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Hamlet and gertrude relationship analysis
Hamlet and gertrude relationship analysis
A struggle between good and evil in hamlet
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William Shakespeare shaped "The Tragedy of Hamlet" in such a captivating manner through strong character development. Shakespeare gave life to well-rounded characters of the play by giving them characteristics and traits that the audience can recognize and relate to. A strong memorable character in any play has to come to life in front of the audience with standout traits and plausible characteristics. Even though Gertrude does not voice her thoughts and stand quiet most of the play, she is developed as a strong character in the play that affects the tragic plot. Shakespeare created Gertrude to demonstrate the characteristics of dependence, selfishness, and weak-mindedness in effort to contribute the tragic events of the play.
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It can also be assumed that another reason Gertrude married Claudius so hastily after the death of her first husband is that she wanted to keep her status as queen. Originally Hamlet was supposed to step up as king since his father died. If that would have taken place, whoever Hamlet marries would be the new queen, presumably Ophelia. Gertrude could have very well married Claudius for greed. She could have very well married Claudius to keep her position as queen. Furthermore, the line “Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast…” in Act One Scene Five insinuates that Gertrude had been the lover of Claudius even before Hamlet’s father died. An adulterous act can only be committed by definition when a person has a lover, and have sex with another. If they had gotten together after the late king’s passing it would not be considered adulterous. Gertrude’s selfishness is illuminated with that very scene, because she was only thinking about herself and her own desires when getting involved with Claudius. The late king’s expression of betrayal towards Gertrude aide Hamlet create a dreadful plan of action to confront his mother for her wrong doings. Thus, proving that Gertrude’s selfish ways helped to lead the dreadful events of the …show more content…
Firstly, Gertrude followed a wicked man willingly. It was revealed that she did in fact knew of Claudius’s sinister ways when Hamlet confronted Gertrude in her bedroom chambers, and Hamlet chastised his mother for all her wrong doing and the murderer she proclaims to love. Gertrude could not handle his scorn and asked Hamlet to stop, because the guilt was too much to bare. She did not react to Hamlet calling Claudius a murderer or denied it, but Gertrude did run to Claudius after the confrontation with Hamlet. It can be heavily assumed that she knew of his wicked ways, but only seen him as her loving husband. Gertrude seemed to not hold the ability to think deeply about the situation at hand, and she ran straight into the Antagonist’s arms. Having the mental capability to assess a tragic situation and to figure out the suitable actions was something Gertrude lacked. Additionally, in Act One Scene Five the ghost of Hamlet’s father says “So to seduce, won to his shameful lust the will of my most virtuous queen.” The Ghost illustrates the picture of a woman who was loyal to her husband, but was seduced by his brother. For one to be seduced by the brother of one’s love, the mental proficiency to repress the advances must be moderately low. To turn away something the flesh wants takes strength, but Gertrude being a weak minded individual was not capable of staying faithful. Not turning Claudius away lead to the
First of all, we will deal with the main plot of John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius. The King of Denmark marries his daughter to Horwendil the Jute, although this marriage is not a question of love but a question of politics. Horwendil becomes King, when her father dies. She bears him a son, Amleth/Hamlet. She tries to love her husband and her son, but at forty-seven, Gertrude is seduced into a passionate affair by the King 's brother, Feng/Claudius. The King discovers the affair and confronts Claudius conspires with Corambus/Polonius to murder the King. After killing him, Claudius and Gertrude marry. Claudius wants Hamlet at Elsinore, but Gertrude thinks him a danger to her husband. Claudius prevails. The story ends, as Hamlet agrees to remain at the castle.
Shakespeare specifically leaves out key details about her character. Was she in an affair with Claudius before the murder? Did she know Claudius was the one to kill King Hamlet? Did she plot against him? These questions prove that Gertrude is much more complex than the reader initially thinks.
Immediately after her husband’s murder, Gertrude marries his brother in order to maintain her status as Queen of Denmark. If she were truly in love with King Hamlet, and was not with him to gain some sort of societal power, she would not have attempted to maintain said power by immediately marrying Claudius. Though one can argue that she married Claudius to appease the public, as her late husband was beloved by the populous, this claim simply does not hold up when one considers the hunger for power that plagues every character in Hamlet. Additionally, Gertrude’s attitudes regarding Hamlet’s grief arouse suspicion as to her true motives. As she tells him, “…/Do not forever with thy vailed lids/” (I.ii. 69-71.) She later continues, ”Seek for thy noble father in the dust/Thou know 'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,/Passing through nature to eternity” (I.ii. 72-74.) Though this can be written off as a mother simply being worried for her son’s well being, it seems as if there is some sort of deeper meaning to these words. As long as Hamlet is in mourning, the people of Denmark will hold the late King Hamlet in their memory, and may start to get suspicious as to why Gertrude “moved on” so quickly. Furthermore, her attempts to squander Hamlet’s grief are an obvious effort to conceal her true motives from the citizens of Denmark, and to maintain her current position of power. Through her
Gertrude’s blindness to the whole situation is sickening. How she marries the brother of her former husband right after he kills him and never knows the truth is beyond me. She never cared about how her son felt before or after she married Claudius. She didn’t even wait very long after her husband died to get married again ( I; ii; 180-181. "Thrift, thrift, Horatio. The funeral baked meats did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables".). Therefore she is either a very slow, naïve woman or a very evil, coldhearted one. For someone to side with a person even after their own son has told them that the person they’re with has murdered their former lover is absolute lunacy ( III; iv; 29-30. "A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king, and marry his brother".). Not knowing the truth in the first place is one thing, but turning your back on your own flesh and blood is another. Therefore without his mother on his side, Hamlet has lost all the family in his life that could have helped him get through his terrible time and he sinks lower than ever before.
It all can be traced back to the murder of his father. This grief Hamlet has worsens his relationship with Gertrude, which makes him feel as though she is letting the murder of her first husband go without mourning. In conversation with the ghost of his father, Hamlet declares, “O most pernicious woman! / O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!” (1.5.112-3). Hamlet is blaming Gertrude as a murderer by calling her a villain, highlighting his disdain of her actions. By focusing on Gertrude’s character instead of Claudius’s villainous nature, Hamlet cannot see the difference in their actions. Hamlet then comes to the conclusion that each of them played a role in the murder. As a result, Gertrude is weak because of the way Hamlet views her as a villain and this view oppresses her because she is put down by her own son, even though Gertrude was not directly involved in the
In the beginning of the play, the ghost of Hamlet reveals that Claudius is the one that murdered him. The ghost of Hamlet states to his son, “But know thou noble youth, the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown.” (I. v. 45-47. The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' Marriages are supposed to be meaningful and with the person that you love, but in Claudius’s and Gertrude’s case it seems that Claudius is only marrying Gertrude so he can have the title of the king, perhaps that is why he married Gertrude after two months of his brother’s death. Claudius’s craziness is also portrayed when he encourages Laertes to get revenge against Hamlet and kill him.
Hamlet takes control of the conversation from the very beginning of the scene although it is Gertrude who was meant to be rebuking him and doing much of the talking. Hamlet succeeds in shaming her until the point when she begs him to stop. Hamlet having the upper hand in the conversation, asks his mother to change her ways, which she agrees to and asks for his advice, showing that she has submitted herself to her son. Hamlet does not really show much respect for his mother while reproving her and forcing her to sit down but he does love her. Some critics believe that his love shows sexual connotation and that is a reason why he gets so upset at her remarriage. There is a point in this scene when Gertrude thinks her life is in danger of Hamlet and gets frightened, which shows us that she considers him to be mad and harmful. After this scene she becomes aware that Hamlet isn't mad and starts trusting him as opposed to Claudius. This is exactly how Shakespeare has presented women throughout the play: they are easy to convince, very meek and become submissive to the men (as we can see Ophelia and her response to her father and brother). They are depicted as weak and inferior in comparison to the male figures, who control their lives. After the closet scene Gertrude keeps faith to her son and lies to her husband Claudius for Hamlet saying he killed Polonius in his madness:
At times it seems that Gertrude does not know or pretends not to know why Hamlet is so angry with her and with Claudius ('What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue/ In noise so rude against me?'). At other times she seems to know exactly what is troubling him ('His father's death and our o'er-hasty marriage', II.2.57). But Hamlet, too, does not come clean directly. He does not confront her with the murder, but rather sets out 'to wring her heart' (III.4.35), and plays upon her emotions rather than on her reason. Instead, he shows her two pictures, and compares at great length his father with his uncle (55 ff.). In this long speech, the son touches on many matters so delicate that critics can be forgiven for detecting more than a whiff oedipal sentiment in Hamlet himself. He plays on his mother's sense of shame, even bringing her eroticism or lack of it into play, and culminating in a vision of his mother making love in a bed stained with semen - not a pretty sight:
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, shows strong prejudice against woman especially with such characters of Ophelia and Gertrude. Shakespeare created an interesting character with Gertrude; he created a character that sits in the middle of all the conflict and appears to not partake in much of it. However Gertrude does seem intent in defusing it at every possible chance she receives. Gertrude is a central figure in the play. She appears a great deal but doesn’t say much – implying mystery and creating an interesting uncertainty in the audience. Hamlet spends a lot of time dwelling on her marriage to Claudius and Shakespeare leaves many questions unanswered with Gertrude such as did she have an affair with Claudius behind old hamlets back? Why does she drink the poisoned wine that is intended for her son? Does she know it is poisoned? Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet and although they do not have a typical mother son relationship she does love him. Queen Gertrude is often interpreted by many as an adulterate, incestuous woman. Catherine Belsey states that typical interpretations of Hamlet maintain: ‘Gertrude a slut; and Shakespeare a patriarchal bard’ (Belsey,1997:34). Gertrude’s actions throughout the play could be read to show her to be a very passive character, far from a strong independent woman. This is shown with her obedience to Claudius, three times during the play, Gertrude is told to leave and each times she complies without hesitation. In Act 1, scene 2 Claudius says to Gertrude, ‘Madam, come’ (122). Then again, Act 3, scene 1, Claudius says to her, ‘Sweet Gertrude, leave us .’ (28), she complies with ; ‘I shall obey you’ (37). And finally, in Act 4, scene 1, Claudius say, ‘O Gertrude, come away!’ (28). This obedience that Gertrude ...
Oddly, it appears that Gertrude possess more significance to Hamlet than one first anticipates. Her swift call to matrimony leads Hamlet into a spiraling quarry of depression and grieving. This mirrors the Oedipus complex. Gertrude sexually commits herself to Claudius causing Hamlet to feel a sense of jealousy and disappointment. In retaliation, he expresses his repressed desire of love through his unruly comments. He even goes as far as to say that the love is incestuous. Furthermore, in Act 3 scene 4, Hamlet confronts his mother directly in a closet. Addressing concern over her sexual actions, he exclaims “In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty” (III.iv.104-106). Not only does this quote show that Hamlet disapproves his mother’s marriage, but also that he believes Claudius is a wicked criminal. Aligning with the Oedipus complex, Hamlet strangely obsesses over his mother’s love life while viewing his uncle in
Hamlet possesses an uncomfortable obsession with his mother’s sexuality. For this reason, Hamlet’s soliloquies provide most of the audience’s information about Gertrude’s sexual activities. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet refers to the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius when he exclaims, “Within a month…She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (I, ii, 153-157). In saying this, Hamlet displays how hastily Gertrude has abandoned the late King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father, such that she has already married Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. In addition, Hamlet acknowledges that Gertrude and Claudius have quickly developed a very sexual relationship. Despite the very recent death of her husband, Gertrude is unable to control her sexual desires, and she remarries less than two months after King Hamlet’s funeral.
The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude is strained at first. From the beginning of the play to act III, Hamlet is bitter with his mother. He feels this way because it has been less than four months since the death of his biological father, yet she is already remarried to Claudius. He feels his father is being betrayed from her lack of mourning. She tells her son to "cast thy nighted color off" (I.ii.68) and "all that lives must die" (I.ii.72). Clearly, she isn't grieving over her late husband's death and instead puts forth an optimistic attitude to her new husband and life. Gertrude's concern with Hamlet's odd behaviour after his encounter with Ophelia in act II scene i also shows the strain in their relationship. For example, she agrees with Claudius' words that "of Hamlet's transformation" (II.ii.5) and suggests Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy and find out the underlying cause of her son's problems. In addition to that, she consents Polonius to hide behind the tapestry in act III scene iv without Hamlet knowing. These two decisions suggest their inability to communicate. Instead, spying is required for Gertrude to find out about her son's inner mentality. The mother and ...
Gertrude and Ophelia both love Hamlet, yet they love him in different ways. Gertrude, his mother, loves Hamlet in a motherly way, placing his honor under her current husband Claudius, which is Hamlet’s uncle, and also the brother of Gertrude’s deceased husband and Hamlet’s late father. Hamlet thinks of his mother as a whore because she married Claudius right after her husband’s untimely death. Gertrude is not a whore;
Hamlet’s sense of betrayal by Gertrude, although briefly taking him off course, ultimately infuriates and intensifies his urge for revenge. Because of Gertrude’s refusal to acknowledge her sins, Hamlet becomes even more personally motivated to kill Claudius for revenge. Queen Gertrude, though ignorant, has a huge impact on the play because her betrayal and abandonment motivates Hamlet to get revenge. When writing Hamlet, Shakespeare created a complex play that relies on the roles of two important women to aid the progression of the plot. Although Queen Gertrude and Ophelia rarely speak, they function as a way for the men to become informed about Hamlet’s mental state and motives for madness.
Gertrude influenced Hamlet significantly throughout the course of the play. Hamlet was very angered by his mother's remarriage. A few months after his father's death, Gertrude married Claudius, Hamlet's uncle. He was driven mad when his father's ghost appeared to him and revealed that Claudius was responsible for the death of Old Hamlet. Hamlet even termed the marriage as incest. Hamlet's fury is displayed when he throws his mother on the bed and says, "Frailty, thy name is woman" (Act #. Scene #. Line #). This shows his extent of anger because he makes a generalization that all women are weak. As a result of his mother's actions, Hamlet strives to seek revenge against Claudius for the death of his father. In order to marry Gertrude, Claudius kills his brother. Therefore, Gertrude is the driving factor for the whole setup of the play.