Gertrude

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life is hard. You’ve got to go out and beat it.”- Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou was a prominent woman who lead the way for civil rights and spearheaded women’s right and freedoms. These rights and freedoms that Maya is fighting for were previously non-existent. This deficiency of rights can be seen in the Shakespeare play Hamlet in which the few female characters have been treated as though they are less than the men of the play.…

later become the grounds for his eventual death. Hamlet’s mental illness is generated by his relationships with his mother, Queen Gertrude, and his lover, Ophelia, thus enabling these two women to serve as the catalyst for his self-destructive…

Ophelia seems innocent, yet commits the most heinous sin - suicide (according to Elizabethans). The wedding of Claudius and Gertrude, the player’s performance, the fencing match, even King Hamlet’s nap in the garden, seem like innocent situations; however, underneath the thinly veiled charade lies a darker, violent ethical question. Shakespeare deliberately forsakes an interpretation…

the power of beauty will sooner transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness. This was sometime a paradox I choose to write about how in Hamlet By William Shakespeare, how Ophelia and Gertrude are symbolized as one dimensional characters vs female characters in books today. I say this because today's authors would have a female character the hero as the main character, so the story is mainly about them. In Shakespeare's time you…

Prince Hamlet’s father passes away. A month later Claudius, Hamlets uncle, marries Gertrude, who is Hamlet’s mother, and becomes king. Hamlet is upset and believes no one cares about his father’s death and him. Horatio, Hamlet’s best friend, visits Hamlet and tells him that he cares about him and wants to be there for him and him only, Horatio also tells Hamlet that he saw a ghost and that it might be his father. Hamlet speaks to the ghost and the ghosts reveals that he is Hamlet’s father and…

Hamlet uses Ophelia because she reminds him so much of his mother. Ophelia gives Hamlet the love his mother does not give him. However, he cannot accept her love because he wants that love from Gertrude. Linda Wagner says, “Ophelia as compared with that of the Queen, whose equally simple, rather carnal attitudes have led her into deepest sin. Ophelia is a younger edition of the unthinking Queen who needs the “mirror” Hamlet provides to see her own…

as weak. Due to the beliefs of this time women were not supposed to express opinions or thought to be capable of being strong and forceful. In the play both Ophelia and Gertrude show that they are strong and capable women. Because of the views of the time women were supposed to be submissive and follow orders but Ophelia and Gertrude step out of the norm and show that they to can hold power. Throughout the play Ophelia is never taken seriously and is thought to be crazy. She is never able to…

public eye because he is harsh with his words and does not hold the position for King. While the other characters in the play preoccupy themselves with revenge, justice, and moral dignity, Claudius is completely immersed into maintaining power over Gertrude, Denmark and just about anything else that threatens his safety, namely his stepson, Hamlet. The reason Claudius speaks to the public well is because he is extremely authoritative and holds free reign over Hamlet, playing him like an…

somehow victimized by the men in their lives. Gertrude is Hamlet’s mother and the queen of Denmark. She is given an important enough position as the mother of Hamlet and wife of old Hamlet and King Claudius. However, it must be noted that she still hardly has any lines in the play. Since she doesn’t have many lines in the play, her character is shaped by male characters like Hamlet, the ghost and Claudius. In the play, the ghost directly blames Gertrude instead of Claudius. He states, “Taint…

Hamlet by Shakespeare was written in the early 1600’s in England, it is an Elizabethan tragedy, and characteristics of the tragedy’s plot may include on-stage murder, ghosts, torture, grave yards, ambition, and severed limbs (Cash, Revenge strategy). During this time period the law did not apply to the wealthy and the royalty. So, if someone of royal status broke the law, as in murder, they would not get any punishment from the court. This is why the idea of requite- make appropriate return for…