THEME: Gender and Sexuality

Question 1

HAMLET (ACT 1 SCENE 2)

Answer 1

“Frailty, thy name is women.” - Hamlet begins the play extremely upset by his mother’s remarriage: in his first soliloquy, he pours contempt on his mother, and he extends that contempt to all women. Here he blames the “frailty” of women for his mother’s decision. As the play progresses, Hamlet reveals his obsession with a specific form of what he sees as female frailty: his mother’s vulnerability to sexual temptation. When Hamlet finally confronts his mother, her sexuality is what seems to offend him.

Question 2

HAMLET (ACT 3 SCENE 1) - NUNNERY

Answer 2

“Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?”

Question 3

HAMLET (ACT 3 SCENE 1)- ONE FACE

Answer 3

“God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.” - During an angry tirade against Ophelia, Hamlet blames his madness on women, particularly on what he sees as women’s habit of disguising themselves with make-up and feminine behavior. Hamlet often struggles with the difficulty of separating disguises from reality, but he also seems obsessed with female sexuality.

Question 4

OPHELIA (ACT 3 SCENE 2)

Answer 4

“Tis brief, my lord.”

Question 5

HAMLET (ACT 3 SCENE 2)

Answer 5

“As woman’s love.”

Question 6

POLONIUS (ACT 1 SCENE 3)- OPHELIA

Answer 6

“Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl.”

Question 7

LAERTES (ACT 1 SCENE 3)- TREASURE

Answer 7

“Chaste treasure open” / “Unmastered importunity”

Question 8

HAMLET (ACT 5 SCENE 1)- BROTHERS

Answer 8

“I loved Ophelia, forty thousand brothers could not with all their quantity of love make up my son.”