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| Pictured: Sarah Bernhardt as the first female Hamlet (1880-1885). |
In your reading for today, "Women as Hamlet" by critic Tony Howard, Howard opens with a pretty powerful observation: "The first Hamlet on film was a woman, Sarah Bernhardt (1900)" (328). The idea that Shakespeare's most famous tragic hero has been portrayed by a number of female actresses (Bernhardt, Eve Donne, Charlotte Clarke, Eva Le Gallienne...) suggests how complex Hamlet is as a character. This complexity not only creates opportunities for readers to question Hamlet's gender and the way gender is performed, but it also invokes questions about what we have come to expect of Shakespeare's tragic heroes.
Like Ernest Jones's article on psychoanalysis (264-71), Howard's article participates in a particular critical and intellectual movement: feminist and queer theory. You may have noticed key terms like "regendering" (328), "subjectivity" (328), and "negotiating identity" (334) in Howard's discussion, and they are important to understand as you think about the article.
- Broadly defined, feminist criticism thinks about the ways literature and cultural productions reinforce or undermine the power of women.
- The term, gender, uses expressions like masculine and feminine to describe the state of being a man or a woman in a particular culture. Unlike a person's individual sex (the anatomy he or she has when he or she is born), gender is a culturally-constructed behavior that is not natural but man-made. In order to explain Hamlet's gender, then, we must decide if Hamlet meets the traditional gender roles one would expect of a male Shakespearean character.
- These traditional gender roles cast men as strong, rational, and decisive individuals, whereas women are frequently cast as emotional (irrational), weak, and submissive creatures. Just looking at this list, which list of characteristics does Hamlet seem to embody most?
- Subjectivity deals with action and the ability to do something. In grammar, the subject of a sentence does something and the object does not. Subjects do things to objects, and subjectivity—just like agency in the novel Jane Eyre—means a person's ability to imagine and shape his or her own life.
- Lastly, identity describes our ability to identify with certain gender roles. When we "negotiate identity," we are thinking about a lot of things and gender is a huge part of those negotiations.
In the comments below—
1) Discuss what you see as "Hamlet's femininity." What actions seem to imply he is either masculine or feminine?
2) Pick one ofthe three female Hamlets Howard describes ("a German actress, a French painter, and an amateur American critic who each in different ways and for different reasons explored what has been seen as the femininity of Hamlet" (328)). Then, describe how her performance deals with the issues of "Hamlet's femininity." Use page numbers and quote to help with your answer.
1. I believe when I read hamlet, I think of him as masculine at times, and feminine. Not considering he is a man, hamlet can have both of these traits. Hamlet is masculine when he wants to take revenge for his father, but is seen as feminine when he is down about his fathers loss. He falls in love which can be seen as feminine and shows hamlets weaknesses. When a person reads hamlet, hamlet is a man and you expect him to always be masculine. I think when the play was done by the woman, it really showed who hamlet truly was because hamlet in the play is so different, as it is different for a woman to be playing as a man. The woman portrayed him well because hamlet was such a alienated character. I think hamlet is both feminine and masculine in a equal way, when played by a woman or man, it shows equally that a woman and man can both be feminine and masculine, but in stronger suits.
ReplyDelete2. I think the german actress Angela Winkler really captured who hamlet truly was by being a woman. Hamlet is a captivating person so it's bound to be more captivating by escaping the social norms and letting a woman play his part. Angela also was very powerful playing him, even in the most awkward of scenes like the scene with ophelia and hamlet, two actresses having a lovers sprawl, "Winkler ripped the letters to pieces and hurled the scraps in ophelia's face; all hamlets pain erupted."(335) Winkler completely ignoring her gender and only sees herself as a person who has been hurt by her lover, and can only see the person in front of her as her lover. I believe it must of been difficult at times to pull off a feat of being a man, but I think it might of been only a small feat since many woman have done so well playing hamlet.
1) Discuss what you see as "Hamlet's femininity." What actions seem to imply he is either masculine or feminine?
ReplyDeleteIn terms of traditional gender roles, I think Hamlet embodies feminine characteristics more than masculine characteristics. If gender roles cast women as emotional, irrational, and weak and men as strong, rational, and decisive then Hamlet definitely falls into the “feminine” category. To begin, Hamlet is incredibly indecisive! Almost the entire play consists of Hamlet struggling with what decision he should make regarding his uncle and the revenge of his father. Furthermore, his emotions are all over the place. One moment he loves Ophelia, the next he is pushing her away from him. Additionally, I do not consider Hamlet to be strong, more specifically, mentally strong. He is crazed and scattered, certainly not the definition of a rational and decisive character.
2) Pick one of the three female Hamlets Howard describes ("a German actress, a French painter, and an amateur American critic who each in different ways and for different reasons explored what has been seen as the femininity of Hamlet" (328)). Then, describe how her performance deals with the issues of "Hamlet's femininity." Use page numbers and quotes to help with your answer.
Female-to-male cross-dressing presents women playing Hamlet as an exploration of identity (335). Angela Winkler explored the femininity of Hamlet by connecting the character to her own personality. She made Hamlet multi-dimensional and, as said on page 332, “absorbed Hamlet’s emotions into her own personality.” She was able to deal with Hamlet’s femininity by making him emotional and unprotected, a child with “six-year-old outbursts” (333), but mature at the same time, with a compulsive need for knowledge and “hunger for truth” (331). I feel that Winkler was able to display Hamlet’s femininity (indecisiveness and unpredictable emotions) by playing Hamlet as the restless “problem child” (332) while also playing him as mature and explosive. Some reviewers said that Winkler was identifying femininity with immaturity, but there is a great difference between her performance and her physical self. Winkler made Hamlet multi-dimensional, a “lost child” but also an “experienced woman” (333). On top of it all, the fact that women do not normally speak these texts in public intensified her performance and representation of Hamlet as well as the impact of the play itself. Though I did not see her performance myself, I admire that she was able to bring out “Hamlet’s enormous capacity for love, a capacity that is constantly baffled and frustrated” (338). For I feel that Hamlet’s inability to love is often the focus, and Winkler did the exact opposite.
1) Discuss what you see as "Hamlet's femininity." What actions seem to imply he is either masculine or feminine?
ReplyDeleteIn my eyes, I see Hamlet as a very feminine male figure, which seems obscure for a character in such high social standing, which would be stereotypically a robust male figure, however Shakespeare breaks rules. I see Hamlet's femininity in mostly a) his emotions and b) his interactions with others. His emotions, when disengaged from the character and evaluated individually, are those you would stereotypically group as feminine. Hamlet goes through waves of sadness, which is an emotion thought to be "feminine". Although his other emotions; anger, frustration, etc. are those of your stereotypical male, the one emotion brought up again and again, is sadness. I also see Hamlet's femininity in his interactions with other; most often, Ophelia. Some of the first interactions we see between Hamlet and Ophelia involve letter writing. The thought of letter writing conjures of images of a sweet young girl writing a heart felt letter to her lover. However, in Hamlet, this letter writing is done by Hamlet, further pushing the thought of femininity on the reader.
2) Pick one of the three female Hamlets Howard describes ("a German actress, a French painter, and an amateur American critic who each in different ways and for different reasons explored what has been seen as the femininity of Hamlet" (328)). Then, describe how her performance deals with the issues of "Hamlet's femininity." Use page numbers and quote to help with your answer.
Angela Winkler's performance of Hamlet sounds wonderful to say the least. A quote from page 330 struck me as quite interesting, "I didn't set out to play a man, I don't find that very interesting." This was fascinating to me, because as a woman, we never set out to play the role of a man, we have been taught to not think of it as interesting. However, from the descriptions of Winkler's performance, once she was given this role as a man, a powerful one to say the least, she not only embraced in whole heartedly, but maybe even enjoyed it. Her own natural femininity, having had four children, and just being a woman, no doubt, allowed her to pull emotion and Hamlet's femininity from her personal life as a woman.
1) One the surface Hamlet is a manly dude (or at least trying to be) he's got the pretty girlfriend, the cool sword and the sentinel bros, and he wants to be a hero and avenge his father. But this is just his surface level. Below that level Hamlet fits the stereotypical female role. He is indecisive, constantly questioning himself and doubting all his decisions. He is irrational and overly emotional especially towards Ophelia who seems to be the opposite when facing the crazy dude. What Hamlet needs is a man to set him straight and tell him what to do ,right?.
ReplyDelete2) I think Angela Winkler hits the issue spot on "I didn't set out to play a man, I don't find that interesting" (330). The fact of the matter is Hamlet with stereotypical male attributes is a BORING character. Who wants to watch the same old story of a buff dude going and killing another dude because they've done the first dude wrong.
(I'll add more to this)
1) Discuss what you see as "Hamlet's femininity." What actions seem to imply he is either masculine or feminine?
ReplyDeleteIn the article Tony Howard talks about how women tend to be the ones who answer questions like Hamlet faces. I agree with that, there are many places in the play where Hamlet demonstrates more feminine qualities, then masculine. For example, Hamlet has a long speech in, Act 1 Scene 2 Lines 129-159, where he is describing his opinions on his mothers marriage to his uncle and you can see he is being dramatic and emotional two things that go along with the female gender role. He goes into that female gender role again when talking to Ophelia, he tells her that she needs to go to a nunnery and that she is being irrational (3.1.57-160). Throughout this whole conversation Hamlet is the one being irrational though, and could be thought of as a weak moment, another female identifying gender role.
2) Pick one ofthe three female Hamlets Howard describes ("a German actress, a French painter, and an amateur American critic who each in different ways and for different reasons explored what has been seen as the femininity of Hamlet" (328)). Then, describe how her performance deals with the issues of "Hamlet's femininity." Use page numbers and quote to help with your answer.
“Angela Winkler made Hamlet emotional raw and unprotected, consumed by an insatiable hunger for truth, observing history with amazement. (331)” Winkler could play Hamlet so emotionally, because she had gone through a similar experience to what Hamlet does. Angela Winkler had lost her father with made the role hit home. She also found the role to be a struggle that she accepted and was determined to perform.
1) Discuss what you see as "Hamlet's femininity." What actions seem to imply he is either masculine or feminine?
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that when you think of certain gender roles, men are suppose to be strong, smart and rational, and women are suppose to be weak, irrational, and sensitive; in the play Hamlet “several of the most brilliant performances of the part in our time have been by women.” It is interesting that women played the role of Hamlet, which implied that he has famine traits which have developed that not all men have to be strong, smart, and rational. In the reading Women as Hamlet the author asked, “what will this “Hamlet 2000” be like.” I believe that if Hamlet was performed now in the modern day people would make him much more masculine because our culture has made it so that men have to masculine. The author also asked “Why, at certain points, was it thought appropriate for women to play the role, and why were many other artist, male and female, fascinated by them?” It is hard to believe that women would be aloud to play the role of Hamlet nowadays.
2) Pick one of the three female Hamlets Howard describes ("a German actress, a French painter, and an amateur American critic who each in different ways and for different reasons explored what has been seen as the femininity of Hamlet" (328)). Then, describe how her performance deals with the issues of "Hamlet's femininity." Use page numbers and quote to help with your answer.
Angela Winkler was a great actress for the play Hamlet because she related to it, “It’s very important for me that the work corresponds to a precise moment in my life,” (330) says Winkler; when she got casted for the part Hamlet she was shocked, but “its [the role] difficulty attracted her and there were private echoes” (330). In World War II her father was shot and assumed dead, when she was six her father came back to Germany (331); Winkler must have been able to relate to Hamlet’s story because his dead came back to him just like her dad returned to her, “like a ghost” (331). Winkler had four children, “I couldn’t act all the time. I had to have pauses, to be with my family” (330); as a women playing the role of Hamlet, her love and emotions for her children must have corresponded with Hamlet’s famine side.