How Does Gertrude's Use Of Adultery

In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Hamlet, the audience can view Gertrude as innocent or guilty of various crimes. However, Shakespeare uses Gertrude’s ignorance, symbols, and her actions to portray her as innocent. Gertrude condones spying on Hamlet and marries her husband’s murderer, but she has no idea that Claudius killed King Hamlet and agrees that they must watch Hamlet closely because she is worried about him.

William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet is perhaps one of his most intriguing and scandalous pieces of work. One character who is liable for much of this excitement and outrage is Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. To some readers and critics, Gertrude is conceived as an erratic, superficial and sensual woman. Others discern the Queen as an earnest, intellectual and sagacious woman whose tragic fault is her yearning for sexual satisfaction. Throughout the text, there are several legitimate arguments for both sides, but in the end, Hamlet seems to sum up the Queen’s true persona with the words “Frailty, thy name is woman”. Evidence of Gertrude’s true nature can be found in many instances through out the play such

Queen Gertrude is an important character in Hamlet. Her description, significance, change, and contrast to Hamlet are significant aspects of the play which should not be ignored. Through the few lines she has, Queen Gertrude can be seen as a reserved and uncertain character. Gertrude is aware that Hamlet is affected by her marriage to Claudius, as shown when she says, “I doubt it is no other but the main, His father's death and our o'erhasty marriage”(2.2.56-57).

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:

Since its origination, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet has been revered for its spectacular analysis of human morale and sanity. However, Shakespeare also explores the theme of marriage, particularly the mildly incestuous remarriage of a widow. Among scholars, one of the greatest literary debates of all time is over Gertrude’s motivations for remarrying her brother-in-law, Claudius. Many argue that Claudius and Gertrude were having an affair before King Hamlet’s murder, while others believe that Claudius merely wooed Gertrude in her time of brief grieving. However, due to the role of women during the time Hamlet was set in, Gertrude’s primary reason for marrying Claudius so hastily was to protect her bloodline and her own royal power.

These word like daggers enter my ears. No more, sweet Hamlet!” (III.iv. 95-97). From this statement, it is shown that Gertrude really

Throughout “Hamlet,” woman’s place within the domestic sphere is carefully established through the relationship, and marriage, of Claudius and Gertrude. Gertrude, from the beginning when she marries Claudius immediately after Ole King Hamlet’s death, seems to need men in order to establish her own sense of self. Despite the fact that Gertrude seems to manage all right on her own, especially when put in a position that involves societal expectation (i.e. when beside Claudius as the Queen), she seems to still be unable to define her own sense of self. For instance, in Act I, Scene II, Gertrude makes a short comment about Hamlet’s travels, stating, “Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet, I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.” While Hamlet also replies curtly, Claudius takes this instance to go into an eight-line speech regarding how “loving and fair” Gertrude’s response to Hamlet was; as if she needed immediate validation. Claudius, in this instance as well as throughout the overarching story-line, seems to jump to the occasion to speak for both himself and Gertrude; asserting himself as the “man in charge.” However, the one thing Gertrude does seem to be able to maintain is her ability to have her own thoughts and control over her own actions. While she does rely on the main male characters,

For example, evidence of her failed perception is subjected for almost the entirety of the play, her perception of Claudius. It can be concluded that she was unaware of Claudius murdering Old Hamlet, her husband, in this quote “act 2 scene 2” .Also she is oblivious concerning the play. Gertrude not having the ability to realize that Claudius is a dangerous man leads to him becoming king and begins the ongoing conflict between him and Hamlet. However, later she proves herself by successfully perceiving the information her son, Hamlet, reveals to her right after he stabs Polonius through the arras who was spying on their conversation.

Gertrude is a pivotal female character in Hamlet, her role is the focus of both Hamlet’s and Claudius’ desires. Hamlet constantly criticizes

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

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet Gertrude marries her deceased Husband’s brother, whom she shows minimal affection and she rarely expresses any feelings or desires independent of those of him. Gertrude is a weak, submissive woman who is easily influenced by authoritative men, however her redeeming quality is she truly cares for her son and has just enough independence to at least think separately of Claudius. Her inability to express personal feelings leads to her unfortunate circumstances, which demonstrates the Firstly, in the early portion of the play we rarely hear Gertrude speak, or express unique feelings or opinions. We are unsure of her specific feelings about her marriage to Claudius, his assumption of the throne, or her

Gertrude married Claudius in order to maintain her position as Queen. Women move up in the world or maintain their positions by marrying certain men because marriage is the “right” conduct. Yet, it makes them dependent on the men in society which enforces the patriarchal society. Gertrude fills the role of the “good” girl by obeying her husband and letting him control her life. Claudius manipulates her for his own benefits of status.

Gertrude has sex with her dead husband’s brother, and this contemplation causes confusion in Hamlet’s life. Hamlet does not know if Claudius is still his uncle or if he should he allow him to replace his father. The role that Claudius plays becomes undefined in his nephew’s life the second that he marries Gertrude. Claudius as the murderer takes on the masculine role in the play; this role changes from masculine to feminine when Gertrude willing lies to her son, concealing that she knows Claudius murdered her husband. The focus shifts to how Gertrude has wronged Hamlet because she represents the only thing that Hamlet has left. This creates an inevitable imbalance among their relationships, especially when a sexual relationship forms, creating an even stronger imbalance in his life, especially so soon after his father’s death. Hamlet’s world had already changed significantly with the death of his father, which deeply affects his mental state putting Hamlet in an increasingly fragile state. When he found out that his mother had withheld the truth from him, it caused him to question everything in the world. This also created a binary opposition directed toward Claudius, who is trying to keep Hamlet from figuring out that he is the murderer. All of this evidence connects back to Hamlet’s insult laden with the

Thesis Statement: Gertrude, the wife of late King Hamlet was disloyal to her husband and also responsible for his death.

Critical: Loberg and Harmonie in ‘Queen Gertrude: Monarch, Mother, Murderer’ Gertrude is weak as she longs for the attention that she loses when late King Hamlet dies, quickly marries.