Essay On The Coward In Shakespeare's Hamlet

The word coward can become a malicious adjective when used against a character whose actions are unknown to the audience, but when inferences are made, there is no stopping the accusations. In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, suspicions around the death of the king, Hamlet's father, arise as his mother marries his uncle. As the play progresses, Gertrude begins this process of further maladjustment from her environment due to the inability to make her own, independent decisions leading to her failure of properly representing the strong, female character. The death of a character is needed to move along the plot of a story, even Gertrude plays upon this thought when she says “Thou know’st ‘tis common, all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity” (I, ii, p. 13). As a character who is facing grief from the loss of her husband she has to convince herself that death is a natural part of life, but is she convinces herself to rid her soul of he grief, or could it be …show more content…
She loses her independence, her place as a respected mother, and most of all she loses herself. The result of all of this loss is her inability to maintain the peace and instead chaos ensued. It’s not until the final act when she rediscovers herself and one of the titles she neglected, which is being a mother. She commits the most selfless act by drinking the cup of poison in an attempt to save her son. Of course, in the end he still dies, but her effort is what saved her. Whether Gertrude was “A murderer and a villain!” (III, iv, p. 109) committed the crime of murder or the death was “natural,” one can believe that her weakness is seen continuously. As she furthers herself from adhering to the environment, Gertrude loses her independence and conforms to the shadows of her new husband, until she finally renews herself as a