Gender Flashcards
“Frailty thy name is woman”
Ger’s fickleness + superficiality, indirectly to oph, generalising women - chain of being, Devine right of kings, men before women, rationality > emotion, animalistic/ base
“Are you honest?”
Virtue - considered most highly prized asset a woman can possess (2nd to beauty) - doubting chastity / trustworthiness - value I. Elizabethan era - insult, effect women / family reputation - societal expectation
Religious significance - Virgin Mary: regarded as ideal state for women, disassociated with Desire, SP representing O as an obedient character to be seen as unreliable / impure
“My good lord, but as you command… I did repel his letters”
Oph- submissive : frail / controlled - indirectly to blame / held accountable for following misguided advice - not following own rationality - abandoned affection for Ham on command - shows loyalty / constancy?
“Do you think I meant country matters… I think nothing, my lord.”
Sexual implications, indiscretion, sign of I’d promiscuity, responds timidly- emphasises cruelty, public slander, image at risk - weak, O attempt to disassociate, pure/ oblivious
Eliz - single women considered in a precarious position, chastity seals her reputation / value, Pol doesn’t defend, left vulnerable/ open to Hams accusations
“It would cost you a groaning to take off my edge”
Sexual connotations - shows Ham’s obsession with sin + sex, uses it to burden, H appears as fickle/hypocritical - rebuked mother for being lustful yet focuses on sex
“I do believe you think you know what now you speak”
Unreliable, ye
Poetry, will change mind, criticism of woman’s inconsistency, believes women are irrational, Eliz belief in chain of being - woman closer to animalistic + base matters, driven by emotions + irrationality, further from God, Eliz- women lacked moral fibre - lack emotional strength to resist or use reason (Genesis)
Get indifferent to husbands deathas”all that lives must die”
Justifying cold/callous attitude, disparaging towards subject, grim, Eliz intrigue towards death/tragedy: Renaissance era attention to reason > feeling, seen in G’s philosophical attitude, G being pragmatic - lost husband, securing position through marriage, only way a woman can secure standing / lack of moral character
“Youth let virtue be as wax and melt other own fire… since frost itself as actively doth burn”
Shame of promiscuity, someone her age promiscuous actively - innocence / youth destroyed, better for woman’s virtue to be taken when young? Wax - symbolic, virtue: self destructive, fickle, malleable, changing shape constantly, unreliable, easy to corrupt - fire: danger, passion consumes -frost/ burn: paradox, unnatural, Ger giving in to desire, sinful - marriage legitimised sex (Aquinas) : sex to procreate children - ham thinks she’s doing it purely for pleasure : mortal sin
“Get thee to a nunnery”
Uses Oph as target of rage, forcing to shoulder blame for weakness of sex, protect chastity - in constant danger OR sarcasm : Eliz nunnery sometimes house of unchaste women
“Men know well enough what monsters you make of them”
Personal issue against women, generalisation, all women- blaming women for faults of men, depersonalises women as whole
“Could beauty, my lord, have better commerce than with honesty?”
Sh uses punctuation to lengthen dialogue - slower / more composed in face of accusations, ability to reason - rationally, careful, commerce - communication within self? Pure + innocent exterior intact - OR beauty + chastity. Ring traded as uses mercantile language, woman’s importance. Asked on superficial things, beauty fades, women’s value fragile/temporal
“I what noble mind is here o’erthrown!”
Doesn’t consider consequences elf herself, sees effect of Hams madness on state instead of being offended, informed / knowledgable, effects of royal corruption on metaphysical world -
Eliz focused on Renaissance - philosophical beliefs - shakes shows corruption of crown can have large effect on state( end of play) aware of H’s sanitys importance
“Leave her to heaven”
Ghost wanted to leave her sins to her own conscience, doesn’t hold to blame - innocent? Eliz society - women not held accountable for sins as they’re underestimated or forgiven for having base emotions
“Thou hast thy father much offended”
G oblivious to offence, doesn’t describe biol father, not aware of own mistake, unwitting innocence to crime, sh uses stichomythia to show contradicting flow of conversation suggesting Ham has upper hand / control - superior - intelligence
“almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother. - As kill a king?”
Blames her, rhyming couplet, adds to importance or accusation, lack of innocence - naive?
