Women / Gender

Question 1

Hamlets soliloquy , disgusted at mothers marriage

Answer 1

“Frailty, thy name is woman!”

Question 2

Ophelia’s commentary on the loss of virginity and a broken promise of marriage - stuck

Answer 2

"By Gis and by Saint Charity, 
   Alack and fie for shame,
Young men will do 't, if they come to 't; 
   By Cock, they are to blame. 
Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, 
   You promised me to wed.'
So would I 'a done, by yonder sun, 
   An thou hadst not come to my bed. "

Question 3

Hamlet ot Ophelia , on how women make men ‘monsters’. assumes that all women cheat.

Answer 3

“If thou dost marry, I’ll give thee this plague
for thy dowry: be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as
snow, thou shalt not escape calumny. Get thee to a
nunnery, farewell. Or, if thou wilt needs marry,
marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what
monsters you make of them. To a nunnery, go, and
quickly too. Farewell.”

Question 4

Laertes’ on Ophelia’s drowning. associates tears with too much water Ophelia has inside her. grief unmanly , once tears dried , woman gone from him.

Answer 4

“Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears”.
“Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,
And therefore I forbid my tears. But yet
It is our trick; nature her custom holds,
Let shame say what it will. When these are gone,
The woman will be out.”

Question 5

Gertrude’s one act of independence causes her death

clutching cup symbolizes overruling of Claudius

Answer 5

“Gertrude do not drink.”

“I will my lord , i pray you pardon me”

Question 6

Hamlets cruel and aggressive questioning of Ophelia’s honesty and chasity

Answer 6

“there’s a fair thought between maid’s legs”

“nothing”