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Hamlet: Ophelia and Gertrude

Ophelia and Gertrude, two different women who seem to be trapped in the same situation when it comes to Hamlet. Gertrude, Hamlet's mother and the Queen of Denmark is married to Claudius, who is suspected by Hamlet to have killed his father, King Hamlet, who is Claudius's brother. Gertrude ended up in the plot of King Hamlet's death and in the eyes of her son, is a monster and helped with the murder. Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius who is the King's counselor and is later killed in the play and has forbidden his daughter to see Hamlet. She truly loves Hamlet and is devastated when he disowns her and pretends to be mad. Hamlet's treatment towards these two women brings their characters to life and eventually brings an end to them.
Gertrude is a kind and loving mother, the kind that watches after her son through thick and thin and loves him unconditionally. Hamlet had suspected her of aiding in the killing of King Hamlet. She is shown to be a quiet, “stand with your man” type person who is influenced easily. However, there is a slight change in her personality that isn’t too noticeable. At the end of the play, the King and Laertes have plotted to kill Hamlet. One part of the plot was to have Hamlet drink out of a poisoned cup but in the confusion of it all, the Queen ends up with the cup in her hand. Even after the King's warnings not to drink from it she does. She does this and completely defies her husband's wishes by saying before she drinks from the cup, “I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me.” I think this shows that if she wouldn’t have died from the poison, Gertrude may have been a completely different woman had she found out about Claudius’s plot about killing King Hamlet and young Hamlet as well. I believe that she would have stood up for her son if she had a chance to. Hamlet meets with his father’s ghost who tells him of Claudius's plot to kill him. After the ghost is done telling his story, he tells Hamlet to punish only Claudius, but "Taint not thy mind nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught. Leave her to heaven". He was trying to tell Hamlet to only punish Claudius. The one other time in the play that we see the Queen standing up for herself or actually arguing is when she and Polonius decide to confront Hamlet on his behavior toward the King. Since the revealing of Claudius's involvement i...

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...tes made a vow to get revenge on Hamlet. Ophelia's funeral was held in a secluded place with a small amount of people because of the way that she died, suicide. Because suicide is a sin she couldn’t be buried in the same place as the people who died without sin. Hamlet is there, hiding and watching the funeral procession not knowing who they were for. Only when he finds out that Ophelia had died did he realize how much he really did love her.
It is truly a shame that Hamlet had not treated the women in his life with the respect that they deserve. Ophelia, a devoted and true love that died over the fact that the man she loved so much had also killed her father and didn’t love her. Gertrude, a loving mother that died at the hands of her husband through a poisoned cup intended for her son. Both of these cases show that the downfall of the women was due only to Hamlet's actions and behavior and that if he hadn't acted the way he did, these women would still be alive and so would he.
“To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing, end them.”

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