William Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Character Study: Interpretative Analysis In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare commendably conveys a, if you will, a “love story” between the major characters in the play. Hamlet, Gertrude and Claudius are the individuals he writes about. In this story, Gertrude must choose between her son, a loyal, sincere male figure in her life that has always supported and loved her, or a man who can offer her power and fulfill her dependency trait, which one may say is what she has always strived to attain. Gertrude’s inability to see the bigger picture of King Claudius’ deceit and ill morals is what makes Gertrude a weak and submissive character. While Gertrude means no harm, her poor judgment contributes significantly to the rotten events that occur throughout the play. The choices Gertrude does make ultimately leads to her death and the downfall of the ones she loves as well. The characterization of Gertrude makes it hard to sympathize with her. From the beginning, Gertrude is portrayed as a feeble minded character that has no say with the cards that are given to her. She acts as though she does not have a thought in her head and her submissiveness is what makes her a very unlikable character. (Scene from bedroom with hamlet) There are only two female characters in Shakespeare’s play, and neither Gertrude nor Ophelia are assertive in their roles. The source of Gertrude’s submissiveness is her inability to stand up to men and her dependency on them at the same time. While this may be a hard strike against her I feel that it is the right one. Gertrude does not have the will to stand up to Claudius and defend Hamlet, she simply sits by and watches her new husband call her son mad, while she might also believe this to be true she does nothing to help Ha... ... middle of paper ... ...Claudius. She is someone who needs someone and cannot be single and independent. She depends highly on Claudius throughout the play. My next status was sort of different, instead of realizing Hamlet’s pain and suffering she was always very cold towards his father’s death so I wrote “Won’t Hamlet move on…” Separately, for Gertrude’s job description I put “I am Queen” and I think this fits because Gertrude was very proud of her nobility and position, she didn’t let anything get in the way of staying the Queen of Denmark. While Gertrude is this inadequate mother and feeble minded character, her death is still an upsetting tragedy; while she was married to this horrible man we have to believe she didn’t know this was her fate. Gertrude’s fatal flaw was her necessity of self-protection that was guaranteed by nobility and her dependence on the male figures in her life.

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