s lost his mind.
If HamletÆs treatment of Ophelia is harsh, it pales in comparison to his confrontation with his mother Gertrude. Hamlet initially appeals to the gods to keep him from murdering Gertrude because of his anger over what he sees as a betrayal to his fatherÆs love for her, ôLet not ever / The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom. / Let me cruel, not unnatural; / I will speak daggers to her, but use noneö (Shakespeare, III.iii.356-359). When he confronts his mother, verbal daggers are thrown toward her aplenty. Hamlet confronts Gertrude and befouls her soul and character in a manner that makes his treatment of Ophelia seem almost kind. He implies his mother has no heart, ôLet me wring your heart, for so I shall, / If it be made of penetrable stuffö (Shakespeare, III.iv.36-37).
Hamlet then proceeds to upbraid and insult his mother and her sex in general. At one point in his tirade, his mother begs him to stop because his words have hit their mark and she now sees into her ôstainedö soul. Having little mercy or empathy with her, Hamlet refuses to stop and describes his motherÆs soul as something baser than the commonest of animals, ôNay, but to live / In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty!ö (Shakespeare, 1604, III.iv.93-96). We see that HamletÆs anger over his fatherÆs murder and his motherÆs hasty remarriage to the man guilty of killing his father makes him devalue love and the female sex.
In conclusion, when Hamlet learns of OpheliaÆs death he is heartbroken and filled with guilt. At the end of the play, we see his mother still loves him and he her, when she tries to warn him of the poisoned drink meant for him that she consumes. Therefore, HamletÆs negative treatment of Ophelia and Gertrude and his harsh portrayal of their characters does not stem from any kind of misogyny. Instead, Hamlet actually loves both women ver...