English Notes

“Ophelia and Gertrude are significant characters in the play, Hamlet, despite having no power over their own destinies”

Do you agree or disagree with this statement? In your answer, you should refer to the play to support your points.

In Hamlet, the women of Elsinore — Gertrude and Ophelia — occupy a world defined by male authority, yet their apparent passivity conceals profound thematic significance. Shakespeare presents both women as victims of patriarchal control, but he also uses them to illuminate key ideas about power, corruption, and moral frailty. Although they have little agency over their fates, Gertrude and Ophelia’s experiences mirror the moral decay of Denmark itself, making them central to the play’s tragic vision.

At first glance, Gertrude appears to be complicit in the corruption of Elsinore. Her “o’er hasty marriage” to Claudius seems to confirm Hamlet’s disgust: “Frailty, thy name is woman.” To Hamlet, her actions embody female weakness and moral instability. However, Shakespeare’s portrayal is more complex. Gertrude’s swift remarriage may reveal emotional dependence or political pragmatism rather than pure lust or betrayal. As queen, her position is defined entirely by her relationships to men — first her husband, then her son — yet within these confines, she demonstrates flashes of moral awareness.

In the closet scene (Act III, Scene iv), Gertrude’s confrontation with Hamlet exposes both her vulnerability and her conscience. When Hamlet forces her to “see what a rash and bloody deed” she has enabled, her genuine remorse becomes clear: “O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.” This moment of recognition suggests a degree of self-awareness absent from Claudius or Polonius. Even if she cannot reverse her choices, she achieves moral clarity, making her more than a mere pawn in the tragedy.

Her final act — drinking from the poisoned cup meant for Hamlet — is often read as accidental, yet it can also be interpreted as a symbolic gesture of loyalty and repentance. In defying Claudius’s command “Do not drink,” she asserts agency for perhaps the first time. Her death thus completes a tragic arc from ignorance to enlightenment, showing that her significance lies not in political influence but in moral transformation. Gertrude’s powerlessness is the point: through her, Shakespeare dramatizes how female identity is constrained by a world of masculine ambition.

If Gertrude’s downfall arises from compromise, Ophelia’s tragedy is born of obedience. From her first appearance, she is silenced and controlled by the men around her. Polonius instructs her to reject Hamlet’s love as “tenders of affection,” treating her emotions as a threat to family reputation. Laertes warns her to protect her “chaste treasure,” implying that her worth exists only in her virtue. Ophelia’s identity is defined by others, and her language mirrors that dependence: she echoes the words of men, rarely asserting her own perspective.

Her relationship with Hamlet is equally revealing. When he tells her to “get thee to a nunnery,” the command operates on two cruel levels — both as an attack on her sexuality and as an emblem of her isolation. Hamlet weaponizes the misogyny of his world, taking out his disillusionment on the one woman who truly loves him. Ophelia’s response is heartbreaking in its sincerity: “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!” Her descent into madness after her father’s death represents not weakness, but the inevitable collapse of a person denied voice, agency, and compassion.

In her madness, however, Ophelia becomes paradoxically powerful. Her fragmented songs and flowers expose truths that the court refuses to face — guilt, lust, and decay. Her distribution of symbolic flowers (“There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance”) functions as an unfiltered indictment of the men who destroyed her. She speaks more truth in madness than she ever could in sanity. Through Ophelia, Shakespeare condemns a patriarchal system that silences women until only madness remains as expression.

Her death, described with haunting beauty by Gertrude — “Her garments, heavy with their drink, pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay to muddy death” — is at once peaceful and violent. Whether suicide or accident, it reflects the play’s moral rot: innocence drowned in corruption. Ophelia’s demise intensifies Hamlet’s anguish and propels the play toward its catastrophic conclusion. Though powerless in life, her death wields immense emotional force, making her essential to the tragedy’s emotional resonance.

Gertrude and Ophelia function as mirrors reflecting Denmark’s decay. Their fates dramatize the consequences of moral blindness and political manipulation. Gertrude’s sensual indulgence and Ophelia’s passive obedience correspond to the twin corruptions of Elsinore — desire and deception. Both women become casualties of a world where men wield authority without accountability. Their suffering exposes the play’s deepest irony: those with the least power reveal the most truth.

Moreover, both women shape Hamlet’s own journey. Gertrude’s betrayal fuels his disillusionment; Ophelia’s death deepens his guilt and self-loathing. When he declares at her grave, “I loved Ophelia,” we glimpse a Hamlet capable of genuine emotion — a stark contrast to his earlier cruelty. Their influence is thus psychological as well as thematic: they humanize Hamlet and highlight the destructive cost of his obsession with vengeance and purity.

Gertrude and Ophelia may lack agency over their destinies, but Shakespeare ensures they possess immense dramatic and moral significance. Through them, he exposes the corrosive effects of a patriarchal order that devalues female experience. Gertrude’s journey from blindness to insight and Ophelia’s transformation from obedience to tragic truth both serve as mirrors of the kingdom’s corruption. In their silence and suffering, they articulate the play’s central warning — that in a world governed by power and deceit, innocence and integrity are the first to perish. Their powerlessness does not diminish their importance; it defines the tragedy itself.