Queen Gertrude's Conversation In Hamlet

Queen Gertrude’s conversations with other characters throughout William Shakespeare’s Hamlet establish her as a complaisant and passive character. This is mainly demonstrated through the fact that the only time she speaks in the first two acts of the play is when she speaks either directly to Hamlet or to Claudius about how unnecessary it is to mourn King Hamlet’s death. In Act I scene II, she reprimands Hamlet for how upset he is about his father’s death when it is natural that “all that lives must die” (I.ii.74). When she says this, she demonstrates her lack of sadness over the loss of her husband, which shows that she did not feel the same love for him as he did for her and could have just married for position, which would also explain why she was so okay with quickly marrying Claudius. …show more content…
The fact that after a full act Gertrude still is incapable of understanding why her son could possibly be so upset over his father’s death shows the full depth of her lack of love for King Hamlet, as well as how little emotion she feels in general.Also, of these quotes show how weak of a character she is and how willing she is to follow Claudius, as both times, she only speaks after Claudius has spoken on the same subject matter. It is understandable that Claudius wouldn’t want Hamlet to mourn the King as Claudius was the one who murdered him, but aside from wanting to please Claudius, there is not another likely reason for Gertrude not wanting Hamlet to go into mourning. When reading Shakespeare, it is important for the reader to understand that the reason his female characters are generally structured this way is due to the female stereotypes that existed during the time period in which these plays were