The Troubled Relationship Between Gertrude and Hamlet

The Troubled Relationship Between Gertrude and Hamlet

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius murders his brother, the King of Denmark, and subsequently usurps the Danish throne. Shattering the purity of the royal family, he allures Queen Gertrude into an incestuous wedding so hastily that “The funeral baked meats / Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (I.ii.180-1). Lost in this sullied household is Prince Hamlet, shrouded in the black of mourning, who condemns his mother’s quick, lustful willingness to marry his uncle. Hamlet’s abject tears melt into vengeance, however, when the ghost of his father orders him to “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I.v.25). He complicates his command to the Prince by admonishing him to “Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive / Against thy mother aught” (I.v.85-6). Although he must avenge his father’s assassination without harming Gertrude, Hamlet’s disappointment, disgust, and frustration with his mother obviate his duty to insulate her from his revenge; and his failure to do so ultimately leads to her death.

Gertrude’s limited substantive involvement in the play creates difficulty for understanding her relationship with Hamlet. Of the nearly four thousand lines in the work, Hamlet takes almost half while Gertrude has a meager 157. Before the climatic “closet scene” (III, iv), she speaks only 18 times – usually in brief sentences. Why does Shakespeare devote so few lines to Hamlet’s mother? The answer is not clear; however, although the queen is detached verbally from the play, she maintains a significant presence during the ten scenes in which she appears.

Critics interpret Gertrude in a number of different ways; however, they tend to judge her by her silences or by wh...

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...blood is tame, it’s humble, / And waits upon the judgment; and what judgment / Would step from this to this? /... / What devil was’t / That thus hath cozen’d you at hoodman-blind? / Eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, / Ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, /... / O shame! where is thy blush? (III.iv.65-82).

In response, Gertrude confesses herself shamed, almost admitting their truth: “O Hamlet, speak no more! / Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul, and there I see such black and grained spots / As will not leave their tinct” (III.iv.89-91). Before Hamlet is swallowed by his anger, however, the ghost reminds him of his duty to leave Gertrude alone:

Do not forget. This visitation / 
Is but to whet thy almost blunted purpose. / 
But look, amazement on thy mother sits. / 
O, step between her and her fighting soul! 
(III.iv.110-113).