William Shakespeare prevails as a timeless literary figure centuries after his death due to his unparalleled talent to use language and characterization to further the many themes he wishes to convey to his audience. Although Shakespeare has formulated his plays based upon stories that were already made, he infuses his own uniqueness by telling the narratives through his distinctive, thoughtfully developed characters. Shakespeare stylistically draws parallels between the major characters of his plays, deepening their characterization and the characterization of the other major characters within the play. In the revenge tragedy Hamlet, Shakespeare develops the two female characters, Ophelia and Gertrude, as characters who exude many clear similarities while simultaneously contrasting each other. Throughout the course of the play, Ophelia and Gertrude follow comparable trajectories, allowing the audience to identify the themes the two women depict together.
Both Gertrude and Ophelia are introduced to the audience as seemingly weak characters connected by their dissimilar ties to Hamlet, yet both inevitably fall victim to Hamlet’s mistreatment of women. The misogynistic views of Hamlet stemming from his mother’s faithlessness drive him to become increasingly insensitive in his thoughts and feelings towards both women in his life. Hamlet, fueled by anger with his mother’s decisions regarding her relationship with Claudius, verbally attacks her saying:
Mother, for love of grace, Lay not that mattering unction to your soul That not trespass but my madness speaks. It will but skin and film the ulcerous place, Whilst rank corruption, mining all within, Infects unseen. Confess yourself to heaven, Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come, And do not spread the compost on the weeds To make them ranker. (III. iv. 146-154)
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It is clear through Hamlet’s language that he is intentionally hurting his mother and instilling guilt in her to stop her from sleeping with Claudius unless she wishes to make her sins worse than they already are. Additionally, his word choice focusing on ulcers and infections suggests that Gertrude has some disease as a result of her “incestuous” behavior that will attack her from the inside out, in the same way her guilt will overcome her from the inside out. Gertrude endures Hamlet’s abuses, reacting with strong emotion and guilt for what she has done and who she has become. As a result, Gertrude remains faithful and dominated by Hamlet, which is shown in the way she protects him from Claudius soon after. Through the exchange between Hamlet and Gertrude, it is clear that Hamlet uses language as a tool to mistreat and manipulate his mother. The accusations of infidelity made by Hamlet towards Gertrude run parallel with those he makes to Ophelia a few scenes before.
Up until the play begins, it is surmised that Hamlet treated Ophelia with love. However, driven mad by his situation regarding his mother he generalizes all women, criticizing Ophelia and Gertrude alike. The exchange between Hamlet and Ophelia mirrors the exchange that Hamlet and Gertrude share. The clear resemblance between the two conversations in which Hamlet mistreats the two women in his life helps bring forth the theme of role and identity that is present within the play. Both women are clearly ridiculed and oppressed by Hamlet through his abusive language. Yet, these women serve an important role in this element as they showcase Hamlet in an unfavorable light, identifying him as a character the audience is not sure that they like despite his position as the protagonist of the play. Hamlet’s abusive language toward Ophelia can be seen when Hamlet chastises her and her femininity claiming, “I have heard of your paintings too, / well enough. God has given you one / face and you make yourselves / another. You jig amble, and you / lisp, you nickname God’s creatures / and make your wantonness your / ignorance” (III. i. 140-143).
The language Hamlet uses towards Ophelia is significant as he creatively weaves in the theme of seeming versus being while he attacks her beauty and womanhood. Hamlet uses the disingenuousness of make-up to highlight the manners in which women are untrustworthy. In Hamlet’s eyes the way women behave is similar to the way makeup covers their face, it is a façade, making women look in a way they are not truly. Hamlet contends that women in general pretend to be attractive and desirable, but once under the surface they are lies. Hamlet projects his feelings of distrust in Gertrude towards all women in general, including his once loved Ophelia. As a result, Ophelia is characterized by Hamlet as a weak character succumbing to the corrupt ways of women in society who attempt to mislead men through their sexual nature. In appearance, Ophelia is displayed by Hamlet as this character who tries to be something she is not, yet in essence Ophelia is one of the only characters in the play who remains genuine and honest.
Ophelia prevails as one of the most authentic characters of the play, remaining true to her beliefs compared to Gertrude who is a stark contrast in this circumstance as she engages in deception throughout the play. While Ophelia and Gertrude have a great deal in common with the way their relationships are dominated by Hamlet, they also have significant differences that add to the complexity of their characters and the themes involved as the issue of innocence versus guilt arises. Ophelia does not resort to scheming or lying like many of the other characters partake in during the play. She asks the right questions to Hamlet when given the chance and continues to be driven by her purity and unending love for Hamlet in her words and actions, even to the point of her own madness. Upon her death Laertes comments on her innocence stating, “Lay her i’th’earth, / And from her fair and unpolluted flesh / May violets spring! I tell thee, churlish priest, / A ministering angel shall my sister be / When thou liest howling” (V. i. 223-227). Laertes attests to Ophelia’s purity, with the violets that he speaks of that are to bloom from her grave symbolizing faithfulness and modesty, characteristics that Ophelia’s character embodied. Ophelia, representing faithfulness, purity, honesty, and authenticity could be considered the only truly innocent victim in Hamlet.
Gertrude on the other hand is characterized with far less innocence as she not only lies to herself about her questionable relationship with Claudius, but also lies to those around her in attempt to protect both herself and those she loves. Overwhelmed with guilt surrounding her hasty remarriage, Gertrude responded to Hamlet’s accusations about her poor behavior pleading, “O Hamlet, speak no more! / Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, / And there I see such black and grain spots / As will not leave their tinct” (III. iv. 88-91). Upon reflection Gertrude reveals her culpability and wrongdoings, begging Hamlet to stop as she acknowledges that these sins will never be able to be washed away. Gertrude’s word choice in this scene is significant as it shows a moral reawakening within her character as what once was gray matter regarding her actions in response to King Hamlet’s death and her remarriage was now “black and grain spots” tainting her soul. Although it was uncertain whether Hamlet was overreacting regarding the sensuous nature of his mother and her shallow decision making earlier in the play, it is clear in this scene that Gertrude did warrant some of the accusations made upon her by Hamlet even though they were much too harsh in their delivery. The presence of extreme guilt in her actions is clearly displayed to the audience showing her juxtaposition against the innocent and pure Ophelia.
In this manner, the words and actions of Ophelia and Gertrude are rather different despite undergoing the same misogynistic ridicule by Hamlet. The different ways that both Ophelia and Gertrude responded to the circumstances they were both presented with helped put meaning to their different forms of death. Ophelia, characterized as innocent and driven mad by her love for Hamlet, is a victim of uncontrollable circumstances, making her to be commonly considered one of the only innocent victims in a play plagued with death, deceit, and corruption. Contrarily, Gertrude is a victim of the circumstances she put herself in through the corrupt choices she made before the play even started. In comparing these two major females’ characters, Shakespeare is able to develop them both as women placed in the same contextual circumstances of being mistreated and manipulated by Hamlet, yet they experience dissimilar demises due to the disparity of innocence and guilt between them.
In Hamlet, William Shakespeare uses many creative elements to develop the play. While Gertrude and Ophelia are not as well developed within the play, the comparison drawn between the two characters through their actions, language and role in the play further along the characterization of Hamlet and themes that Shakespeare wishes to portray to the audience. Both Ophelia and Gertrude are used as supplemental characters to the main character Hamlet. Shakespeare is able to brilliantly capitalize on their existence in the play and utilizes them in the grander scheme of the storyline. Additionally, Shakespeare illuminates different materialization of human character using them. Though both are victims of the same issue and nearly the same fate, both characters have dissimilar natures. As a result, Ophelia and Gertrude respond differently to the conditions and the disparate roles they serve to the play. In this manner, Shakespeare intelligently transformed a well-known story of the time, into a revenge tragedy that would pervade for centuries after.
