Toxic masculinity affects many young men, especially those vulnerable after they lose someone they love. The toxic masculinity in a patriarchal society attacks vulnerable men, guiding them to be toxic without anyone to protect them from it. This is demonstrated in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, where Hamlet loses himself to the toxic masculinity after the loss of his father. In Hamlet, Shakespeare demonstrates how Hamlet is the product of toxic masculinity from a patriarchal society, causing him to disregard the women in his life by objectifying them, leading to tragedy. In a patriarchal society, men are expected to have authority, causing vulnerable men to be affected by toxic masculinity. Hamlet is the prince of Denmark, therefore he holds more expectations …show more content…
Hegemonic masculinity is related to toxic masculinity where it “restricts the kinds of emotions allowable for boys and men to express” (Amaefula 2). Therefore, men are expected to have little emotions to seem strong, especially in a political view. When Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet died, Hamlet was expected to get over the grief quickly. His mother, Gertrude advised Hamlet to “cast thy nighted color off” and stop grieving for his recently passed father since “all lives must die” (1.2 ll.68). King Hamlet’s father died around two months before, so it’s understandable that Hamlet is still grieving as everyone deals with grief differently. Nonetheless, his mother doesn’t care about that and just tells him to stop mourning without consoling him. In addition, Claudius calls Hamlet “unmanly” for grieving, but Gertrude just stays silent at the comment (1.2 ll. 92-94). Hamlet is vulnerable from losing his father, but for his step-father to call him unmanly and his mother ignoring it, Hamlet is affected by the toxic masculinity around him. For example, Hamlet compares himself to prince Fortinbras, “a tender prince whose spirit …show more content…
Hamlet is affected by hegemonic masculinity in a patriarchal society, where he wants to “reinforce his superiority”, by “[devaluting] women” (Amaefula 2). This can be seen when Hamlet “tumbled” Ophelia and promised to “wed” after. However, not only did Hamlet break his promise after taking Ophelia’s virginity, Hamlet gaslights Ophelia, telling her he would have married her if “thou hadst not come” to his bed (4.5 l.62). Hamlet lies to Ophelia and even blames her for trusting him. The toxic masculinity from Hamlet’s surroundings causes Hamlet to assert his dominance by using Ophelia and throwing her away like an useless object, going as far as manipulating her and saying it's her fault for listening to him. In addition, not only does Hamlet manipulate Ophelia, he also insults her, telling her to “get thee to a nunnery” because he believes that Ophelia is a prostitute, blindly following the orders of others like her father and even Hamlet himself (3.1 l.119). Hamlet’s “honey” and “music vows” are the reason Ophelia got tricked and Hamlet has the audacity to insult Ophelia after manipulating and blaming Ophelia (3.1 l.150). Hamlet devalues Ophelia and does whatever he wants and not caring about the consequences because in a patriarchal society, “men's dominance over women” (Connell & Messerschmidt 832) is normal and encouraged by toxic masculinity since it “reinforces his
One primary example which proves the insanity behind Hamlet’s loss of love for Ophelia is when he berates her for being a pawn of her father. During his encounter with Ophelia, Hamlet states that, “If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague for thy dowry. Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a nunnery, go. Farewell” (x).
In Hamlet, men in Ophelia's life took advantage of her to get what they sought, political power or something else. For instance, Polonius desired Ophelia to marry a powerful man so badly that it caused him to die. He thought Ophelia could fulfill his goals if she held herself to a higher standard (Act 1, Scene 3). Polonius misinterpreted Hamlet's return to Ophelia later in the play as a show of love because he needed to be seen as belonging to the upper class. He thinks Hamlet admires Ophelia and wants the two of them to wed. Even though he passed dead in the Elsinore
I agree with the quotes that both Rosencratz and Laertes said about Hamlet because of the particular pressure of having less freedom to do as he wants is understandable, knowing that his, King Claudius’s and Gertrudes decisions affect everyone in Denmark, not just themselves or just a few like ordinary people. At the beginning of the novel, Prince Hamlet, was so emotional about the loss of his father, that even his mother Gertrude and uncle Claudius would talk about how moody he had been. Prince Hamlet was really upset with his mother because he viewed the marriage between her and Claudius as being her fault. I think Hamlet had to just suck it up and move on because there was nothing Hamlet could do to have them separate from each other. A
Hamlet became a paranoid and revenge ridden man due to his grief and this was somewhat known within the main characters, yet no one tried to lock him up like they did Ophelia. This is a prime example of how little faith people had in women and the mistreatment that stemmed from
Hamlet once again fails to understand that Ophelia much like himself is only trying to stay loyal to her father, much like what he is doing himself. In addition, Hamlet blames woman for giving birth to such evil and deceiving men like Claudius and himself. When he was talking to Ophelia he told her "Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners? I am myself indifferent honest, but yet I could accuse me of such things that it were better
Eventually, he gets revenge on King Claudius, kills Laertes, and dies. Shakespeare utilizes the character Hamlet to portray the complications within society’s ideal of being a real man, as all men are different and handle situations in multiple ways. Throughout the play society’s portraits of real men are defined, such as Laertes and young Fortinbras, who are foils to Prince Hamlet. They possess something the young Danish prince does not have, a manly reputation.
He resents his mother because she did not hesitate to remarry immediately following the passing of King Hamlet; in Hamlet’s eyes, she cannot live independently because she is a fragile, powerless woman as all women are. Hamlet says, after complaining about Gertrude’s hasty remarriage, “frailty, thy name is woman” (1.2 150). His judgment of his mother’s character led to his generalization of all women being frail and helpless. Hamlet extends this judgment to his evaluation of Ophelia’s character. He believes that because she is female, she must be deceitful and adulterous.
Back around the 16th to 17th century men had very clear gender roles. Society dictated that men needed to be emotionless and powerful leaders. Showing too much emotion or shying away from any challenges was shown as cowardly and weak. These same ideas translate directly into Hamlet in many situations. First off all, in Act I Scene II Claudius makes sure to condemn Hamlet for showing so much grief over his father’s death
Gertrude’s actions make Hamlet fearful of Ophelia because of the potential for betrayal. Hamlet thinks all women are unfaithful because of the actions of his mother. Hamlet projects the anger he has for Gertrude onto Ophelia. Hamlet treats Ophelia in a disrespectful manner.
For the duration of the play, Ophelia was portrayed as a naïve and submissive woman. Her passivity and powerlessness reinforce the voicelessness of women during the Elizabethan era. For example, “I shall obey, my lord” (I.iii.134) shows that Ophelia concedes to her father’s will, even though she believes Hamlet’s love is genuine. She is willing and expected to obey her father despite the fact that she still loves Hamlet, which emphasizes her character’s submissive nature. Furthermore, in Act I Laertes warns Ophelia that it would be shameful of her to love Hamlet, and she responds with “I shall the effect of this good lesson keep as a watchman to my heart” (I.iii.45).
Hamlet has not only become distraught from his conniving and lying stepfather but also his mother, Queen Gertrude as well. The unfaithfulness that Gertrude shows to Hamlet’s father and Hamlet has a toll on him and plays a part in his insanity. The facade that Hamlet displays slowly leads to his insanity, causing him to show mistreated love towards Ophelia. In the beginning of the play, Ophelia displays a very honest
Throughout the conversation and various parts of the play, Hamlet expresses his disgust for his mother 's actions. He insults her by comparing his father to Hyperion and Claudius to a satyr. He tells Gertrude not to sin by sleeping with him and tells her she is nothing but lustful for marrying a man like Claudius when he says, “That blurs the grace and blush of modesty,/ Calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose/ From the fair forehead of an innocent love/ And sets a blister there, makes marriage vows/
Hamlet does not value Ophelia 's feelings he belittles her. In Hamlets defense this is the way he was brought up to treat women, during that time this was a common way to treat a women. Even though in today 's society it is not at all ok to treat women with such disrespect. He also likes for everything to go as planned and this may result in why he can not have a stable relationship with a woman. This also causes him to have many stumbling blocks in his life that causes some emotional pain
The leading force for Hamlet’s behavior to change is his mother marrying her dead husband’s brother two months later. In the play Hamlet states “O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason/ Would have mourned longer-married with my uncle,/ My father’s brother, but no more like my father” ( I.ii.150-152). This explains that Hamlet is frustrated because his mother moved on so fast and it seemed to him that she never really loved King Hamlet. Hamlet also claims that “Together with all forms, moods, shapes of grief,/That can denote me truly” ( I.ii.82-83 ). Hamlet is trying to tell his mother Queen Gertrude how he feels after the
He did not innately hate all women, but slowly as he reserved rejection after rejection he snapped. Hamlet’s relationships differed between Gertrude and Ophelia, but both had the same goal of Hamlet having someone to love and care about him. With the goal of compassion being accomplished, he spiralled in a growing hatred of the female population. Hamlet’s misogyny is not the result sexual repression , but rather his environment and the interactions with women. Ernest Jones argues that Hamlet’s misogyny stems from the sexual repression of Gertrude and Ophelia.