Hamlet is a study of what happens to a world when it is completely dominated by men, and it is essentially a cautionary, feminist examination of a world that is incapable of understanding women and denies them any kind of power.

rough draft- not been fixed yet-- hope it helps. from DJG

Hamlet could be interpreted  of what happens to a world when it is completely dominated by men.   While the women weren’t “completely” dominated by men, in my opinion, they certainly had challenging relationships with Hamlet, Claudius, Laertes and Polonius.  

Hamlet was written by William Shakespeare in approximately 1601, during the Renaissance period.   During that time young men attended school and learned about math and philosophy. Young women went to school to learn needlework and dancing.   Although dancing was a very important class, it is an example of how men viewed women during that time.  Generally a young girl had two options, to agree to an arranged marriage or join a convent to become a nun.  

There are two main female characters in Hamlet.   Gertrude is the Queen and Hamlet's mom.  Ophelia is a girl who has a crush on Hamlet.  

Both women were controlled by the men in the story, but Ophelia is definitely the weaker of the two.

Examples of male domination, or control is that Queen Gertrude accepted the fact that her husband,  King Hamlet was murdered by her own brother-in-law, Claudius.  Then she even gave in and married him.    Hamlet, the son , ends up with a severe dislike of his mother , after she marries Claudius.   Even though Hamlet’s feelings may be justified,  generally sons don’t have repulsions or sharp criticisms for their mothers.  Hamlet confronts Gertrude "As kill a king, and marry his brother?" (Shakespeare  Act 3 scene 4).  

Ophelia was controlled by Laertes, her brother concerning her relationship with Hamlet.   He told her  to not even expect to marry Hamlet because a prince can never marry for love.  Princes of the day  (even  to some extent now) were expected to marry other nobility to carry on the family line.   Even Ophelia’s father, Polonius was against Ophelia and Hamlet’s relationship because poor Hamlet was going mad, possibly over Ophelia’s flirtations.   However, a counter argument to that is perhaps Hamlet was actually interested in Ophelia but had the inner conflict of knowing that he could not marry outside the nobility.  

Some would argue that Gertrude possibly had more control over the situation than the men had over her.     It’s possible that she ended up controlling Claudious.  After her husband’s death, she may have been forced out of the castle and the life that she was accustomed to.  But instead, she made sure that she kept the title of Queen by marrying her own brother –in-law.  So she took control of her destiny by staying with her husband’s killer.   Her son Hamlet didn’t like it, but by doing so, that’s even more proof that she wasn’t completely controlled by men.  Hamlet was mean to Ophelia.   He had given her some gifts and when she tried to return them, he denied even giving them to her.     And then a famous line from the play, sums up easily how men felt about women’s choices of the day. Hamlet said to Ophelia "Get thee to a nunnery: Why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" (Shakespeare Act 3 scene 1).

Following the form of a traditional tragedy, it ends in Tragedy. Both women die, and both because they were in some way dominated over men.     Ophelia felt there was no other way to be happy, so she chose death and drowned herself.  Gertrude was caught up in the violent last act and between poisoning and stabbing,  even though she was not the intended target, she also tragically died.  

the bar kochba rebellion (132-135) against the roman empire, also known as the second jewish-roman war, was the second major jewish revolt in judea and the last of the great jewish-roman wars.

after the first jewish-roman war of the years 66-73, the roman authorities took measures to crush any new attempt of rebellion in judea. his political situation was modified and instead of a prefect a governor of praetorian rank was appointed, and in the ruins of jerusalem the seat of a complete roman legion, the legio x fretensis was established.

the political and religious direction of the jewish people was left in the hands of the sanhedrin, with initial headquarters in yavne.

the direct causes of the rebellion vary according to the source. the roman historian dio cassius (155-229) attributes the revolt to the decision of hadrian to found in the place of jerusalem a roman city called aelia capitolina (aelia by its own name and capitolina in honor of the roman god jupiter). on the other hand, the jewish sources, while recognizing this resolution as true, assign higher priority to the decrees dictated by hadrian that forbade the brit milah (circumcision), the respect of the sabbath and the laws of purity in the family.

hadrian's intention was to "civilize" and incorporate the jews once and for all into the greco-roman culture. for greek and roman culture, circumcision was an intolerable mutilation.

the jewish tradition tells in the midrash tanjuma a meeting between rabbi akiva and the governor turnus rufus, where he asked for an explanation about the circumcision.

an additional legion, the legio vi ferrata, moved to the province to maintain order, and work began in the year 131 after the governor of judea, turnus rufus performed the founding ceremony of aelia capitolina. a roman coin with the inscription aelia capitolina was struck in the year 132.

the tannaim rabbi akiva, who without being named nasi directed the sanhedrin, convinced the other members to support the imminent rebellion.

the jewish leaders carefully planned the second rebellion to avoid the numerous errors that had been committed in the first one. in the year 132 the rebellion led by bar kochba quickly expanded from modiim throughout the country, defeating the x roman legion based in jerusalem and destroying the xxii roman legion that had come from egypt.