Hamlet Group

Question:

kristina89
kristina89
Student
High School - 12th Grade

Please explain Hamlet's accusation "Frailty thy name is woman" in Act 1 of Hamlet.

What does this line mean? In what way does it foreshadow events to come?

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Posted by kristina89 on Monday December 3, 2007 at 9:04 AM and tagged with act 1 scene 2, frailty thy name is woman, hamlet, quotes, themes.

Answers:


  1. sullymonster Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    Hamlet utters this phrase in reference to his mother.  He believes that her quick marriage to his uncle is a sign of her weakness.  He actually indicates that nothing good can come of this action.  This does foreshadow a few things.  One is the death of Ophelia, who succumbs to her own grief and confusion and is drowned.  Also, the death of Gertrude herself.  Her marriage to Claudius did bring this about, as she mistakenly drank the cup he poisoned for Hamlet.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet-text/3325
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/act-scene-2-summary-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/character-analysis

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    Posted by sullymonster on Monday December 3, 2007 at 3:41 PM

  2. dbralexander
    dbralexander Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    In Shakespeare's plays in general, female characters in the comedies are the protagonists, the stronger, clever ones. In the tragedies, they are the weaker characters, the frail ones (there's a topic for an essay: what is Shakespeare suggesting about life in general by this conceit? Was Shakespeare the first feminist in English literature?).

    In Hamlet Act I, Hamlet is speaking directly about his mother whose "O'erhasty marriage" offends him to his core. It most directly points to Ophelia's betrayal of Hamlet in Act III. "Where's your father?" "At home, my lord". Hamlet knows he is being watched and he confronts Ophelia. In her moment of truth, she decides to side with her father (somewhat understandable considering Hamlet's treatment of her for the previous two acts). But in Hamlet's eyes, this is just one more betrayal.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/act-scene-2-summary-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/character-analysis

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    Posted by dbralexander on Wednesday December 5, 2007 at 6:52 AM

  3. prof-c
    prof-c Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    Your answer lies in the lines following that statement:

    A little month, or ere those shoes were old

    With which she follow'd my poor father's body,

    Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--

    O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,

    Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle

    He's angry that his mother's emotions were so fickle. 

    How could she so quickly marry after burying her husband? 

    And that she married her husband's brother makes it not just 

    improper, but immoral. 

    My father's brother, but no more like my father

    Than I to Hercules: within a month:

    Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

    Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,

    she married. O, most wicked speed, to post

    With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!

    Again, he focuses on the speed of the marriage and makes his 

    disgust for the immorality of it clear to the audience. 

    It is not nor it cannot come to good

    He's doing more than foreshadowing the tragic ending of the 

    play, it's almost as if he's committing to himself to make sure it 

    will end tragically. 

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/act-scene-2-summary-analysis
    http://www.enotes.com/hamlet/character-analysis

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    Posted by prof-c on Tuesday April 1, 2008 at 12:19 AM