Mirando, Mark B.

2013-00862
Eng 23 – Hamlet: Gertrude

“What Ever Happened to Queen Gertrude?”

For one, to understand Gertrude, one must understand how women are considered during the
Elizabethan Period. If one looks at the history of England, one will see that patriarchy ruled the
kingdom. As Montrose elaborates, "With one vital exception, all forms of public and domestic
authority in Elizabethan England were vested in men: in fathers, husbands, masters, teachers,
magistrates, lords" (65). An unequal distribution of power existed between males and females in
Elizabethan England. This imbalance is apparent in the dynamics of relationship between Gertrude,
Hamlet and Claudius. If we look at the text, one might conclude that Gertrude was not always in the
know. It seems like she doesn’t know how Hamlet sees her as a woman and as a mother. She also
has no awareness of how her hasty marriage to Claudius may look upon by the public as an
adulterous one. Although, one might also think of Gertrude as a peacemaker and an intelligent
woman for one can read her motives as a peacemaker between Hamlet, who despises his uncle, and
Claudius, whose sole motive is to protect his throne and safety. In Act 3.4, Hamlet admitted to
Gertrude that he is only “mad in craft” and wants her not to lay with Claudius and to keep his
confession as a secret to his “Uncle-Father-King”. Although Gertrude promised, she did the total
opposite of this promise to Claudius in the next scene, where she confessed that Hamlet is mad. If
one looks at this scene, it seems like she, as a mother, betrayed her son, yet, one might also ask,
“what if she just wanted to protect her?”. Instead of looking at this act as a form of betrayal to
Hamlet, one might assume that it can be a deed of protection for him. One can read her confession
of Hamlet’s “madness” as a justification of his rash murder of Polonius and to save him from a
dreadful sentence. Questions arise as the play unravels Gertrude’s actions towards the end of the
play. Is she really a concerned queen to his subject? Did she aid with murdering the king? Is she just
an undecided woman and a weak queen who doesn’t want to articulate decision/s? Or is she a
loving and protective mother who just wants the protection of her son from society and the
authority of the king?

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Montrose, Louis Adrian. ""Shaping Fantasies": Figurations of Gender and Power in Elizabethan
Culture." Representations 2.1 (1983): 61-94. Print.