Contemporariness of Female Characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Keywords:
Contemporariness, universality, female charactersAbstract
The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth in 2016 is being celebrated with readings, performances, exhibitions, and academic conferences around the world. Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet, which is written 400 years ago, remains relevant to the contemporary world due to its universality of themes and characters. The issues of revenge, treachery, incestuous relationships, suicide, etc. are widely prevalent and in some cases incurables by safe means. Hamlet, which supposedly deals deeply with human psyche, does not reveal much at all about two major female characters. Gertrude and Ophelia – the only two female characters -- act either as theatrical balances to the male characters or as an audience to their speeches and actions. In the play of Hamlet, the female characters have been under the shadows of the male characters by being used for their possessions, status and lust. The female characters of Shakespeare are generally said to be portrayed as powerless to influence the outcome of events; they are presented more as types than characters. The present paper deals with the contemporariness of female characters in Hamlet and their significance in the play.
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