The play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, was written in the early 17th century, during the Elizabethan era. In this time period, women were expected to marry at a young age and have children to carry on the family name; this was to be their only role in life. Women were not believed to be rational and intelligent human beings. For centuries, women have been imprisoned within this box, constricted and restrained by the male view of what women's role in life is. They are mothers, daughters, girlfriends, and wives but never philosophers, business people, investors, owners, doctors or lawyers; they...
love/ Over the nasty sty!" III.iv.ll 102-105. Women are subject to whatever faults men place on them instead of themselves.

Within the play Hamlet, the role of women is very negative; they are sexual objects, weak, and not independent. Shakespeare has used a model of the women of his time and put them into this play, Hamlet. Though time has passed and views have changed on women, Hamlet remains the same, stuck in the 17th century. The role of women in Hamlet remains very minimal and only serves to further enhance and characterize the male characters within the play.