Gertrude and Ophelia are important characters in Hamlet. Hamlet has trouble with women. He is distrubed by his mother's sexuality and so he act violently around her. He also seems to have sort of sexual feeling for her. As for Ophelia, she is the woman that he loved. Does he still love her? It is hard to say.
             Overall, I would say that Hamlet takes a positive view of women. It tries to portray them as powerful, and that's a good thing. If you are powerful, then you are strong and the women sometimes seem to be stronger than the men. However, one can also misuse power. For example, people sometimes think politicians misuse power. I don't think that the women in the play ever misuse their power.
             This is not true of the men. They often misuse power. Like Polonius when he hides behind the curtain. Not very nice. Therefore, not a good use of power. It seems that Polonius gets what he deserves when Hamlet stabs his. This is because he don't use power in the right way.
             But the women in the play come to bad ends. Ophelia drowns. Suicide or accident? Hard to say. Sometimes it is impossible to determine the cause of death. They demonstrate this on shows like CSI. But Gertrude was murdered. This is because one of the men in the play, Claudius, abused his position.
             Overall, this suggests that women in the Renaissance didn't have it easy. I am glad I live in this time, when I don't have to worry about kings poisoning my cup. It is hard to be a queen, especially in the Renaissance, when women were oppressed and didn't have any power.
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