 The theme of sexuality is an important theme within Hamlet. Indeed, all of the play's characters who have a female relative appear really obsessed with controlling the sexuality of their female relatives. For example, Hamlet appears incredibly preoccupied with the fact that his mom is basically having sex with his uncle, okay? Even if she's married to him, so Gertrude was sleeping with his uncle. He also seems to be very preoccupied with this idea that women are associated with sin, okay? So he sees women in very narrow terms, in terms of creatures and vessels who he sleeps with, but also it's this element of him sleeping with them that can make them fall in creatures in his eyes, okay? So he sees women in some ways as very devilish in this aspect, okay? And this is also shown through the fact that he speaks to Ophelia sometimes in very sexualized ways, but also then he kind of oscillates from, and he goes from one extreme of speaking to her in a kind of sexualized way to another extreme of telling her, okay, if you want to prove to me that you are pure, just go to live in a convent, get the itianonary, okay? So he seems very preoccupied with sexuality and very preoccupied and obsessed with controlling women's sexuality, especially his own mother's sexuality. However, this also extends to Leia, this is Ophelia's brother, he has this huge kind of speech towards her before he leaves where he's basically telling her, make sure you stay away from Hamlet, make sure you stay a virgin, make sure you don't sleep with anybody so that you can stay pure. However, it's interesting that when Polonius is talking to Laertes and giving him advice when he moves to Paris, part of that advice is a little bit bawdy, it's this idea of him just being really careful when he's mingling with women. So whilst Ophelia is held to this very high moral standard as to being pure, Laertes can kind of go around sleeping around, okay? So however, even if Laertes goes around sleeping around, he still is very obsessed with the sister's sexuality and to make sure that she stays very chaste. And this also extends of course to Polonius who wants his daughter Ophelia to stay pure and to really stay away from Hamlet, stay away from Hamlet so that he doesn't take your virginity because you're probably not gonna get married to him and then now you're gonna be a fallen woman, okay? So this idea of sexuality and the idea of sin being attached to a woman having sex is something that really runs through, it's a theme and a strand that runs through Hamlet, okay? And of course this is shown primarily through the male characters who really narrowly restrict the roles that these women can have, okay? So let's have a look at the key quotations you can bear in mind, as you can see here, I have prepared the relevant quotations to consider if you're writing about this theme when it comes to Hamlet, okay? So let's start with the first quotation and this is Laertes. Laertes seems very obsessed with making sure that Ophelia stays pure. He states, in the morn and liquid dew of youth, contagious blastments are most imminent, be wary then, best safety lies in fear. So he's basically telling Ophelia, look, you know, when you're young, you're the most beautiful, but this is when you're most alluring to men, okay? So, you know, it's kind of like in the morning, when grass and especially grass and the springtime is growing, it's very fragile but very beautiful. But that's actually when insects and anything that infects this grass is most drawn to it. So it has to be very fearful, okay? So of course here what he's basically telling Ophelia is, she's very beautiful, but she has to be very protective of her virginity. And especially with her relationship with Hamlet, she has to be really careful not to, you know, sleep with him or go into any form of temptation. So here we can see that Layertes is obsessed with controlling Ophelia's sexuality. This is illustrated through firstly, the Pathetic Fallacy Mourne, which is talking about the mourning. Also, the metaphor liquid due of youth. This is a metaphor for the beauty and the youth that Ophelia has. And he's basically telling her, don't waste your beauty and your virginity on this man who might not marry you. And also the letters B and B and best, this is a literation of B. And finally, the words worry and fear. This belongs to the semantic field of caution, this idea that women's value is primarily tied to their sexual virginity. And if they lose that, then they have no value, okay? The second quotation tying into the theme of sexuality. Again, this is Layertes describing how Ophelia's virginity is your chaste treasure. Now this is a metaphor, he's basically talking about her virginity as a piece of treasure, which she has to guard. And he almost wants to jealously guard it for her, okay? So again, there's this obsession with female sexuality and the men around the women controlling their sexuality. The next quotation tying into sexuality is, when we can see Hamlet is obsessed with the idea that Claudius, one of the things that he's doing is having sex with his mom as her husband, okay? And he's reflecting on how Claudius, he hath killed my king and hawed my mother, okay? And here we can see that he sees his mother because she's having sex as a widow, she's now a whore, she's now a prostitute, okay? And here we can see in this element, he's very obsessed with controlling his mother's sexuality. The word love analysis you want to focus on is firstly the alliteration of age and he hath, okay? So he's really disgusted, he's angry and he's thinking about his mother's sexuality. And of course here we can see that he's angry at Claudius for killing his father, okay? So this is shown in the verb. But most importantly, the adjective horde. Again here, this interesting description of his mother being now kind of a prostitute, a woman who is a street walker purely because she has remarried and is now having sex with a new man. And this just shows that Hamlet is incredibly preoccupied with controlling his mom's sexuality and he sees his mother as almost a fallen creature as a result of her sexual choices. And finally, of course, you've got the letteration here also of M in my mother. The next quotation, which ties in to the theme of sexuality and this is now when Hamlet becomes incredibly graphic when he is confronting his mother. Not only is he confronting Gertrude, Queen Gertrude in talking about this sexual nature of her relationship with Claudius, he's doing it in her bedroom. So there's almost, there's a lot of theories that show that Hamlet's sexuality goes beyond the normal interest that a son might have in his mother's sexuality and it's tied to the Oedipus complex. This is an idea that was pioneered by a psychologist called Freud. Okay, so Sigmund Freud who basically stated that all men basically want to kill the fathers in order to have sex and possess the mothers, okay? And this is tied into the Greek mythology whereby there was a man called Oedipus who unknowingly had sex with his mother, okay? So it's a little bit weird, but this is tied into Hamlet because Hamlet seems to have this obsession with Gertrude who's having sex with his uncle. He just can't get over it, okay? And he's really concerned about controlling his mother's sexuality. More concerned about that than killing the king who has killed his own father, okay? So he's more concerned with controlling Gertrude's sexuality than actually avenging his father's memory and killing Claudius, okay? This is illustrated through the following quotation. In the rank sweat of an enceamed bed, student corruption, honey, and making love over the nasty style. So here he's describing in a very graphic way his mother's bed and it's like a pigsty in Hamlet's eyes. Ah, you're having sex with my uncle is disgusting. That's basically what he's saying. And he's basically saying, you know, you're committing a sin against God because you know, you're married to, you're supposed to be married to my dad and now you're doing this with my uncle. This is disgusting, okay? However, it's not really his business. However, you know, from the perspective of the theme of sexuality, we can see the preoccupation a lot of men had, especially during this time with controlling the sexuality of women around them, especially even their mothers and also their daughters and so on, okay? Now the word love analysis you want to focus on is the words enceamed and love, which obviously, and especially making love, which belongs to a semantic field of sex. Again, this is showing this unnatural and funny obsession that Hamlet has over controlling his mother's sexuality. Also, the other word love analysis you want to focus on is the rule of three, talking about how the bed that Gertrude sleeps on is it's full of corruption. She also is honey-ing on it and making love, okay? So this is rule of three. And again, this illustrates Hamlet's interest and preoccupation with Gertrude's sexuality and her sexual relationship with Claudius, okay? And of course, the final thing that you want to focus on in terms of word level analysis is the word style, which is a metaphor for, of course, the bed that she shares with Claudius, okay? So Hamlet sees it as a pig's style. The next question relating to the theme of sexualities, of course, when Hamlet is basically telling Ophelia, okay, I see all women as fallen creatures. I see them as these disgusting creatures. And the only way you can show me that you're not a fallen woman, you're not a sinful woman is if you get the telunery, okay? And this is an imperative sentence. Remember, imperative sentence is a sentence that issues a command. So it's basically telling Ophelia to prove that she's different and not corrupting other men and giving birth to other sinners. She needs to go off to a convent, okay? And the word level analysis you want to focus on here is the essence of E in get the end nunnery. Now, the final quotation, which shows even Polonius himself wanted to control Ophelia's sexuality and to make sure that she stayed a virgin, okay? So Ophelia defends the interest that Hamlet has initially, and she says, no, no, no, I don't think Hamlet has terrible intentions towards me. And Polonius dismisses her. He says, ugh, you speak like a green girl. In other words, you're speaking like such a naive girl. How can you not see through it, okay? And the simile here, like a green girl, emphasizes how Polonius not only wants to control Ophelia's sexuality, but he believes that Hamlet, his main intention is just basically to make his daughter impure, okay? So all of these quotations illustrate how the theme of sexuality does run through the play. And of course, we can see this kind of obsession, the male characters within the play have been with control in the sexuality of the women in their lives, okay? So that's really it. When it comes to key quotations, remember for this theme and thanks so much for listening.