Explore the way in which Shakespeare presents women in Hamlet

The student can should structure their essay in to 2 or 3 points, backed up by relevant evidence, thorough analysis and the relevant use of contextual information. In Hamlet, women are objectified and at the mercy of the men in the play. Ophelia is described as a 'chaste treasure' - her virginity is monetised and romanticised, and she is objectified with the use of 'treasure' to describe her > this links to the importance placed upon chastity in Elizabethan England. Women are also reduced to madness in the play, therefore removing a coherent female voice. Ophelia's 'speech is nothing' - she is dismissed as a mad, weak woman. Even in madness she is sexualised, as 'nothing' has a double meaning in Shakespearian times, to also mean the female genitalia > this links to the Elizabethan inability to understand the complexity of emotions, especially in women, due to the inherent sexism of the time.