Shakespeares Hamlet - Gertrude Essay -- GCSE English Literature Cours

Regarding hamlets Gertrude Angela Pitt in Women in Shakespeares Tragedies comments that Shakespeares Gertrude in Hamlet is, foremost and foremost, a arrive Gertrude evinces no such need to justify her actions and thereby does not betray any good sense of guilt. She is concerned with her present good fortune, and neither lingers over the death of her first husband nor analyses her motives in taking another. . . .She seems a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman, in no way the emotional or intellectual equal of her son. . . . surely she is fond of Hamlet. Not only is she prepared to listen to him when he storms at her, proof that he is sufficiently close to her to have a flop to make comments on her personal life, but she is unfailingly concerned just about him. . . .When she has drunk from the poisoned cup, almost her last words are O my darling Hamlet The simple endearment is very poignant, reminding us that the bond between mother and son, and Hamlets despera te jealousy of Claudius, account for as much(prenominal) of the tragic progress of the play as the need to avenge octogenarian Hamlets death (46-47). Is Gertrude a mother first, and queen game? This essay hopes to resolve seeming contradictions in the character of Queen Gertrude, as well as dealing with other aspects of her multi-faceted character. At the outset of the disaster Hamlet appears dressed in solemn black. His mother, Gertrude, is apparently disturbed by this and requests of him Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye demeanor like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever so with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble father in the dust Thou knowst tis vernacular ... ...s Hamlet. Early Modern Literary Studies 6.1 (May, 2000) 2.1-24 <URL http//purl.oclc.org/emls/06-1/lehmhaml.htm>. Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Reprint of Shakespeares 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 Smith, Rebecca. Gertrude calculative Adulteress or Loving Mother? Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet A Users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. Shakespeare. literary productions of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.