 'Thus I would have done yonder in the sun, / And thou hadst not come to my bed'” (4.5.62-6). , his sudden speech advising her to go to the convent and stating that he never loved her, and Ophelia's obsequious and passive position as a woman of lesser quality than Hamlet, all inform the hypothesis that Ophelia had premarital sex with Hamlet. Through Ophelia's seemingly "mad" singing displays, she expresses the many corruptions of the royal court. Throughout the play the king shows anxiety regarding Hamlet's madness and hires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to deport him to England by stating: " He neither likes nor resists. "He is safe with us / To let his madness roam" (3.3.1-2). Ultimately, he plots with Laertes to kill Hamlet with poison. Likewise, the queen is tormented out of guilt for his past actions and attempts to silence Ophelia. The queen's account of Ophelia's death at the end of scene 1 of act 5 is notable for its language and thoroughness. The language itself attempts to place Ophelia in the eternal state of constructed female identity. The Queen sets the stage with images of nature, describing the willow and its “hoary leaves,” “the glassy stream” and the “fantastic garlands” that Ophelia makes with various types of flowers. He then explains how Ophelia “fell into the brook weeping. . . as a creature native and induced / to that element” (5.1.166-182). This stream is an element of nature, but is also personified as crying. Laertes, immediately after this description, comments on the femininity of crying: “It is our trick, Nature keeps her costume, / Let shame say what it will; when these are gone, / The woman will be out” (5.1.187-9). In this way, the Queen attempts to create an image that is beautiful and natural: the image of the woman that was predicted by early modern gender stereotypes. John Everett Millais's Ophelia adequately captures the Queen's account of Ophelia's death. She represents her death as beautiful and natural, with her ornamental dress lying in the water and the natural scenery surrounding her. Millais' portrait also serves to objectify the female body and eternalize the representation of female identity, which Ophelia had tried to escape. Given the desperate motives behind the king and queen to silence Ophelia and Hamlet's madness, it is possible to interpret this off-stage death as murder, rather than suicide. The queen is the only witness to Ophelia's death, and her account is so detailed and exhaustive that the reader can only be skeptical of her claim that Ophelia committed suicide. This possibility also offers a reason why the queen would try to convince her audience that Ophelia's death was entirely natural. In this way, Hamlet's royal and authoritative figures use the cultural stigma of madness to confine, silence, and reject Ophelia and her unruly behavior. Considering Ophelia's oppressed status within aristocratic and patriarchal society, it is equally possible that she drowned herself in an act of suicide. In Hamlet's famous soliloquy in Act 3 Scene 1, "To be or not to be," he states that his fear of the afterlife and the unknown prevents him from taking his own life. In light of this speech, Ophelia's act becomes courageous and heroic because she is able to do something that Hamlet is too cowardly to do. Ophelia fearlessly faces the unknown to escape suffering and.