Hamlet: The Subjection of Male to Female

Abstract

Gertrude, who is the object of Hamlet's Oedipus complex, is central to the motivation of the play. The old Hamlet, the King of Denmark, his brother Claudius, and his son Hamlet -- these three men love Gertrude so unnaturally that they are morbidly subjected to her. Through Gerturde's lines Shakespeare gives her in the play, we can see that she is intelligent and penetrating all the physical situations and gifted with a remarkable talent for concise and pithy speech, even though she has not her spiritual depth because of her lack of the true insight to distinguish the reality from the appearances of life. And her maternal love toward her son Hamlet is very strong. But her Achilles' heel is her lust, which has been always too uncontrollable within herself to make her sane. Her lust is so powerful that all men around her lose their reason and fall into the miserable state of their subjection to her. Her strong desire for lust threatens old Hamlet's control, and in his absence, her appetite for lust rages. Therefore, old Hamlet has been rather subjected to her lust which is fallen into the state of the unweeded garden, which has alway; required a weeder to manage its over-luxuriant growth, But he cannot perform his duty as the weeder who controls and closely watches it. Unexpectedly Old Hamlet is murdered by his brother Claudius in the devastating state in which he indulges in only his pleasures of lust. We can see his subjection to her even after his death through his ghost in the play. Claudius, who is also fallen into the state of subjection to Ger rude's lust, kills his brother old Hamlet, his sole rival in his indulging in his lust, and gets married rapidly to Gertrude and becomes the King of Denmark. He has struggled to maintain his royal position, wearing the mask to conceal his crimes of incest and adultery. But he is finally murdered by Hamlet at end of the play. Even intellectual Hamlet has been subjected to Gertrude as a victim of Oedipus complex. After his mother's hasty remarriage, he wanders aimlessly in the abyss of desperation caused by his self-alienation, whose sole reason is his mother's sexual degradation. Therefore, Hamlet is a story of the corruption led by male's subjection to female's sexual temptation. Accordingly, we can say Hamlet is not the story of Cain and Abel, but Adam and Eve. Among old Hamlet, Claudius and Hamlet, only Hamlet has deeply suffered to liberate himself from the disastrous state of his subjection to Gertrude. And he finally succeeds in his making Gertrude repent and return to the state of the enclosed garden of the pure soul like the Virgin Mary's from her corrupted soul like the unweeded garden. And she resumes her divine role as the virgin mother who can bless her son Hamlet. Trusting her, Hamlet begins to trust himself and rebuild his masculine identity spoiled by her previous contamination. He is finally liberated from his obsession of old Hamlet and his ghost. In the end he bravely establishes his identity by his imitating God who is ultimately his real father. It is only Hamlet who loves Gertrude genuinely among old Hamlet, Claudius and Hamlet subjected to her.