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The Relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude

The Relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude
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Hamlet is a tragedy and one of the most famous plays by William Shakespeare. The story is about the revenge of Prince Hamlet on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet’s father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Hamlet’s mother. In this play, Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her for marrying her husband’s brother Claudius after he murdered the King (young Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet).

Gertrude is first seen in Act 1 Scene 2 as she tries to comfort Hamlet about the death of his father, begging him to stay at home rather than going back to Wittenberg. Her worries on him continues into the second act, as she sides with King Claudius in sending Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to raise the spirits of her son. Also, rather than ascribing Hamlet’s madness to Ophelia’s rejection, she believes the cause is his father, King Hamlet’s death and her quick remarriage to Claudius: “I doubt it is no other but the main; His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage. ” In the next act, Gertrude tells Claudius about Polonius’ murder.

She tries to convince him that Hamlet is truly mad; she also shows true compassion and affection when she watches Ophelia sings and acts in absolute madness. At Ophelia’s burial, she expresses her former hope that the young woman might have married her son: “I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife. ” Gertrude: There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream; There with fantastic garlands did she come Of crow-flowers, nettles, daisies, and long purples That liberal shepherds give a grosser name, But our cold maids do dead men’s fingers call them: There, on the pendent boughs her coronet weeds


In the final scene, Gertrude notices Hamlet is tired during the fight with Laertes, and offers to wipe his brow. She drinks a cup of poison intended for Hamlet by the King, against the King’s wishes, and dies, shouting in agony as she falls: “No, no, the drink, –O my dear Hamlet,– The drink, the drink! I am poison’d. ” When the poison begins to grip her, she insists on wiping Hamlet’s brow, as if her last act as mother must be of the nurturing kind, a species of natural love, which her marriage to Claudius has prevented her from bestowing on her troubled son.

Her son regards her as an example of the weakness of women and constantly hurt in his reflections of how quickly she remarried with the new King. When the Ghost of her ex-husband appears to Hamlet, he describes her as a “seeming virtuous queen”, but he tells Hamlet not to confront her about it and leave her judgment to heaven. However, he also expresses that his love for her was benevolent as he states that he would have held back the elements if they “visited her face too roughly”. Queen Gertrude, as other queens of this time period, is very dependent on her husband.

It is very uncommon for a queen after the death of her king to marry his brother. There is a chart written in 1559 by William Clerke about prohibited marriages. It is called The Trial of Bastardies and there are 16 prohibited marriages and the probation not to marry your brother’s wife is one of them. A queen like Gertrude is more of a public figure than an authoritative ruler. She manages her children but she doesn’t care for them. She would manage the castle’s staff like the maids or cooks. She would attend royal and religious ceremonies.

She has a slew of managerial and stately events and duties to keep her day full. It’s no great leap to suppose that Gertrude had multiple reasons for marrying Claudius so soon after her husband’s funeral. From the point of view of the people of Denmark, the marriage solidifies and justifies the succession, and Claudius specifically acknowledges the advice he is given to marry Gertrude. Whether or not she loves or is attracted to Claudius, she may well have seen the marriage as her duty to her country. And part of that duty would be avoiding any sign of excessive mourning for Old Hamlet.

Hamlet’s relationship with his father, King Hamlet, seems to be a fairly positive relationship. Little information is given in Hamlet about the bond between these two characters, but the amount of respect that Hamlet shows toward his father indicates that their relationship was acceptable. Hamlet puts his father on a high level, comparing him to “Hyperion” while Hamlet feels far less significant. The ghost of King Hamlet seems to be using his son to serve his own purposes; however, such behavior may be expected from a recently murdered king who now suffers in purgatory and whose murderer now holds his title as sovereign.

While Hamlet’s five-act delay in killing his uncle may be interpreted to mean that Hamlet doubts his father’s wisdom, Hamlet’s struggles with the moral ramifications of killing a human being more likely cause the delay. Hamlet’s seemingly constant references to Greek and Roman mythological characters while discussing King Hamlet suggest that the king was a good father to Hamlet. Life is limited, how much can everyone sustain the emotion-family, friendship, love? The relationships between parents and their children play a crucial role in the development. The generation gap causes much tension, which, by the end, leads to all-out violence.

Gertrude is primarily driven by her sense of self-preservation. She would like to maintain her station and be loved. Hamlet tells her “Frailty, thy name is woman! ” because Gertrude seems like her only concern is for her well-being. On surface, Hamlet abominates his mother very much so that he satirizes and curses her badly. But in reality, all of these can reflect Hamlet’s Oedipus complex. Hamlet loves his mother. But unfortunately, she marries the one who has killed her husband, which makes Hamlet so depressed that his mind is full of conflicting emotion of love and hatred. It is the love that leads to the hatred.

Thus, we can see, Hamlet desires love from his mother at heart. Hamlet believes his mother is weak and lustful, he says, “Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him-/As if increase of appetite had grown/By what it fed on, and yet within a month/Let me not think on’t; frailty, thy name is woman! ” Even though his mother’s actions lead Hamlet to frequently criticize women in general, in obvious allusion to Gertrude’s marriage, and even though Claudius’ marriage to Gertrude is one of Hamlet’s most important reasons for wanting to kill his uncle, he clearly has no desire to kill his mother.

In the climax of the conflict between mother and son, Hamlet is trying to keep the memory of his father alive by arguing with his mother. His internal conflict is whether or not to avenge his father by killing Claudius. His anger has blinded his conscience and decisions. Hamlet is furious at his mother because he thinks she has forgotten his father and because he thinks she knows Claudius is the killer. He has the chance to kill Claudius while he is praying, but Hamlet doesn’t because wants Claudius to go to Hell. In Hamlet’s time they believed if you were praying and you died you would go to heaven.

Claudius plots to murder him. Hamlet discovers this and makes his urge to kill Claudius stronger. “HAMLET: Now, mother, what’s the matter? QUEEN GERTRUDE: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended. HAMLET: Mother, you have my father much offended. QUEEN GERTRUDE: Come, come, you answer with an idle tongue. HAMLET: Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. QUEEN GERTRUDE: Why, how now, Hamlet? HAMLET: What’s the matter now? QUEEN GERTRUDE: Have you forgot me? HAMLET: No, by the rood, not so: You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife, And would it were not so, you are my mother.

QUEEN GERTRUDE: Nay, then I’ll set those to you that can speak. HAMLET: Come, come, and sit you down, you shall not boudge; You go not till I set you up a glass Where you may see the inmost part of you. QUEEN GERTRUDE: What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? ” Gertrude is a confusing and mysterious character. There are several reasons for her confusion. One of the primary reasons is that, Hamlet is angry with her. He tries to tell her that that Claudius is the killer of her former husband. If this is true, she has no one to turn to. So she doesn’t want to believe Hamlet.

She is also afraid of Hamlet because he stabbed Polonius. Hamlet is extremely angry at her because he thinks she has forgotten Hamlet’s father too soon. She questions if Claudius is the murderer. If he is the killer she will not be married to a king, and in the eyes of her culture she would be nothing. Behind all the drama of Hamlet, Hamlet knows he will one day have to take the thrown of Denmark. He would need to marry someone. He would need to be well educated. Hamlet was very focused on his education. He would also have to collect rents from fiefs.

Hamlet would have done sports like sword fighting and hunting. He would have known everyone in the castle. He would learn the duties of the king. He would need be preparing himself to one day be king. In the end, the insanity of Hamlet and his indecision caused more deaths than he anticipated. Queen Gertrude’s mysterious character makes us question what she knew. Claudius’ hunger for power motivated him to kill his brother. All in all, the emotions of these characters made for a disastrous downward cycle, and ultimately led to their deaths.

Brandon Johnson
Author: Brandon Johnson
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