Gertrude of Shakespeare’s Hamlet Essay -- Essays on Shakespeare Hamlet

The Gertrude of Shakespeare’s Hamlet  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚   Is Gertrude, in the Shakespearean drama Hamlet, a bore? A killer’s accomplice? The perfect queen? A dumbie? This paper will answer many questions concerning Claudius’ partner on the Danish throne.    In her essay, â€Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging,† Ruth Nevo explains the deleterious effect of Gertrude’s behavior on her son’s relationship with Ophelia:    His mother has predisposed him to believe in women’s perfidy, has produced in him a revulsion from sex and the stratagems of sex; he was unable to draw Ophelia’s face by his perusal; she has refused his letters and denied him access; now returns his gifts. What form of devious double-dealing shall he expect? (49-50)    Gertrude is indeed not the ideal mother. Lilly B. Campbell comments in â€Å"Grief That Leads to Tragedy† on Queen Gertrude’s sinful state:    Shakespeare’s picture of the Queen is explained to us by Hamlet’s speech to her in her closet. There we see again the picture of sin as evil willed by a reason perverted by passion, for so much Hamlet explains in his accusation of his mother:    You cannot call it love, for at your age The hey-day in the blood is tame, it’s humble, And waits upon the judgement; and what judgement Would step from this to this? . . . O shame! [. . .]    And of the Queen’s punishment as it goes on throughout the play, there can be no doubt either. Her love for Hamlet, her grief, the woes that come so fast that one treads upon the heel of another, her consciousness of wrong-doing, her final dismay are those also of one whose soul has become alienated from God by sin. (97-98)    Gunnar Bokland in â€Å"Hamlet† describes Gertrude’... ...hamlet/other/jorg-hamlet.html    Nevo, Ruth. â€Å"Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging.† Modern Critical Interpretations: Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. Rpt. from Tragic Form in Shakespeare. N.p.: Princeton University Press, 1972.    Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.† Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.    Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.    Smith, Rebecca. â€Å"Gertrude: Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother?† Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of â€Å"Hamlet†: A User’s Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.