修正版英概论文

The Tragedy of Female Under the Influence of Patriarchal Society in the 16th and 17th century England--A Case Study of The tragedy of Hamlet<Gang Fengmei.English Major,09-1, 3091221109>Abstract: Play is like a mirror reflecting the feature and history of an age.Shakespeare, the most distinguished author in the renaissance age England, has been known for his artistry and complexity in describing human to present the realities of life. In the later sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century,England was influenced deeply by renaissance an age which emphasised on individualism.But here the "individualism" was just the privilege of the male,not including the female.In that patriarchal society,the fate of the female was totally a tragedy.They were just the accessory of male and forced to keep silence and act dutifully.Their tragedy was the outcome of their society.Keywords: The tragedy of female, Patriarchal society, The tragedy of HamletOutline:1.Intruduction2.Analysises of the female images in the play2.1、Ophlia drowned in the brook2.2 An analysis of Gertrude3. Penelope complex of the male in patriarchal society3.1 The strong sense of chastity of male3.2 The Irrational death of Ophelia and Gertrude3.2.1 Absurd arrangement of poisonous wine3.22 Unreasonable death of Ophelia4.The imagery and associative meaning of the female in this play5. The tragedy of female in this play5.1.Female, being subject to the male rule5.2 The social status rank6. Conclusion7.Reference1.Introduction:In the early modern time of England which was under the reign of Elizabeth1,the nation was flowering and stable.Although the renaissance relatively destabilized the rooted-feudalism at a sense,humanism justbelonged to the male exclusively, and the female were still controlled and limited by feudal rules and complicated regulations,because of their gender. Shakespear's famous drama ,The Tragedy of Hamlet, was writted at this time. This paper aims to reflect the tragedy of female under the influence of patriarchal society by analysising the two main women and their irrational death,as well as the artistry of writing of this play.2.Analysises of female images in the play2.1、Ophlia, drowned in the brookOphlia，daughter of Polonius who was lord chamberlain，and lover of Hamlet，was a happy,beautiful,energetic young ing the play's imagery，Ophelia was "an infant of the spring","a tender bud”enjoying“the morn and liquid dew of youth.”She believed Hamlet's honey-words easily. In this play she was portrayed as an angel and she satisfied all the men's imagination of appearance and characteristics of a male. Moreover, she was also a little rebellious and smart. She replied to her brother with irony and wit as he left for Paris,in addition,when facing her father's restraint of her love to Hamlet,she complied in appearance but opposed in actions. There was no doubt that she was a brave and wise girl who dared to stand against the society.But finally,under the suppression of the patriarchal society,she declined to melancholy and madness,withdrawing into infantile,ritualistic behavior and telling thetraumatic events of her life,and then drowned.2.2 An analysis of GertrudeGertrude,Queen of Denmark and mother to Hamlet,the most unjustly treated character in the play,was portrayed as a temptress.She had numerous sins,for example, being complicit in the murder of her husband ,living with the assassin of her deceased husband,remarring excessively fast. All of these sins were the crimes and shames in her own son's eyes. As the play progressed, she was abandoned and killed at end.A widow should be a widow and should never remarry from the male's perspective.There were numerous critics on Gertrude in the play and that she was doomed to be a tragedy.Gertrude and Ophelia were the victims and sacrifices of that society. Although both of them had noble families, nothing had changed.3. Penelope complex in this playPenelope Complex derived from the Greek Myths and Legends.In the story there was a man named Ulises who did not return home for ten years,but his wife kept her chastity and waited for him lonely and faithfully. And the Renelope Complex in this play meant the male's expected value of the female's chastity.3.1 The stronge sense of chastityIn the sixteenth century and seventeenth century,conservatism waswidely spread in England. Christian asceticism tightly limited women's ideas and behaviours and they were required to be flawless and pure.What's worse,he male also used Christian asceticism and their patriarchal customs to restrict the needs and meanings of life of the male to satisfy their ego inflation.In the play, Laertes, brother of Ophelia,warned his sister to behave finely before his journey.He told Ophelia:"The chariest maid is prodigal enough if she unmasks her beauty to the moon." We can read in between the lines that he means that if a young woman leaves her house and walks on the street,she is immoral and ungracious.In his eyes,there was nothing more important than charity when it came to a girl. And the other woman,Gertrude,she was often shamed by Hamlet's tongue-lashing for her remarriage.Hamlet always raised his father's world to a a position of hyperiedality by degrading his mother and her world to the status of garbage.Although mother,she was a worthless and shameless witch. In this play,the author reflects the male's strange sense of chastity of the female by Hamlet's rage towards his mother.The rage was so powerful that it made him wish Gertrude were not his mother,so powerful that if momentarily desired to kill her and even led to his repudiation of all the female.3.2 The irrational death of Ophelia and GertrudeIn china's ancient days,dying for love was considered as the mostfaithful symbol of one's departed lover,and this also happened in western countries in the past.In this play,the death of Ophelia and Gertrude,to some degree,was a kind of dying for love,too.3.2.1 Absurd arrangement of poisonous wineThe new king ascendened the throne for a very short time,and he did not win all the supporters in Denmark until then. In addition,in the play,the prince he wanted to murder was the direct successor to the throne.And at this time if he murdered him ,he would backfire, for that the murder must lead to national chaos and suspicion and threaten his throne. In fact,in this play he was a shrewd person,so he would not kill Hamlet with poison in front of a lot of people.Therefore,the arrangement of poisonous wine was absurd and the plot of death of the queen was irrational,too.3.2.2 The unreasonable death of OpheliaAfter reading this novel,we could find that Ophelia was a rather rational and sober person. When she faced with his brother's remarks of charisty, at the begining she pretend to accept Laertes's warning but she then switched the focus to his brother in a flash. Her sharp and smart reply silenced her brother and let him realize one rule --"do as you would be done by". And in Act 3,Scene 2,when Hamlet lay on her lap and tried to embarrass her,she coped with it in calm and unconsciousness.From this we knew that Ophelia was a rather smart girl,so it was not reasonable forher insanity. If we supposed she was insane,in Act1,Scene5, after Ophelia was mad,the king ordered his attendants to follow her to restrict her from speaking something wrong. Actually,this supervision became a protection to some degree.Generally speaking,the time from her drowning into the brook to death was long enough for the attendants to rescue her. To our surprise,they did not. How couid they just stand by and did nothing to her danger?This plot did not comply with common sense.From the irrational death of the two women,we can be sure that their deathes are malicious and planned by the author for meeting the patriarchal requirement,not for the play's going.The male were men's personal property, so they must die without their lover,no matter before or after their lover's death.4.The imagery and associative meaning of the female in this playIn the early modern Britain ,the patriarchal culture was so ingrained that the things which were relevant to the female were branded with derogatory meaning and people always expressed derogatory meaning in the name of women.For example,in this play,Hamlet said:"Frailty,thy(you) name is woman."In the Act 2,Scene 2,when Hamlet talked about the unexpected fate with his friends,he compared it to strumpet and used a word "private" to shame his friends' betrayal(his friends were soldiers). At this point,theauthor used a figure of writing --"pun".One meant the "soldier",the other was the "private part" of women. In the same scene,when the king felt a little guilty he said:"The harlot's cheek,beautied with plastering art,is not more ugly to the thing that helps it than is my deed to my most pained word." The premise of his words is that the cheek of the harlot is very ugly.5. The tragedy of female in this playIn the sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century of Britain,the influence of renaissance did not improve the status of women,their situation was deeply sexist.They totally depended on men, and were like the byproduct of them--namely, women were fed and cared for if they were in their proper place,but were left homeless and destitute if they were not.5.1.Female, being subject to the male ruleIn the patriarchal society,the patriarchal software was installed both in the brain of male and ly,the female lacked subjectivity by definition and there is a refusal to permit a woman to be a SUBJECT,cannot be the grammatical subject of a long list of verbs and predicates.A woman is,and can only be, a subject in the sense of being subject to the man rule.In brief,a vertical binary:Strong,rational,educated,independent,public-sphere men on top(i.e., SUBJECTS)Weak,frail,impatient,feeble,foolish,fickle women on the bottom(i.e. subjects)The male became the pronoun of derogatory things.5.2 The social status rank1. god and angels2, men3. good women (good mothers in Catholic, and good wives inProtestant Patriarchies)4. Bad women (shrews,whores,ect.)In this four level universe,we can know the social status rank in that era and two kinds of women rank at the third and forth place. Needless to say,no woman in this system can ever get to the upper half.In this play,Ophelia and Gertrude had something in common. They were women and all had the respected status;they all did something wrong according to patriarchal law or morals;they all had bad-endings.Because of the male's self-ego,Ophelia was abandoned and Gerrtrude was remarried as a politic counter.They also suffered from male's abuse and tongue-lashing.Gertrude and Ophelia are the two typical kinds of female,the married and the unmarried.They do not have the common rights as the female today and they are required to behave strictly according to the patriarchal laws and morals.The female who have got married must be loyal to her husband and never remarry even when they lose her husband for the remarriage will grace and blush of modesty, and calls virtue hypocrite.And the unmarried ones,should be act finely and dutifully.Once they do anything in any way other than by faithfully according to the rank and it will instantly make her a criminal. They have no reputation,no freedom,no power and even lose themselves,and both die between the conflicts and conspiracy.We can tell from their irrational death that their death is made by Shakespear to meet the needs of that society not for the compliance with the play going or adding tragic color.Only he writes in that way,can he win the most supporters of that society.In fact,it also proves the author's patriarchal sentiment--women cannot live without men. As the female in a patriarchal society,the tragedy is inevitable and doomed.6. ConclusionThe later sixteenth-century and the early eventeenth-century, England is the patriarchal society. Although the female are under the influence of renaissance,they still live a miserable and unjust life for theirgender. Reading Hamlet can contribute to a better understanding of the tragedy of female under the seemingly smooth appearance and a better understanding of the patriarchal culture in the early modern England.7. Reference[1]莎士比亚新论--上海外语教育出版社[2]The Tragedy of Hamlet---Shakespear[3]Understanding of Hamlet--Ricard Corum。