RALPH: Originally the word monster meant a mythological creature that was part human and part animal, such as a satyr — a half-man half-goat, which we encountered earlier in our discussion of Hamlet's first soliloquy; or a centaur, which is half-man half-horse...

SARAH: or a sphinx — which is half-woman, half-lion.

RALPH: So, Shakespeare's audience would have quickly understood that when Hamlet says that women make monsters of men, he was making a reference to a cuckold, a man whose wife is cheating on him. Cuckolds were commonly represented in the Middle Ages as a man with horns growing out of his head, as if he were partly an animal, just like a monster.

SARAH: The traditional folk explanation for this depiction is that in some medieval communities, when a woman gave birth to a child who didn't resemble the husband, villagers would ridicule the husband by parading him around with antlers strapped to his head.

RALPH: This apparently reflected the notion that a man growing antlers doesn't realize how ridiculous he looks because he can't see his own head; but it's obvious to everyone around him.

SARAH: Similarly, a man whose wife is cheating on him often has no idea of his wife's adultery even though it's apparent to everyone else.