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Why does Shakespeare portray incest in Hamlet? What is the overarching idea and importance?

Although I'm not sure that Shakespeare intended this result, all of the incestuous undertones -- as well as the actual incest between Claudius and Gertrude, a brother and sister-in-law -- help to show the way women are viewed as sex objects in Hamlet's society.  Laertes, for example, talks pretty explicitly to his sister, Ophelia, about sexual intercourse and female genitalia (via the worm/flower metaphor), sexually objectifying her at the same time that he advises her...

Although I'm not sure that Shakespeare intended this result, all of the incestuous undertones -- as well as the actual incest between Claudius and Gertrude, a brother and sister-in-law -- help to show the way women are viewed as sex objects in Hamlet's society.  Laertes, for example, talks pretty explicitly to his sister, Ophelia, about sexual intercourse and female genitalia (via the worm/flower metaphor), sexually objectifying her at the same time that he advises her of the importance of remaining chaste.  


Further, Hamlet's obsession with his mother's sex life, especially the sex that he assumes she is having with Claudius, her new husband, is particularly disturbing. Hamlet dwells on his mother's sexuality to an extreme. Laertes seems not to be able to separate his sister from general female sexual objectification, and Hamlet has the same problem.  The fact that they view their female relatives in a sexual way shows how deeply the sexual objectification of women is engendered in males in a society that values women mainly for their sexuality.

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