The Victorian novel was regarding love, its fulfilment and culmination, the modern novel, on the other hand spoke of love but the love was never realised leading to a breakdown of communication and hence a sense of alienation. In the Victorian novel, alienation was appropriated to highlight the importance of love and marriage but the modern novel merely confirmed it as a social condition. We see this pattern of the modern novel clearly followed in the Walter-Gertrude relationship as we see them fall in love, as well as witness the absence of the fulfilment of that love for either of them. The narrative of D.H. Lawrence’s “Sons and Lovers” is on one level a story of a marriage but at the same time it raises the question of whether it is …show more content…
This deliberate action on Lawrence’s part ensures that the female reader doesn’t identify herself with Gertrude in a romantic association, as well as assures a bit of sympathy for Walter being evoked in the reader. It brings into light the fact that Gertrude in due course despises Walter for the very reasons that she fell in love with him.
In the flashback episode there is moreover a mention to Gertrude’s former lover John Fields who abandoned her. This reference to John Fields can be seen as a kind of epilogue to the Morel marriage. Lawrence seems to be developing Gertrude as a character of romantic, impulsive disposition and hence proves her act of marrying Walter to be an act of sheer impulse and definitely not a wise one. The text consciously establishes her as a woman whose act leads her to unhappiness. The marriage vindicates the notion that deviations lead to unhappiness.
Emerging from completely different social classes the work both Walter and Gertrude perform are completely different-Walter’s work is physical as opposed to the intellectual work of Gertrude. Hence, their dispositions to life and activities they engage in are different at every level. Their attitude towards the working class is one such aspect. The conditions and lifestyle of the mining community that Gertrude greatly despises and does her best to keep her children away from seems to satisfy Walter and he seems to have accepted them with great ease. The views they have on
Gertrude also portrays Marxism. She does not delay long after her former husband’s death to “marry
By the end of this scene, however, we see that she is penitent and appears willing to help her son. This exhibits how easily Gertrude is persuaded by Hamlet's incessant persistence, and emphasises her tendency to be dominated by, and mistreated by men, even to the extent of her own son. Gertrude's mistreatment is also obvious within her relationship to Claudius. For example, When Gertrude tells Claudius of Polonius' slaughter by Hamlet, rather than fret about the danger posed to his wife; he remarks that has he "been there," it would have been dangerous to him.
On the contrary, Gertrude’s sanity never really becomes a subject of question by any character within the story, but one cannot believe she maintains a healthy state of mind if she considered marrying her husband’s brother. It does not help her case that Claudius killed her husband. She loves him undyingly in a way only a mad person could. Hamlet wonders how on earth she would willingly marry her husband’s brother only two months after his death. “A little month; or ere those shoes were old With which she followed my poor father 's body Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she, (O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason, Would have mourn 'd longer!) married with mine uncle, My father 's brother; but no more like my father Than I to Hercules: within a month; Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears Had left the flushing in her galled
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:
Lawrence the reader follows the unusual love story of a woman named Mabel. The story begins with Mabel’s three brothers discussing what they will do once their family farm has sold. While her brothers question her about what she will do she remains silent. Mabel’s thinks her life is so meaningless because she feels oppressed by her brothers. Not only had she been maintaining the household alone for 10 years but they often call her names and talk at her no to her. The author adds, “They had talked at her and round her for so many years, that she hardly heard them at all” showing how long this oppression had been going on. While she is described as having plain features her brothers say she looks like a “bull-dog”. Her life becomes unbearable when the family runs out of money. Before her father died leaving them a heap of debt she believed life was worthwhile because at the very least they had money. Her brothers were still awful to her and had a reputation for being promiscuous, but they had financial security. To help the reader understand why money is so important to her the author states, “…so long as there was money, the girl felt herself established, and brutally proud, reserved”. Once the money is gone Mabel feels hopeless as she thinks that there is no longer a life for her. While her brothers make plans on where to go once the farm is sold she does not make any decisions. She values security and without money,
The nature of Shakespeare’s plays, with its notable lack of stage directions, gives way to multiple different interpretations of the characters, plot, and even of the purpose of the play itself. The character of Gertrude is no exception. Gertrude’s character and motives, being left ambiguous, have been interpreted in many different ways in various productions of Hamlet. Was she implicit in the death of King Hamlet, or was she merely a clueless bystander? Did she drink the poison as an act of motherly self-sacrifice, or was it an accidental tragedy? Zefferelli’s Hamlet (1990) and Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000) provide two different interpretations on Gertrude’s characterization. In particular, there exist substantial differences in their renditions of Gertrude’s death—while Almereyda portrays her death as a noble suicide, Zefferelli paints her death as a by-product of her unceasing lust for pleasure. Furthermore, in that scene, we also notice a difference in Hamlet’s attitude towards Gertrude. By analyzing these points along with other scenes within the context of the entire film, we manage to develop an understanding of Almereyda’s and Zefferelli’s view on Gertrude and how use that to develop the tragic conclusion of the final scene.
Before we make any conclusion regarding the character of Gertrude, we should understand the norms of the society in which she lives in. Established order of the society is maintained through the process of socialization. Petriarchy power structure of 16th century is well represented in Hamlet and judged as a mysterious character. Gertrude in Hamlet holds the political power within the traditional power structure and also has potentially has the power to collapse within that structure. Gertrude fails to represent the moral of society as a queen of the state by marrying Claudius, but she completely believes in the standards set for women by the society. She appreciates qualities like-youth, beauty and purity- in Ophelia:
When Hamlet becomes mad, he blames his madness on his mother, for marrying his uncle Claudius. This divide created by King Claudius is never fixed and leaves both Hamlet and Gertrude divided for ever. In Fifth Business Boy Staunton’s distant from his trophy wife Leola, ultimately led her to her downfall. Boy had only married Leola to be his trophy wife; he wanted her to dress and act the part of a sophisticated wife. During the depression Boy made a lot of money and became a very popular and rich person. With money come’s great and powerful people and Boy knew that he was making new friends who had a great deal of power. Boy recognized that he needed a certain type of wife to stand by his side. All the pressure Boy had placed on Leola had led her to lose interest in being a popular and supportive wife. “She had lost heart in the fight to become the sort of sophisticated, cultivated, fashionably alert women Boy wanted for a wife. She loved shopping but her clothes were wrong ;”( Davies 52). When Leola went shopping and bought clothes she liked, Boy told her those were the wrong clothes. Finally Boy had enough and started to distance himself from his wife. Leola knew she was not the wife Boy wanted and that she was letting him down. Her love for Boy was too much, and she knew that letting him down was hurting herself. Leola tried to commit suicide due to the fact she was not the trophy wife Boy thought she was. Power and
Despite this, Gertrude says she was “scared to death”; in her case,“death” does not refer to her life ending since her husband “didn’t care what color it turned out,” but instead, her respectable position in society
The queen obviously considers her son’s dejection to result from his father’s demise. Angela Pitt considers Gertrude “a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman. . . .” (47). She joins in with the king in requesting Hamlet’s stay in Elsinore rather than returning to Wittenberg to study. Respectfully the son replies, “I shall in all my best obey you, madam.” So at the outset the audience notes a decidedly good relationship between Gertrude and those about her in the drama, even though Hamlet’s “suit of mourning has been a visible and public protest against the royal marriage, a protest in which he is completely alone, and in which he has hurt his mother” (Burton “Hamlet”). Hamlet’s first soliloquy expresses his anger at the quickness of his mother’s marriage to Claudius, an “o’erhasty marriage” (Gordon 128), and its incestuousness since it is between family: “Frailty, thy name is woman! . . . .” Rebecca Smith interprets his anti-motherly feelings: “Hamlet’s violent emotions toward his mother are obvious from his first soliloquy, in which 23 of the 31 lines express his anger and disgust at what he perceives to be Gertrude’s weakness, insensitivity, and, most important, bestiality” (80).
Queen Gertrude is accredited as/for being a main character in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, King of Denmark even though her character has only 155 lines. Most productions portray Gertrude as a shallow, self-satisfying woman and fail to recognize her as a guilt ridden individual frustrated by her inability to please both her son and husband. While both Kenneth Branagh and Mel Gibson occasionally show Gertrude's desire to please Hamlet and Claudius in their depictions of Hamlet, they mainly portray Gertrude to be a scheming adulteress. Even though Gertrude is an object of lust in the play, Gertrude herself is not lustful, but rather submissive to power and her desire to please both Claudius and Hamlet.
A few characters in this play give insight on Gertrude that point in the direction of her being shallow and evil. One example is late in the first act when Hamlet cries “O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, dammed villain!” This is when, deep in thought, Hamlet realizes that his mother could have possibly taken part in his father’s death and he thinks she’s evil. In Hamlet’s head, everything makes sense now because it is now understandable how she got over the death so quickly. This is the first time that Hamlet realizes his mother’s true character. This is a very imperative notion about Gertrude’s personality because for her very own son to think a validation like this is extreme. Often times a man will love and defend his mother until the day he dies, while Hamlet, on the other hand, is thinking of her playing a role in his father’s death. When the ghost speaks of Gertrude’s speedy marriage, it provides more evidence of her shallowness. The King’s ghost says that she is “seeming virtuous”. He is basically saying that while she looks holy and righteous, she isn’t. The new King offered her something (or many things) that she wanted, and she took the bait and married him. She didn’t care that her husband had just died, or how her son would react to this
The purpose of this essay is to analyze the role of Gertrude in "Hamlet", which is counted as one of the famous plays of English language (Thompson and Neil Taylor 74) and the most popular work of Shakespeare (Wells and Stanton 1). This essay will evaluate the role of 'Gertrude', who was the mother of Prince Hamlet and also the title character of the play.
Gertrude’s solution to the problems of her life is to lie. She lies to herself about the consequences of her actions, and she lies to those around her. The purpose of her deceitfulness is to protect. Her lies are not cruel they are considered white lies that she feels she must commit to, to keep her and those around her physically and emotionally safe. On the surface it is complicated to comprehend why Hamlet, his father, and Claudius all have such a deep devotion for Gertrude but the qualities that save her and Claudius from condemnation are subtly woven among the plot of the tragedy. She loves Hamlet and beneath her shallow exterior, shows great emotion when he confronts her. Gertrude honestly doesn’t realize why Hamlet is so furious with her until he reveals the truth and only then does she realize the injustice of her actions. “O speak to me no more. These words like daggers enter my ears. No more, sweet Hamlet.”(pg 95, line 94-96) There is no reason for it to be believed that Gertrude is lying to appease Hamlet. In the play this is the only time when she is portrayed in a cunning manner. Even though Hamlet lashes out with extreme rage she still remains faithful to him, protecting him from the king. And, although her love for Claudius is considered wrong by
We first realize in Act I, Scene 2 that poor judgment is her major character flaw. As the mother of a grieving son, Gertrude should have been more sensitive to Hamlet's feelings. Instead, less than two months after King Hamlet's death, Gertrude remarries Claudius, her dead husband's own brother. Gertrude should have realized how humiliated Hamlet would feel as a