Hi room! Hi I still hope that someone could help me with this question, īcoz I have to work out this question to get a D in English. Iīm from Austria Vienna, and my English isnīt the best. Thanks for your help in advance.

What does Hamlet mean when he says: "Grailly, thy name is woman!"?????

-- Christian Wunderl (a9609082@unet.univie.ac.at), April 24, 2001

Answers

Not Grailly - it's "frailty". He means that women are morally weak (why else would Gertrude marry Claudius so soon?).

-- mikken (mikken@neo.rr.com), April 27, 2001.

It is a comment on Gertrude/women; but it might also be a comment on Claudius/men: compare TWELFTH NIGHT II.v.27-30, "How easy it is for the proper false / In women's waxen hearts to set their forms! / Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we, / For such as we are made of, such we be [ie soft and frail as wax: being made of frail flesh, women are frail]." Interestingly, it is a female character who speaks these lines.

-- catherine england (catherineamer@hotmail.com), November 09, 2001.

It is a comment on Gertrude/women; but it might also be a comment on Claudius/men: compare TWELFTH NIGHT II.v.27-30, "How easy it is for the proper false / In women's waxen hearts to set their forms! / Alas, our frailty is the cause, not we, / For such as we are made of, such we be [ie soft and frail as wax: being made of frail flesh, women are frail]." The 'proper false' are deceitful men. Interestingly, it is a female character who speaks these lines.

-- catherine england (catherineamer@hotmail.com), November 09, 2001.

kinda hypocritical don't you think? considering that hamlet is the weak, useless, female-dominated dude who:

a) wants to kill himself because his mum is a whore. b) went cuckoo because ophelia didn't want him.

-- patricia (acidmaggot@yahoo.com), November 25, 2002.

I feel that's really too kinda inaccurately shallow to bear thinking about. Is that rude of me?

-- catherine england (catherine_england@hotmail.com), November 27, 2002.

frailty means weakness.. he blames women for being weak by nature, explaning his mothers behaviour marrying her dead housbands brother merely two months after his death... excuse my english, but i`m from god damn Norway!:D

-- Sindre (sindre_ramsvik@hotmail.com), December 07, 2004.