Throughout the entire plot of Hamlet, the young prince remains angry at his mother, mainly because she married her previous husband’s brother. The younger Hamlet gives his mother plenty of grief throughout the play because he feels she was finished grieving over her husband’s death far too quickly. King Claudius even calls Hamlet out on this, explaining to him that he cannot afford to grieve too long over his father’s death: “…But to persever/In obstinate condolement is a course/Of impious stubbornness. ‘Tis unmanly grief” (I.ii. 92-94). Along with the character Hamlet, many critics of the play find that Gertrude was wrong for marrying again so quickly, especially since the man she married was her recently deceased husband’s brother. However, I do not believe that she should be viewed in such a negative light in this play. Through textual evidence, one will find that Queen Gertrude is an oppressed and ignorant character in the play and she cannot be looked down upon for marrying Claudius so quickly.
When asked to describe Gertrude’s character in Hamlet, one will most certainly mention her quick re-marriage to Claudius. This is looked down upon by many critics, but there is no reason that it should be. In order to maintain her royal status in society and keep her son as a potential king, she had to marry quickly in order to keep someone else from entering the royal family and challenging for the throne. I am not exactly familiar with the political structure of Denmark at that time, but if history is any indicator, there is always a great possibility for revolt and bloodshed after a king dies and no one is positive who will replace him. One can even argue that Gertrude married Claudius simply to ensure a good future for her son Hamlet. That is her main flaw throughout the play; she is trying to please too many people.
It may not seem like it at first, but the queen is a complex character and the audience’s understanding of her should go further than an initial reaction. She seems to be very minor, and she never seems able to fully be herself. At times, she is told exactly what to say in certain situations, evidenced by a line spoken by Polonius: “Tell him his pranks have been too broad to bear with,/And that your grace hath screen’d and stood between/Much heat and him….” (III.iv. 2-4). It is unfortunate that the queen obliges with these requests to interrogate Hamlet, but it is only because she does not know the full situation and only wants to help her son get better mentally. Gertrude is genuinely concerned for Hamlet and she would do anything to help her son, even though what she says may rub Hamlet the wrong way and seem condescending (but isn’t that just the epitome of the parental/angry-at-the-world child relationship?): “Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.” (III.iv. 10).
It is difficult to pinpoint what the queen’s true feelings are about a lot of things in the play. She is influenced a great deal by what other characters say, such as the previous explanation of the third Act when Polonius tells Gertrude how to speak to her son. Another case of her oppression is found in the first Act of the play. The king has gone into a lengthy speech about Hamlet’s “unmanly” grief over his father’s death and he has also pleaded with him not to go back to Wittenberg, the school Hamlet was attending. Gertrude replies with this: “Let not thy mother lose her prayers, Hamlet./I pray thee stay with us, go not to Wittenberg.” (I.ii. 118-119). Many would be quick to judge her in a negative light in this situation for essentially making Hamlet stay home. However, there could be more going on behind this small comment. Gertrude, in her never-ending desire to please anyone and everyone coupled with her passive personality, would never go against the king’s wishes, so she would have to agree with Claudius no matter what she was really thinking. It could very well be true that she would have liked to see Hamlet get an education and then return to become king; she could also have wanted him to stay in Denmark because she thought that was best for him, or so she was told. With such a small understanding of her character, it will always remain unknown what her true feelings were.
Queen Gertrude is also a completely ignorant character in the play, which should result in pity from the audience rather than scorn for her marriage to Claudius. In Act Three, Hamlet is with his mother when the ghost of his father appears. Hamlet asks her if she sees anything, but the queen replies with “Nothing at all, yet all is that I see.” (III.iv. 137). The queen does not understand her son’s turmoil or what has been going on behind the scenes, so she is only able to draw on what she sees: “This is the very coinage of your brain./The bodiless creation ecstasy/Is very cunning in.” (III.iv. 142-144). It can be assumed that her reaction to the situation would be much different if she knew the true story about her previous husband’s death and the ghost that was driving her son mad.
No matter how one feels about Queen Gertrude, one must realize that not only does Shakespeare subtly try to force pity upon the audience when she dies after accidentally drinking from the poisoned cup, but he provides more evidence that the queen is a more complex character with good intentions: “He’s fat, and scant of breath./Here, Hamlet, take my napkin, rub thy brows./The queen carouses to thy fortune, Hamlet.” (V.ii. 253-255). By having the queen drink from the poisoned cup, it signifies not only the end of one of the lesser-known but equally sad characters in Hamlet, but an action symbolic of the queen’s personality that is found throughout the play: she would go so far as to die (although she unknowingly drank from the cup, it acts as an excellent symbol) to ensure the well-being of someone she loved.
Booth, Alison, J. Paul Hunter, and Kelly J. Mays, eds. The Norton Introduction to Literature, 9th ed. (New
York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2006) 1325-1418; all references to “Hamlet” in my paper are to this edition and will hereafter be cited parenthetically.
