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‘Elizabethan society was a patriarchal society in which men took action and responsibility, and women were powerless. How does the position of women in Elizabethan society affect their portrayal in Hamlet? How do you as a member of a 21st century audience, respond to the portrayal of Gertrude and Ophelia?’ 676 words In the time that Shakespeare wrote his plays, women were not allowed to perform on stage, which meant that boys dressed up as women …

…a young, beautiful Elizabethan woman. When Polonius asks her to spy on Hamlet, the only response she makes is, ‘I shall obey’. This also shows her youthful state of mind, at her not being able to answer in the way she truly feels, or the way the reader perceives she would feel. It was felt that her youth and weakness of mind was the eventual cause of Ophelia’s insanity and untimely and suspicious death.