Shakespeares Women

Shakespeare’s Women Shakespeare’s female characters have qualities about them that tie each of them together in their stories; they also have differences that contrast. Gertrude and Ophelia are from the play Hamlet, and Lady Macbeth is from the play Macbeth. The women in Hamlet are both uncertain about men and life in general, they are also dependent upon men, they would be considered weak in today’s society. Lady Macbeth, however is a very driven and powerful person, men are fearsome of her unlike the women in Hamlet. Like the other women though, Lady Macbeth shows her weaker side in the play. In this paper, the personalities of the women in Hamlet and the woman in Macbeth will be compared and contrasted. Gertrude, of Hamlet, is an optimistic woman who tries to please everyone around her, including her husband, the King Claudius. Gertrude wants to be Queen, even if it means marrying her dead husbands’ brother to do so. Lady Macbeth also wants her husband to be King, even if it means that she has to murder the current King in order to have it her way. Both women seem to be selfish about their image; they want to be glorified to the utmost extent possible. They both think that being Queen will help their social status,

Without being researched, the differences would seem to outweigh the similarities. The female characters of the plays Macbeth and Hamlet compare and contrast nicely. All of these women had there strengths and their weaknesses, without both the strengths and the weaknesses, the women would not have been as mentally powerful as they were. Gertrude and Ophelia are very sensitive and caring people, while Lady Macbeth is indifferent and mostly heartless. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, persuades her husband to kill people just for the throne and the gain in power. She becomes very weak and sensitive and finally kills herself because of her guilt. Although the women were all different in their own way, they all were female and they all had feelings that were shown. Lady Macbeth started to roam around the castle and sleepwalk during the night. At the end of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth ends up killing herself because of her guilt. The two women from Hamlet are very dependent of the male characters in the play. On page 146 Hamlet says this to Gertrude, "Frailty thy name is woman!" and in Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is considered more powerful than a man is. Gertrude dies by drinking from a cup that her husband poisoned. Her death was accidental and suicidal both at the same time. but really, their selfishness caused them to die in the plays.