Gender discrimination is based on human prejudice or discrimination against the sexes. This kind of discrimination has been going on for many centuries, and Shakespeare’s era is no exception. Sex discrimination may affect anyone, but it mainly affects women and girls, such as Gertrude and Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Sexism is fully embodied in this play. In this play, Women are inferior to men in their statements, and women’s voices are easily ignored. This shows that Shakespeare is anti-female. In Hamlet, men’s attitudes and words towards women can be fully proved. First, Gertrude is talked by Hamlet in a rude manner. Second, Ophelia is controlled completely by Polonius. Third, Ophelia and Gertrude’s death is disrespected by others.
Hamlet use bad language to describe and abuse his mother Gertrude, he ignored the normal relationship between mother and child and then offend Gertrude. The first quote is said by Hamlet, talk with Claudius and Gertrude in the court: Frailty, thy name is woman (I, ii, 146). The second quote is said by Hamlet, talk with Gertrude in Gertrude’s room. In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love Over the nasty sty (III, iv,90-92).
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The first line shows that Hamlet define frailty as women. Frailty is weakness in person’s character and moral standards. Hamlet use this word to define women, and his mother. Hamlet in the face of many people and even his mother, used weakness to represent women. However, women have not refuted and accepted this word silently. To a large extent,Men directly believe that weakness is the characteristic of women. In the social background at that time, women always manage housework, men work to provide family. In hamlet, Gertrude cannot join in state affairs.She could only sit upright and keep quiet. On the contrary, Claudius have supreme power. The power between men and women reflects that society is dominated by men and supplemented by women’s consciousness. Therefore, women are not allowed to have their own dominant ideas, even if they are insulted face to face, they can not be angry. All women can do is to swallow their voices with patience.
The second line explains that Hamlet use rude manner to Gertrude. Gertrude is the queen of this country. It should have been a noble person. But when she wanted to criticize her son and let him speak kindly to the king. Hamlet was aggressive and exposing the fact that his mother betrayed his father and married his uncle. What’s more, Hamlet attacked her mother with malicious language. As a mother who was exposed by her son, she was ashamed and frightened, but could not refute any more. She could only beg Hamlet to stop talking. In this conversation, Hamlet is a youth, Gertrude is an elder, and Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother. It is natural that the younger generation should respect the older generation. However, Hamlet does not respect Gertrude at all and treats Gertrude in vulgar language. The dignity of a great mother is lost to the male power represented by her children.
Ophelia has no independent thought and is completely constrained by men. The first quote is said by Polonius, talk with Claudius, Voltemand and Gertrude in a room in castle. Lord Hamlet is a prince out of thy star.This must not be.’ And then I prescripts gave her, That she should lock herself from his resort, Admit no messengers, receive no tokens. Which done, she took the fruits of my advice??€II, ii, 141-145). The first quote shows that Ophelia was under the control of her father Polonius, and was not allowed to have any contact with Hamlet.Polonius thought that his family and status did not match Hamlet’s. He also thought that Hamlet was playing with Ophelia’s feelings. So he did not allow Ophelia to have any contact with Hamlet. He locked his daughter at home to prevent Ophelia and Hamlet from meeting.In addition, Polonius ignored Ophelia’s idea and decided instead of Ophelia that he would no longer communicate with Hamlet. Ophelia, however, can only accept all the demands and decisions her father has made. In Hamlet, it is clear that men’s rights are strong and women’s unconditional obedience.
The second quote said by Polonius, talk with Ophelia after knowing something between Hamlet and his daughter. Marry, I’ll teach you. Think yourself a baby. That you have ta’en these tenders for true pay, Which are not sterling. Tender yourself more dearly, Or not to crack the wind of the poor phrase, Running it thus you’ll tender me a fool(I, iii,105-109). The second quote explains that Polonius reprimands his daughter Ophelia.When Polonius learned about Ophelia’s emotional state, his words revealed disdain. He did not want Ophelia to fall love into a false love game by Hamlet. The father had more authority than Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, so his language was more harsh, using baby and fool to describe Ophelia. Among them, Polonius is the father, Ophelia is the daughter, Polonius belongs to the strong, while Ophelia is the weak. Polonius’s “talk” implies the power and status of men. Ophelia’s “listening” reveals his weak and neglected position in society. When Ophelia is faced with love and father, she can only choose to listen to his father’s “teachings”.
Women’s death is ignored by most of people, and they are disrespected by others. The quote is said by a priest, talk with Laertes which Laertes wants priest to do more ceremony. Her obsequies have been as far enlarged. As we have warranty. Her death was doubtful, And, but that great command o’ersways the order, She should in ground unsanctified have lodged. Till the last trumpet. For charitable prayers Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown on her. Yet here she is allowed her virgin crants, Her maiden strewments, and the bringing home Of bell and burial (Act5, Scene5, 208-216). The quote shows Ophelia’s death not only because of suffering, but also was disrespected. When Ophelia knew her father’s death, she felt despair. At that time, men were regarded as everything for women.
Because of Polonius’s death, Ophelia doesn’t know what she should do and what expectations she had for life, and her lover Hamlet’s curse on her. Finally, Ophelia escapes from all the pain and chose to commit suicide. The deceased should have been respected, but in that century, suicide was considered an unforgivable sin. Without the last ritual, death would be the guarantee of being sent to hell. In Hamlet, the priest said that Ophelia should not pray and be thrown into her grave with bricks and rubble. Durkheim, a French sociologist, said that “suicide is not a simple individual act, but a reaction to a disintegrating society”. Ophelia’s suicide and treatment after death are just proof of the seriousness of suicide and gender discrimination in society at that time.
In the society ruled by men at Shakespeare’s century, women depend on men completely. Women’s fate cannot be dominated by themselves. Women’s tragedies are caused by social injustice. In Hamlet, great mother-child feelings and love did not exist in the male power struggle. The experience of Gertrude and Ophelia is not only the result of Hamlet’s tragedy, but also a microcosm of contemporary society. The female identities described in Shakespeare’s Hamlet are humble, without freedom, without independent thought, men control women’s behavior and speech completely. Only meek women who obey a man’s every command are respectable. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet, it can see that Shakespeare is anti-feminist. The women in his play are so fragile, Shakespeare expresses his strong Anti-feminism with male language and behavior.
How Creat A Successful Team?
“”A team is a unit of two or more people who interact and coordinate their work to accomplish a specific goal”” (Metreveli & Kajaia, 2015). Creating a successful team can be a challenging task. However, building teams and team working has many advantages. Team members share their skills and knowledge which encourages exchanging ideas, creativity, and motivation to achieve a common goal. Teamwork will improve the organization productivity, communication, quality and the satisfaction of customers by providing them with products or services (The Open University, 2011). However, to adapt to supportive working conditions, team members must be flexible and should understand that accomplishing a common goal and a clear purpose is achieved through teamwork (Luca & Tarricone, 2001).
A team is like a system in a way, it consists of three stages inputs, throughputs and outputs. Inputs can be time, people, skills, at the input stage there are two important factors, communication climate and group configuration which is controlled by management. The communication climate is basically the environment where the team works, and group configuration is how the team is selected. To have an effective team, team members should be suitable to the task by having different skills and knowledge. Management must make sure that the team strategy must work with the organization vision and values as well as its practices. Throughputs such as the team processes, cohesiveness, communication, decision-making and task activities will help to transform the inputs to satisfactory outputs.
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Such throughputs will make team members feels like a family with a shared goal and will motivate them to work effectively by giving them feelings of belongingness and commitment to the team. Throughputs also includes the activities that will help the team through their decision making by getting the work done and function efficiently. The last stage is the outputs which are the results that satisfy the common goal the team is trying to accomplish. Such outcomes include not only the task performance of the team but also individual outputs which will be evaluated by the organization and the team members as well as other stakeholders. Such system will determine the advantages that teamwork will have to the organization. A key important issue to managers is to ensure that a team is well put together, and the organization must cultivate a culture to support teamwork (The Open University).
Many studies have shown that there are several attributes for building a successful team. The attributes needed to have a successful and effective teamwork are, commitment to team success and shared goals, interdependence, interpersonal skills, open communication and positive feedback, appropriate team composition and commitment to team processes, leadership and accountability (Tarricone & Luca, 2002). Team members having the combination of understanding their purpose and shared goals will achieve the task (Francis & Young, 1979), and having similarities in goals and interests will make team members enjoy regular interaction with each other.
Also, working in teams provides each member with prestige and recognition, (Scarnati, 2001), and such recognition will motivate teams to succeed. The team environment and atmosphere are an important factor for successful teamwork it should be informal, relaxed, comfortable and non-judgmental (Harris & Harris, 1996). Interdependence is a key attribute for successful teamwork. An individual in a team can’t succeed unless all members of the team succeed, and team members work together to achieve the task given and encourage the success of one another.
They also learn together as a team, so they can perform better as individuals later (Smith, 1996). The effectiveness of working together as a team will deliver more than individuals who work separately, and through synergy, team members build on the skills and abilities of each other (Francis & Young, 1979). When working in teams, team members benefit from a broad range of skills and ideas and are empowered to achieve tasks that are not available for individuals working alone (Scarnati, 2001). Another attribute for successful teamwork is interpersonal skills. Team members must trust, respect and care for each other, and feelings must be articulated and expressed freely (Critchley & Casey, 1986).
Also, cultivating a caring work atmosphere is important to have an effective and successful team. Communication and feedback are very important for effective teamwork. Feedback should be given and accepted in a non-defensive manner, and such communication allows and empowers team members to express the team feelings and teams should have a spirit of positive and constructive criticism and authentic feedback that is non-evaluative (Harris & Harris, 1996). Team members must be honest, truthful and open and take into consideration all feelings and ideas of members of the team and deal with conflict and work as a group through it (Critchley & Casey, 1986).
A team should include members with different skills and knowledge that each member can share, while keeping an open, respectful communication and avoiding threatening communication. A successful team is a product of appropriate team composition (Bradley & Fredric, 1997), which is another attribute for a successful team. Each member of a team should understand their role and what are expected from them. Member roles and responsibilities should be clearly clarified. Each member in a team should be responsible for their role and involvement to the team. They should create methods and approaches that helps achieve the goal and divide the work equally and fairly among team members.
Also, team members should be open and accept any change that happen, try to be innovative and creative and try to solve problems together as a team (Harris & Harris, 1996). Each member should accept individual responsibilities and be accountable for their part of the work (Smith, 1996). To have a successful team effective leadership is important (Bradley & Fredric, 1997). Leaders of teams should monitor and examine the team progress and do post-project analyses to figure out what helped and what didn’t to achieve the give task (Johnson, Heimann, & O’Neill, 2000). Such activities show how commitment to team processes, leadership and accountability is an important attribute for successful teamwork.
Building a successful team is a process that needs continuous attention. Reminding team members of the team goals and the clear purpose will motivate team members to do it best and be effective in accomplishing the goal. Having a loyal and respectful working environment helps to build a successful team, where team members can trust their teammates to rely on them.
Also, any team needs to be able to recognize problems, and discuss among each other what is working and what is not and give and accept feedback in a respectful manner and work together to correct mistakes that are done. Being a member in a successful team can be a memorable and unforgettable experience. When a team is successful and accomplished the goal given, each member will know that he/she is part of something big and will be motivated for future goals (Metreveli & Kajaia, 2015).
