Men need respect for women

Throughout Hamlet, and all of Shakespeare’s plays that we have read we are able to see the role that women play and the power men have over them. A majority of the women in these plays have to answer to men and can’t really make decisions on their own. We see this with Ophelia and the power and impressions that her father Polonius and her brother Laetres have over her. In the beginning of the play her father and brother tell her to stay away from Hamlet because they are not of the same class, they think that Hamlet only wants one thing, they want her to remain virginal. “Marry, well bethought. ‘Tis told me he hath very oft of late/ Given private time to you, and you yourself…”(1.3.90). This reminded me of A Midsummer Night’s Dream where Egeus wanted his daughter Hermia to marry Demetrius, but she was in love with Lyslander and wanted to marry him. Egeus looks to the Athenian law to protect him, there was even a law that said the fathers got to choose who their daughters should marry, where is the respect for women? The males in both plays believe that they have enough power over women to dictate who they should marry and what they should do with their lives.
We also see how men dominate and control in Act III when Hamlet visits his mother in her chamber. He speaks to his mother with no respect, it is no way for anyone to speak to their mother, and let’s not forget that she is a queen. They bicker back and forth a little; Hamlets says “Mother, you have my father much offended”(3.4.10), Queen Gertrude notices his spitefulness and responds “Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue” of course Hamlet throws it right back at his mother and says “Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue”(3.4.12). I think we can all agree that this is no way for anyone to talk to their mother, or a queen, let alone if their mother is the queen. Gertrude notices this and asks “Have you forgot me?” We could all predict that Hamlet has a smart remark to talk back to his mother, he answers the question but has to throw in that she married her husband’s brother, “ No, by the rood, not so. You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife. But –would you were not so –you are my mother.”(3.4.14). I find it a little rude and disrespectful that Hamlet marches into his mother chamber, a place that is supposed to be safe and sacred to a woman and violates her space. Not only is she violated by one man in her chamber but she is violated by three, Hamlet, Polonius and the Ghost all barge into her chamber and violate her space. This enforces the idea that men have no respect for women or their property; women don’t hold the respect they are supposed to have.