Men and Vengeance… and Women
“ Hamlet is one of the most dangerous things ever set down on paper. All the big, unknowable questions like what it is to be a human being; the difference between sanity and insanity; the meaning of life and death; what’s real and not real. All these subjects can literally drive you mad.” ­
Michael Sheen

One of the most celebrated Shakespearean plays, Hamlet , follows the tragic downfall of a young Prince Hamlet as he plummets into depression and apparent insanity after the death of his father. Consequently, Hamlet’s uncle, Claudius, inherits the throne and marries the widowed Queen Gertrude. When Hamlet has the opportunity to converse with his dead father’s spirit, Hamlet learns that his father was murdered by his brother, Claudius; hearing this, Hamlet devotes himself to requiting retribution on his uncle. In many of Shakespeare’s plays, it is a common theme that the quest for revenge drives one to insanity. Not only does Hamlet follow this trend, it introduces that men in Hamlet are the ones to seek vengeance upon others while bringing women down along with them, supporting Shakespeare’s usual portrayal of women as scapegoats. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, it is generally the male characters that tend to take action and seek revenge upon others, due to the cultural sexism during Shakespeare’s time of writing. In many of his plays, Shakespeare usually has men in focus, most likely because of the

Elizabethan era’s common stereotype of males being the superior gender. This stereotype played a large role in Shakespeare’s writing, seeing that men were recognized for their importance and independence they were perceived to have in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In Hamlet , only the male characters are the ones to inflict harm upon others in order to gain something in return, because only the males were seen as independent enough to make their own decisions. The beginning of Hamlet is a suitable example of this; the ghost of King Hamlet asks Hamlet to murder Claudius because of his prior actions of murdering the king out of his own selfishness. Although the King cannot do anything because of his current state of being, the ghost of King Hamlet is still seeking revenge by setting out a clear plan that will end up hurting someone in order to achieve what he wants. By devoting himself to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet is essentially setting out for revenge as well. Hamlet’s sole goal through the play is to seek vengeance in order to accommodate for his father’s murder, and by doing this, Hamlet hurts other people in return. Similarly, Claudius seeks revenge on Hamlet after Hamlet’s behavior has come to the point where it is uncontrollable. After Claudius tells Laertes the plan to kill Hamlet, Claudius puts reasoning to his revenge: “No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds” (IV.VII.145­146). Here, Claudius is trying to justify his actions, explaining that in no place a murderer should be protected from punishment. Although Claudius makes it seem like Hamlet deserves to be killed, Claudius knows he is acting in reprisal in order to dispose of Hamlet and his childish behavior. Throughout Shakespeare’s Hamlet , there are numerous examples in which males are the ones to take action and seek vengeance upon others, as a result of the era’s male dominant society.

Prince Hamlet’s devotion to avenging his father’s death led him to not only his own downfall, but the suicide of his fragile girlfriend at the time, Ophelia. Because of his unwavering “act” of insanity to gain attention from others, Hamlet develops deep into the role, or “becoming the part” as many renown twenty­first century actors commonly practice. However, once Hamlet falls into a trance­like state where nothing besides “acting the part” matters, Hamlet begins to stop caring about the people he is potentially hurting. One of the most evident examples of this in Hamlet is the suicide of Ophelia. Due to Hamlet being extremely wrapped up in his act, he treats Ophelia as if he is truly mad, acting strange and erratic. Because of Hamlet’s non­stop madness, Ophelia loses herself and winds up committing suicide because of her inability to cope with Hamlet’s actions. The sole reason Ophelia lets into her weakness is a result from Hamlet pulling her down, therefore supporting Shakespeare’s usual message of women giving into their femininity and weakness. Similarly to Ophelia’s case, Hamlet’s apparent insanity causes the fall of another woman in the play, Queen Gertrude. Although Queen Gertrude does not give into her weakness like Ophelia, she still experiences a downfall subsequent to her son’s severe actions. For instance, in Act III Scene IV, Hamlet fires assaults at his mother, slandering her about her unfaithfulness to King Hamlet as well as her ignorance to the actions that are occurring around her. As Hamlet continues to seek revenge to please his father’s ghost, he falls into a state where he does not care about others, allowing him to say incredibly rude remarks to his mother. Queen Gertrude says to Hamlet, “O, speak to me no more! These words like daggers enter in my ears” (III.IV.107­108), expressing how hurtful her son’s words are, piercing her ears as if they were daggers. Although

Gertrude does not physically give into her femininity and weakness like Ophelia, Hamlet’s mission to seek vengeance causes harm to his mother. Throughout the play, Hamlet , there are sufficient examples in which men are the ones who seek revenge, as well as how their vengeful actions cause the downfall of themselves and others, particularly women. During the era of Shakespeare’s writing, males were seen as stronger and able to make their own decisions, even if they are not the wisest decisions in Hamlet’s case. Even still, Hamlet, along with the rest of the men in Hamlet, appear to be strong and independent in comparison to the women. Because of their helplessness, the women in Hamlet are simply pulled down along with the man. Mary Shelley, a nineteenth century English author, says, “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves” (Shelley). Here, Shelley is trying to express how not only do women have less power than men, but women are helpless and do not have power over themselves either. This is closely related to the situation in Hamlet ; not only does Ophelia have no say over Hamlet’s actions, she is also helpless over herself so much so that she commits suicide because of her inability to deal with the predicament she is in with Hamlet. It is evident that in Hamlet, the reasoning behind the female characters’ downfall is because of the men who are so eager to seek vengeance. All things considered, the men in Hamlet seek revenge leading to their downfall, causing them to bring women down with them. Therefore, the men of Hamlet demonstrate Shakespeare’s common theme of women as helpless scapegoats. Throughout the novel, Shakespeare incorporates many different men who seek revenge, but Hamlet’s quest for vengeance leads to his and other women’s downfall. By intensely focusing on avenging his father’s murder, Hamlet

disregards all other aspects of his life, including his relationships with the women in his life. Sheen’s address of Hamlet as “one of the most dangerous things set down on paper” is accurate; Hamlet’s apparent insanity and unwavering focus on seeking revenge leads him to act out dangerously. During this time, Hamlet, a teenager, was an extremely intelligent and potentially over­thinking boy who could often get lost in his own head. Hamlet’s focus on revenge leads him to channel out everything that does not matter to him anymore, therefore causing not only his downfall, but others as well. Even though Hamlet was written during a time in which males were superior, the issue of inequality between the sexes is still occurring in the twenty­first century. Many women feel as though men have a large advantage over women in the economy, workforce, etc. The concern that males can weigh down females is also common today­ just take a look at Saudi Arabia. Still to this day, Saudi women are restricted from driving themselves in a car; they must have a male driver. Imagine constantly relying on a male to get from place to place, especially if they running late or driving too slow. As a result, women must rely on men and their actions, similar to the issue of men weighing down women in one of Shakespeare’s most acclaimed plays, Hamlet.