Gertrude's Adverse To Truth

Gertrude never seems to get in the middle of Hamlet and Claudius' disputes, so many tend to assume that she is involved in King Hamlet's murder. However, there is an abundance of in-text evidence that suggests she is very innocent and oblivious to Claudius' plots throughout the play. Most of this evidence supporting that Gertrude has nothing to do with King Hamlet's sudden death. From the start, Gertrude comes off as a very clueless and almost blind character to the things happening around her. She mourns for the death of the man she loved, but with her country in mind does what she thinks is best. Sadly, while doing so, she involves herself in a dispute that turns deadly.

In fact, by looking at her response, it is possible that she is faithful to Claudius, the man she married quickly after her husband died. This suggests Gertrude’s timid and weak vulnerability on the presence of Claudius’ character in the play. If Gertrude was more skeptical and active about Claudius’ succession as King, she could have prevented a man, who is in fact a murderer, to have control over many social aspects in the kingdom such as nobles and courtiers. It is clear that Hamlet’s knowledge of the truth regarding the death of his father is what drives him to behave insanely. As a result of Gertrude’s reluctant effort to speculate Claudius’ rise to the throne, the death of her husband resulted to her son’s insanity. If Gertrude was more pessimistic on Claudius, suspecting his motives to take the throne, then Hamlet could have avoided the irrational behavior that caused Polonius’ death and his departure to England. In turn, Ophelia could have avoided being depressed and suicidal. Since the scheme commenced without Gertrude’s interference, Ophelia became heart broken due to her conversation with Hamlet, where he insulted her. Heart break often leads to depression which eventually sums up to suicide. Gertrude is clearly responsible for Ophelia committing suicide because she could have prevented Polonius and Claudius’ scheme,

     Gertrude as well is exploited by men throughout the play. Gertrude is seen as a prize to Claudius, a way for him to succeed to the thrown without having Hamlet take over. Although it is not doubted that he loves her, but he first uses her to get the kingship without question. Claudius has been wooing Gertrude even before the death of the king, which a reason for the “most wicked speed” in which they were married. (Act 1, scene 2. line 156) Gertrude is also used by Polonius, but more so she allows him to spy on her having a discussion with Hamlet. Polonius tells the Queen that Hamlet is coming to her private chambers and that she should have a discussion with him on his lately “unrestrained” acts. She replies to Polonius that she will “warrant” him, and “fear [her] not” for she is on his side. (Act 3 Scene 4 Lines 1-7) Gertrude however is not an unintelligent woman, so a reader would wonder why she would allow herself to be exploited by Claudius. Carolyn G. Heliburn agrees with Gertrude’s intelligence saying that her speeches are “not the mark of a dull and shallow woman.”

Hamlet's rant to persuade her that Claudius is a bad man and the murderer of his father depicts his disrespect to his mother. For instance, he tells her, "You go not till I set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you." (III.iv.20-21) He is threatening his own mother! Later, he addresses her as "thou wretched, rash, intruding fool" (III.iv.32) Even though Gertrude's lust for Claudius aggravates him, Hamlet fails to show even the most fundamental respect to his superior. The relationship is full of disloyalty and distrust from Gertrude's part. First, she appeases, "Be thou assured... I have no life to breathe what thou hast said to me." (III.iv.201-203) It is assumed that she will listen to Hamlet and stay away from Claudius. However, in the next act, she displays her true loyalty to her husband, telling him that Hamlet is "in this brainish apprehension kills / The unseen good old man." (IV.I.12-13) This is partially contributed by her observations of her son talking to a ghost that she doesn't see. Polonius' death causes her to think Hamlet is dangerous, further driving the two apart. Her distrust to her son harms him by further solidifying Claudius' plan to execute him in England because the king sees him as a threat to the throne who is capable of killing. In the end, Hamlet and Gertrude's relationship take a bittersweet ending.

Hamlet puts off avenging his father’s death because of his severe Oedipus complex. Hamlet did not kill Claudius until his mother had already died. This is a sign that Hamlet did not want to hurt his mother because of the sexual feelings he had for her. Hamlet felt that killing Claudius would hurt his mother too much, and he could not do that to her. Hamlet wants to save Gertrude form Claudius because of his feelings for her, his incestual feelings, not maternal ones. Subconsciously the queen knows the effect she has on her son. Gertrude tries to play off that fact that’s she knows about Hamlet’s feeling several times in the play. Gertrude is very fond of her son and wants to protect him however she can. This can be seen in the play, many times even up to when Gertrude is about to die. She tries to save Hamlet from drinking the poison himself. She also decided not to tell Claudius that Hamlet knows what Claudius has done.

Gertrude appears oblivious to the fact that Claudius killed King Hamlet to take over the crown and to have her. Her decision to marry her deceased husband’s brother had a lot of people questioning her sanity also. “The funeral baked meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables” (Shakespeare 17). Gertrude had gotten married so quick after the funeral of King Hamlet that the food from the funeral catered for the wedding. During the play that Hamlet produced to show people what Claudius had done, she was blind to the fact that it was actually Claudius that he was talking about. Due to Hamlet knowing the truth, Claudius has been trying to kill him.

In addition, Gertrude goes through a moment where she is figuratively blind when making a judgment. When Hamlet told her about how King Hamlet was killed she didn’t believe it. He says she has been blind this whole time to it and even though Claudius appears innocent he is not. Gertrude married soon after King Hamlet’s death because her love and loneliness blinded her. This led to her to make incestuous actions. Hamlet is annoyed with his mother and how naive she is to his father’s death:

Opposite of King Hamlet, his brother, Claudius, will lead Gertrude to hell due to his crimes, and her loyalty to him. Hamlet also believes that Getrude deserves to go to hell along with Claudius. He yells at her : “A murderer and a villain,/ A slave that is not twentieth part of the tithe/ Of your precedent lord, a vice of kings,” ( 3.4, 97-99). Hamlet truly believes that his mother will follow hell, until his father appears and guides him to lead Gertrude to heaven. It may have not worked, because at the end, when everyone dies including Gertrude, her loyalty is questioned again. When Claudius and Laertes try to poison Hamlet, Gertrude tries to drink to poisoned cup, and Claudius warns her not too but she responds: “ I will, my lord; I pray you pardon me.” ( 5.2, 268). Hse may have known that the drink was poisoned and didn’t want to battle her loyalty anymore and join King Hamlet, but suicide is a sin since she is still killing herself. Later, when Hamlet kills Claudius, Hamlet informs him: “Follow my mother”. (5.2, 306). It is clear that Claudius goes to hell, so why would he follow his mother? This may answer the question of where Gertrude loyalty lies, and if she goes to heaven or hell, but there is evidence for both sides.

As Hamlet expresses, “Mother, you have my father much offended”. This is the foundation for the struggle Gertrude has. Her purpose is to make up her connection with her son while making progress with her queen obligations. She does not appear aware of King Hamlet’s killing therefore her confusion increases as Hamlet becomes crazy. Regardless of the drama of this scene, truth or no truth released, she would have died fleeing the difficulties of the world to a location where she is finally at tranquility. “Now our queen…in marriage” is a quote said by Claudius that publicizes the joining of Gertrude and himself. While they try to show it as being for the benefit of many, impressions surface around the queen’s hurried marriage. She risks her place enclosed by society and her family. In the last moments of her life, Claudius, while using Gertrude to attain his objective of power, ended warmhearted towards her so he tried to cease her from drinking the poison. Soon later, she died and her life purposes, feelings, and encounters pass away as she becomes the same as all the dead before

Gertrude does not tell Claudius the truth about what happened between her and Hamlet. This shows that Gertrude is following Hamlet’s advice because she is choosing to remain silent on what Hamlet told her. Furthermore, Gertrude only reveals that Hamlet killed Polonius and not what Hamlet had advised her to do, which was to stay away from Claudius. Gertrude might be trying to follow Hamlet’s advice because of her sense of guilt.

The treatment of Gertrude is not justified. The reason why the treatment of Gertrude is not justified is because Hamlet didn’t have any right to be rude or treat her badly because she didn’t do anything wrong. It wasn’t Gertrude that killed King Hamlet, because she loved him and didn’t want to kill her husband. The only bad thing that she did to Hamlet is that in less

When the audience is first introduced to Claudius and Gertrude, Claudius refers to his Queen as his “imperial jointress (I.2.9).” And there are instances where she does seem to act queenly and with authority. Yet, when it comes to Hamlet, Claudius and Polonius micromanage and use her to find out Hamlet’s mental state. Though Gertrude has been kind and understanding of her son and his melancholy, there is no obvious reason to assume that Polonius’s comment that “nature makes [mothers] partial” would be true of Gertrude or that this would soften her rebuke of his more combative actions (III.3.35). It is interesting that when Polonius tells Gertrude that he is going to hide, she tells him “fear me not,” which means “don’t doubt me” (III.4.9, Mowat and Werstine pg. 168). If Polonius and Claudius had not doubted Gertrude, Polonius would not

The readers/audience of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare have taken in the story through a bias point of view. From the beginning of the play it is quickly established who is at fault through Hamlet’s eyes. The main objective of the play is to kill Claudius because he was found guilty by Hamlet. With this in mind, Claudius, and anyone who is associated with him, is automatically questionable in terms of character. Gertrude is arguable seen as being just as bad as Claudius, for even though it is unknown whether or not she had any connections to death of the Hamlet’s father, she is still found at fault for remarrying to her late husband’s brother. Through the eyes of Hamlet, whether or not Gertrude’s actions are justifiable is not even considered, since for Hamlet there is no justification for her actions. However, when examining the story outside Hamlet’s point of view, Gertrude’s actions as a mother and Queen become more complex than Hamlet is giving credit to as it is revealed that Gertrude is actually trying to name Hamlet as the King of Denmark, rather than Claudius. Since her motives are hidden from essentially everyone besides herself, Hamlet is still untrusting of his mother and resents her for initial actions. Gertrude’s objective throughout the play is to restore Hamlet back to his old self so that he could be crowned King of Denmark and every decision she makes is ultimately solely intended to better Hamlet.

Another way to tell that Gertrude is clueless about the murder of King Hamlet is her response to mentions of it. While Gertrude and Hamlet are arguing in her room, Hamlet makes remarks about what has happened and she seems genuinely confused and shocked. For example when she says how horrible of a thing it was for Hamlet to kill Polonius and he asks if it is as bad as killing a king, to which she responds “As kill a king?” (III.IV.31) If she had known about the murder she would have tried to defend it or protect herself.

We first understand in Behave I, World 2 that poor judgment is her necessary person flaw. while the mom of a grieving boy, Gertrude should have been larger sensitive to Hamlet's emotions. somewhat, significantly significantly less than 8 weeks following Master Hamlet's desperate, Gertrude remarried Claudius, her worthless husband's possess brother. Gertrude must to own learned how humiliated Hamlet could experience consequently, because of the reality when this occurs it absolutely was regarded incestuous for a widow to marry her husband's brother. there is also envy at the element of a boy, who thinks that his mother should be providing him more fascination through the mourning duration. Gertrude is not generally in touch with her individual son's emotions to check why he's angry. Hamlet conveys that dislike in the length of his first soliloquy: