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27 Gennaio 2019Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
27 Gennaio 2019👑 Gertrude: Queen, Mother, Woman
- Gertrude occupies a precarious position: she’s a royal figure, a mother to a grieving son, and a woman navigating a patriarchal court.
- Her remarriage to Claudius is politically expedient but emotionally fraught. Hamlet and the Ghost interpret it as betrayal, but Shakespeare never confirms her complicity in the murder — only her desire for stability.
🧠 Hamlet’s Projection of Guilt
- Hamlet’s fury toward Gertrude often feels disproportionate. His obsession with her sexuality — “frailty, thy name is woman” — reveals more about his own discomfort than her actions.
- Gertrude becomes a mirror for Hamlet’s internal conflict: he projects moral corruption onto her, perhaps to avoid confronting his own paralysis and rage.
💔 The Closet Scene (III.iv.)
- This is one of the most emotionally charged scenes in the play. Hamlet confronts Gertrude with brutal honesty, and she seems genuinely shaken.
- Her line, “Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul,” suggests a moment of self-awareness — whether it’s guilt or simply shock at Hamlet’s intensity.
🍷 The Poisoned Cup (V.ii.)
- Her decision to drink from the cup meant for Hamlet is ambiguous. Is it maternal instinct? Naïveté? Defiance?
- It’s a tragic gesture that seals her fate — and perhaps redeems her in the eyes of the audience. She dies trying to protect her son, even if unknowingly.
⚖️ Victim or Enabler?
- Gertrude’s silence throughout much of the play makes her hard to pin down. Is she complicit in Claudius’s schemes, or simply unaware?
- In Elizabethan society, her obedience to Claudius would be expected. But Shakespeare gives her moments of agency — especially in her final act.
🧵 Final Thought: A Woman Woven into the Web
Gertrude is not a villain, nor a saint. She’s a woman caught in a web of grief, politics, and male expectations. Her tragedy lies in her inability — or unwillingness — to see the full scope of the corruption around her until it’s too late.
Study notes and reflections about Gertrude on Hamlet’s
GERTRUDE
Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark( I.ii. 67), the widow of the former king and Hamlet’s mother. She is a devoted mother and an affectionate and obedient wife, yet she is described as a libidinous sinner by Hamlet and the ghost simply because she remarries after her first husband’s death(II.ii.). She tries to encourage Hamlet to do what Claudius suggests, but Hamlet reacts hysterically (III.iv.).
His accusations are unfounded because Gertrude may be guilty of nothing more serious than marrying Claudius. The king describes her as “our sometime sister, now our queen“. She appears with her new husband, the king, as he justifies their marriage to the court. Gertrude tells Hamlet that her material or sexual conduct is none of his business and agrees to forgo any further physical relationship with Claudius.
Gertrude allows Hamlet to project a guilt and shame into her that had previously been absent, or at the very least repressed. And where does Hamlet obtain the testimony Queen Gertrude is nice enough to offer her own napkin to her son, to wipe his “brow”. However, she then drinks out of the cup intended for Hamlet(V.ii.298).
Not only is this unwise, it would also seem to be a bit rude. Perhaps she is nervous. Perhaps she is truly concerned for her son’s welfare. Perhaps Gertrude is weak, because she hasn’t the courage to defy her husband, sign, of the patriarchal authority in Elizabethan society, and sanctify she as victim of male arrogance. In Gertrude’s case, it’s probably right: everything she says expresses her concern for her husband and her son.
