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Ophelia and the Weïrd Sisters: The Portrayal of Shakespearian Women

How literature reflected sentiments of women in the early modern period

Published onApr 25, 2023
Ophelia and the Weïrd Sisters: The Portrayal of Shakespearian Women
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Introduction

William Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights, not only of his time in the early modern period. He has created some of the most memorable stories such as Hamlet and Macbeth. Often in these stories, the fate of a woman in love is tragic and is blamed on her lustfulness that made her mad. Witches are also key players in these stories and are blamed for the downfall of kingdoms and important political figures.1 The portrayal of these characters in Shakespeare’s plays tend to be consistent with sentiments towards women during the early modern period in Europe and England. Many people were concerned with women’s sexuality and power and how it could affect the lives of men and upset the “natural order” of men being above women sexually and politically.2 These concerns are shown in the characters of Ophelia from Hamlet, and the Weïrd Sisters from Macbeth.
Ophelia and the Weïrd Sisters show the concerns behind lust, power, and witchcraft and how it can lead to not only one’s own demise, but also the demise of a whole power system.

Ophelia

The character of Ophelia has one of the most tragic deaths in Hamlet. In Act IV of the play, Ophelia drowns herself after she grows increasingly mad during the entirety of the story.3 This madness begins when Polonius and Laertes, her father and brother, forbid Ophelia from seeing Hamlet. They are both concerned that Ophelia and Hamlet will give into their lust for each other, and Ophelia would have her heart broken after Hamlet declared that he did not actually love her. Laertes tells Ophelia that, “If she unmask her beauty to the moon, Virtue itself ‘scapes not calumnious strokes.”4 The concern with Ophelia and Hamlet having sex with each other outside of wedlock was a common concern for fathers of single women during the early modern period. Many laws were passed to keep tabs on women to make sure they were not engaging in “immoral” activities. In Malmø, Denmark, near where the story of Hamlet takes place, a law was passed that required all single women to go into service or to leave the city. This law had the intentions of making sure that women of Malmø were kept busy so that they would not let their “uncontrollable desires” take control of them.5 While Shakespeare was most likely unaware of this law, the ideas that single women needed to be controlled extended to other countries like England and France. Single women were viewed as a threat in Europe because they had no one to “keep track” of their behaviors. They were thought of as wild and to act with “shame, immodesty, and wantonness”6 that could lead to pregnancy outside of wedlock, and possibly infanticide. Some single mothers, especially those who were poor or shunned by society and given no support would commit infanticide so that the child would not have to suffer any more. This threat was especially concerning to government and church officials, as motherhood was how women would achieve their true salvation in the eyes of the Protestant Church.7 Not only would single women not reap the rewards of motherhood, but they had also committed murder, which is a mortal sin, and less souls would be able to enter heaven.

Ophelia could be thought of as one of these “masterless” and single women that were of concern in early modern Europe. Her father, Polonius, was killed by Hamlet in Act III and was left in the care of her brother, Laertes, who was more attentive to matters of court politics rather than the wellbeing of his sister. Because she was left with no supervision, as was thought to be necessary for single women, Ophelia’s unsatisfied lust8 took over and she went mad as those urges were thought to be impossible to control.9 Women with these urges were considered “dangerous” in society as they could upset the “natural order” of men being above women sexually. Before more research was done on women’s reproductive system, a woman’s genitals were thought to be that of a deformed male’s. According to scientists and philosophers of the time, this inherently put women beneath men. If a woman seduced a man with her “uncontrollable” sexual urges, the man could be thought of as weak and the woman as more powerful than him, which was absurd.10

Just before her death in Act IV, Ophelia enters the stage “distracted” and singing a lamentation about death and betrayal. While she does this, her hair is loose, and she is in a trance like state.11 According to Maurice Charney and Hanna Charney this state of being “is so improper and so overtly sensual that it may conventionally be understood to indicate a loss of reason.”12 In the famous painting Ophelia by John Everett Millais, the character is portrayed with her hair loose and floating behind her. Her mouth is open as if she is taking a silent last breath and her eyes look to be blank. This is as described in the play through the spoken text and the written stage directions.13 The fate of Ophelia was defined by a tragic unrequited love that ultimately caused her death. This final appearance and death of Ophelia exemplified what many people though women to be in the early modern period: uncontrollably lustful.14

Ophelia, painting by John Everett Millais, 1851-1851, oil paint on canvas, London, Tate Britain

The Weïrd Sisters

Another famous portrayal of women in Shakespeare are the “Weïrd Sisters”, or the three witches, of Macbeth. The story takes place in Scotland, which had a fierce witch hunt during the 16th century. Many laws were passed to prevent the spread of witchcraft and to punish those who practiced. This was a time of high economic anxieties, population growth, famine, and religious change. Naturally, some people turned to protective magic and/or religion to keep their lives stable and to look for glimmers of hope in a time of despair. However, in these times of struggle, people were looking for others to scapegoat and blame for their problems. Witchcraft had always existed in Scotland, but now with the changing and hard times, people immediately turned to witches to blame.15

Three years before Macbeth was thought to have been written, the queen of England, Elizabeth I, died and James VI of Scotland took over. Elizabeth I was a single woman who famously did not marry and was dubbed “the virgin queen.” While Elizabeth I was praised by many for remaining chaste, she was still criticized for being a woman in a position that was reserved for a man. However, after seeing how her sister Mary I was treated with harsh criticisms from popular leaders, such as John Knox, Elizabeth I quickly tried to make herself seem more “prince-like” so that people would accept her rule. While though her rule was eventually accepted by the majority of England, even though she was a single woman, she was considered to be “in control” of her lust and her “masters” were the men in her cabinet.16 When she died, however, people were upset that she did not have children as James VI came to the throne, from Scotland, and was James I of England. When James I took over power, he brought along many sentiments against women, especially those that blamed them to be witches in his book Daemonologie. These ideas became increasingly widespread after its publication and influenced the writings and literature of the time.17

Witches were often portrayed as women during the early modern period due to the notion that “for as a sex frailer than man is, so it is easier to be entrapped in these grosse snares of the Devile… by the serpents deceiving Eve at the beginning.”18 In Macbeth, the Weïrd Sisters are female and thought of as deceitful and ungodly figures, even though their prophecies come to fruition. This shows the dangerous power of a witch in the early modern period, and that women, and men, need to be careful of this.19 Women having power over men, in the early modern period, being sexual or political was almost unspeakable.20 The witches are three of the most powerful characters in Macbeth and are thought to alter the course of politics through their magic,21 which they are able to practice as they are not under the supervision of a man. They are, similarly to Ophelia, “masterless” women.22 These “masterless” women, ultimately bring the downfall of a major political leader teaching the audience to not fraternize with those who practice “black magic.”23

The Witches Showing Macbeth the Apparitions, drawing by Alexander Runciman, 1772, pen and brown ink on paper, Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Conclusion

Shakespeare’s portrayal of Ophelia in Hamlet and the Weïrd Sisters in Macbeth show society’s fears of women gaining power over men. They also exemplify fears of what happens when one becomes too lustful or when they turn to witchcraft that does not follow the teachings of the Protestant Church. These fears are realized in the stories through tragic endings, deaths, and the upheaval of political power. With the late 15th and 16th centuries being a time of great worry with changing of religious power, famine, and disease, the stories of Hamlet and Macbeth show the tragedy many faced and felt and what women’s roles were in the midst of it all.

Works Cited

Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Theologica.

Bager, Einar. “Laws requiring unmarried people to register or leave, Denmark, 1549.” Translated Grethe Jacobsen and Pernille Arenfelt. Copenhagen: Selskabet for Udgivelse af Kilder til dansk Historie, 1972.

Camden, Carroll. “On Ophelia’s Madness.” Shakespeare Quarterly 15, no. 2 (Spring 1964): 247-55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2867895.

Charney, Maurice and Hanna Charney. “The Language of Madwomen in Shakespeare and His Fellow Dramatists.” Signs 3, no.2 (Winter 1977): 451-60. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173295.

Davis, Natalie Zemon. “City Women and Religious Change.” In Society and Culture in Early Modern France. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975.

Herrup, Cynthia. “The King’s Two Genders.” Journal of British Studies 45, no. 3 (2006): 493–510. https://doi.org/10.1086/503588.

Levin, Joanna Levin. “Lady MacBeth and the Daemonologie of Hysteria.” ELH 69, no. 1 (Spring 2002): 21-55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/30032010.

Mookherjee, Taarini. “Macbeth in Historical Context.” Columbia College, n.d. https://www.college.columbia.edu/core/content/macbeth-historical-context#:~:text=Likely%20written%20in%201606%2C%20Macbeth,for%20a%20number%20of%20reasons.

“Ordinance prohibiting girls from living with their mothers, France, 1665.” Translated by Merry Wiesner-Hanks. Strasbourg Archives Municpales, Stauten.

Rose, Mary Beth. “Where Are the Mothers in Shakespeare? Options for Gender Representation in the English Renaissance.” Shakespeare Quarterly 42, no. 3 (1991): 291–314. https://doi.org/10.2307/2870845.

Rublack, Ulinka. “Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Female Body in Early Modern Germany.” Past & Present, no. 150 (Feb. 1996): 84-110, http://www.jstor.com/stable/651238.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. edited by Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, n.d.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. edited by Barbara Mowat, Paul Werstine, Michael Poston, and Rebecca Niles. Washington, DC: Folger Shakespeare Library, n.d.

Stolberg, Micheal. “A Woman Down to Her Bones.” Isis 94, no. 2 (June 2002): 274-99. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/379387.

Tonge, Mildred. “Black Magic and Miracles in Macbeth.” The Journal of English and Germanic Philology 31, no. 2 (1932): 234–46. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27703622.

Wiesner-Hanks, Merry. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019.

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