‘Frailty thy name is woman'-to what extent does Shakespeare reinforce ideas about female identity in the portrayal of Ophelia and Gertrude?

There are distinct moments in the play where Hamlets mother, Gertrude, appears especially frail as Hamlet suggests she is in his first soliloquy. This side to her seems especially apparent in Act 3 scene 4 where her son confronts her finally about her ‘incestous’ marriage with Claudius. She is presented as having a tiny capacity for criticism and pain, previously Hamlet speaks of his intention to ‘speak daggers to her, but use none,’ suggesting she is inferior to her male counterparts who have sinned, as Hamlet needs not to use physical force on her like Claudius, but feels as though he can damage her with words alone due to her weak female nature. Gertrude fulfils this low expectation of her emotional strength in the closet scene by turning to ignorance rather than accepting her wrong doings. She pleads with Hamlet to ‘speak no more,’ multiple times as she is far too weak to listen to ‘these words like daggers,’ her son speaks. Critic Rebecca Smith suggests that conflict in Gertrude’s life ‘leaves her bewildered and unhappy.’ She most definitely becomes confused by her internal conflict as she chooses not to recognise her sins that she herself has committed as she is too weak to face the truth. This is acknowledged by Hamlet in his speech where a semantic field of blindness is found, Hamlet repeatedly asks his mother ‘have you eyes?’ and states she has ‘feeling without sight.’ This blindness can be read in the metaphorical sense that Gertrude is not physically blind, but spiritually and morally blind. She is far too frail to see and acknowledge her wrong doings and so instead ignores and blocks them out then goes on to encourage hamlet to enable her self made oblivion by begging him to stop pointing it out it her. Gertrude’s self restriction in order to protect herself could perhaps reflect on a Woman’s position in society during the Shakespearean era, Gertrude restricts herself the freedom of guilt in order to maintain some sort of honour, likewise females restricted themselves of freedom in order to be respected in their communities. They must conform to expectations female perfection and so instead must oppress themselves due to them being too weak to break free of norms and still survive in an androcentric society.