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, number 1 and foremost, a mother Gertrude evinces no such need to justify her actions and thereby does not betray any sense of guilt. She is concerned with her present inviolable fortune, and neither lingers over the goal of her first husband nor analyses her motives in pickings another. . . .She seems a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman, in no way the frantic or intellectual equal of her son. . . . Certainly she is fond of Hamlet. Not however is she prepared to listen to him when he storms at her, proof that he is sufficiently close to her to have a right to make comments on her person-to-person life, but she is unfailingly concerned about him. . . .When she has drunk from the poisoned cup, almost her defy words are O my dear Hamlet The simple endearment is real poignant, reminding us that the bond between mother and son, and Hamlets fearsome jealousy of Claudius, account for as much of the tragic progress of the capriole as the need to avenge old Hamlets death (46-47). Is Gertrude a mother first, and queen second? This essay hopes to resolve seeming contradictions in the character of Queen Gertrude, as well as relations with other aspects of her multi-faceted character. At the outset of the tragedy Hamlet appears dressed in solemn black. His mother, Gertrude, is apparently disturbed by this and requests of him Good Hamlet, cast thy unpunctual colour off, And let thine eye look like a supporter on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble grow in the dust Thou knowst tis common ... ...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 cataclysm of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Smith, Rebecca. Gertrude Scheming Adulteress or loving Mother? Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet A Users Guide. modernistic York Limelight Editions, 1996. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.