Hamlet #5

     The hypocrisy coming from the men of the play is unbelievable! Whenever Shakespeare wants to allude to deception or duplicity, a female reference will soon follow. However, the primary source of treachery and betrayal resides within the male characters.

     The image of women in this play is linked with derogatory and misgiving connotations such as untruthful and conniving. As a sliver of guilt begins to emerge from the King about his prior deceitful actions, he compares himself to a whore: "The harlot's cheek beautied with plast'ring art / Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it / Than is my deed to my most painted word. / O heavy burden!" (III.i.59-62). The audience is under the impression that Claudius killed his brother, the King, in order to be enthroned himself and marry Gertrude. A promiscuous woman may have more than one bed friend, but to stoop so low as to compare murder and treason to undisciplined sexuality is a little out of proportion. Similarly, Hamlet is quick to judge and make assumptions about an entire gender. Poor Ophelia has obeyed her father's wishes to resist the temptation of Hamlet even though she cares deeply for him. When Hamlet and Ophelia are united, Hamlet denies his love for her and then criticizes and condemns the unfaithful fate of all women: "God hath given you one face, and you / make yourselves another" (III.i.155-56). He lashes out on all of womankind, and he adds his comment about God to show that women are not only unfaithful to their husbands, but also to God and religion. Womankind is consistently degraded and accused of being deceitful and conniving by the men in the play.

     The irony of this accusation is that the majority of the duplicitous actions are performed by the men. Claudius is the one who supposedly murdered his brother, and subsequently (metaphorically) poisoned the ear of the kingdom through his false grief and dishonest motives. Polonius attempted to use Hamlet's friends and lover against him, contrary to their desires. And finally, Hamlet is the most deceitful character of all! The twenty year old is concocting a plan to overthrow the king on account of a rumor he heard from a ghost. He also turns his back on his loving Ophelia, and he cannot seem to keep his stories straight. Hamlet says, "I did love you once" (III.i.125), and then less than four lines later he says, "I loved you not" (III.i.129). Hamlet is beginning to utter multiple variations of the same concept because he is internally struggling with his own duplicity. The men in this play have committed far greater acts of betrayal and deception thus far, yet the women act as a scapegoat for the manipulative thoughts and actions plaguing the men.