The conflicting imagery of Gertrude emerges from remarrying Claudius and being Hamlet’s mother. The marriage seems immoral and has no doubt strengthened the hate and Hamlet’s determination to revenge. However, in my opinion, marrying King Claudius is probably the only way for Gertrude to keep Hamlet safe and keep him with her. When Hamlet pretends that he is going crazy, Gertrude worries about him the most. 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. Shakespeare depicts the role of Gertrude with a traditional view of women. Gertrude is criticized because of remarrying Claudius for her benefits. On the other hand, the role of being a mother keeps showing throughout the entire play.
2 thoughts on “Consider the role of Gertrude, how does Shakespeare depict women in the play?”
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I agree with you. In Hamlet, the female characters only have a little power and they are much lower than the male characters. Throughout the play, we can see that Gertrude is a mother who loves Hamlet a lot. It is reasonable to think that Gertrude’s remarriage is one way to protect Hamlet from being hurt by Claudius.
I may disagree. I believe the women in the play are very powerful, maybe not social class powerful, but definitely on an emotional and developmental state. As Hamlet’s mother played a big role in Hamlet’s role in character development. Hamlet was grieving on the death of his Father. Everything moved fast, and his mother remarried to his uncle. That was a mental shock to Hamlet, and was mainly caused by his mother. If his mother never made the decisions that she had and comforted her son more than she did, we most likely would have seen a different version of whom Hamlet would have been.