Gertrude: Woman, Queen, Enigma She can be seen as a foil to her son, since her character contrasts with his. Unlike Hamlet, Gertrude has no soliloquies reflecting on herself and her actions. She's driven by emotions rather than reflection. She's affectionate, impulsive, and strong-willed.
The Ghost cites Gertrude's voracious lust as the cause of her swift marriage to his brother (the 'garbage' in this metaphor). Gertrude's sexual relationship with Claudius defines her character for both Hamlets, and taints the audience's perception of her as an intemperately lustful and self-indulgent individual.
The Queen Gertrude is a weak woman. She is told by Hamlet in their dramatic confrontation to confess her sins. Gertrude is guilty in her son's eyes of murder. Maybe she did not directly kill her husband, but she allowed it to happen, perhaps even encourage it.
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 is portrayed as a loving mother, but not necessarily the most outwardly thinking.
Gertrude is thoughtful and sensitive in her attempts to intervene. She is not simply an unwitting victim of her circumstance, as some critics would have it. Gertrude is wholly ignorant of Caludius' successful plot against her first husband and equally oblivious of Hamlet's protectively possessive feelings towards her.
Manipulation exists throughout Hamlet from the prince acting mad to Claudius killing Gertrude. Claudius manipulated Hamlet by convincing Laertes to duel him a poisoned battle. He provided a poisoned cup with which Gertrude drank to her death.
But other interpretations, in both stage productions and paintings, suggest Gertrude's guilty knowledge of the murder, and Hamlet suspects her as well as Claudius; Hamlet's "mousetrap" therefore sets out to capture the conscience of a king and a queen.
The Gertrude who does emerge clearly in Hamlet is a woman defined by her desire for station and affection, as well as by her tendency to use men to fulfill her instinct for self-preservation—which, of course, makes her extremely dependent upon the men in her life.
Gertrude, then, is one of the play's most complex characters, and one whose motives and truest nature are often obscured. For instance, when Hamlet confronts Gertrude about her choices, she admits that looking inward at her own choices—and considering the idea that her new husband murdered her old one—is too painful.
Gertrude's Loyalty to Hamlet
Despite all that happens, Gertrude chooses to remain loyal to Hamlet. At the end of act three, he reveals to Gertrude that he is only mad in craft, not for real, and he askes her not to sleep with Claudius anymore.
But the decisions Gertrude does make eventually lead to her death and the downfall of others as well. 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.
Gertrude reveals no guilt in her marriage with Claudius after the recent murder of her husband, and Hamlet begins to show signs of jealousy towards Claudius. According to Hamlet, she scarcely mourned her husband's death before marrying Claudius.
She is not sympathetic to his grief, and wants him not to show the signs of mourning. Perhaps his grieving makes her uncomfortable. Hamlet Lines 76-86 Hamlet tells his mother the signs of grief are just outward show, and that his real grief is within.
Unlike Hamlet, Gertrude has no soliloquies reflecting on herself and her actions. She's driven by emotions rather than reflection. She's affectionate, impulsive, and strong-willed. Although Gertrude has many good qualities, she's not conspicuously intelligent.
Although Gertrude seems to be a villain, she turns into a victim that leads to her demise. To begin, Gertrude is a victim because she is naive that eventually leads to her death. At the end of the play when Hamlet and Laertes are fencing, Gertrude unknowingly drinks the cup of wine filled with poison.
One of the most important characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet would be the mother of Hamlet himself, Gertrude. Queen Gertrude played a devious and shameful role, which left many questioning her dignity throughout the play.
Her marriage to Claudius, her forcing Hamlet to accept Claudius as his father, and her betrayal of Hamlet to Claudius after Hamlet sees his father's ghost are all acts of selfishness.
Top Gertrude Quotes
Seek for thy noble father in the dust. Thou knowst 'tis common: all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. This is the very coinage of your brain.
The Ghost describes Gertrude as his seeming virtuous Queen (I. 5.46) and Hamlet recalls how when the King died, the woman who always appeared to be devoted to her husband (I. 2.143–5), followed his body like Niobe, all tears (I. 2.149).
Gertrude describes her love for Hamlet when she asks him not to return to Wittenberg. When she shares with Ophelia her hope that the young woman would have married her Hamlet, she divulges her wish for his happiness.
Hamlet delays killing Claudius because Claudius represents Hamlet's innermost desires to sleep with his mother Gertrude.
Gertrude is just a mother, trying to protect his son from being hurt. In the final scene of the play, Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine that Claudius has prepared for Hamlet. Even though Claudius tells Gertrude not to drink, Gertrude does it for his son.
Gertrude's betrayal of her son was caused by Claudius, as he comforted her after her husband's unfortunate demise, and later married her, this was betrayal to Hamlet because he had a very high opinion of his father and thought very little of his uncle, Hamlet said “-married with my uncle, / My father's brother, but no ...
Gertrude dies on-stage, accidentally poisoned by Claudius. Laertes dies on-stage, stabbed by his own poisoned blade.
Gertrude betrays Hamlet and the late King Hamlet by marrying Claudius. Hamlet, being still depressed about his father's death was further upset and felt betrayed by his mother when she quickly married Claudius.