Queen Gertrude In Shakespeare's Hamlet

The lives and deaths of all major characters in Shakespeare’s Hamlet are dramatic. They’re filled with love, loss, and ultimately an overdramatized death in a plot that all links back to one idea of revenge. There is one major character, however, who does not seem to fit this Shakespearean archetype- Queen Gertrude. Her role in the play is often minimized, reduced only to be seen in terms of her incestuous affair and the effect it had on the major male characters of the book. Of the two female characters, Ophelia and Gertrude, Gertrude is viewed as especially weak due to her seeming lack of ability to stand up for herself or seek justice for the murder of her first husband Hamlet. However, by drinking the poisoned wine, she is able to carefully
One can find that, looking at all the lines she has in the play, they are often simply affirmations to what men have said or ordered her to do. One can see, for example, that as Claudius and Polonius were plotting to find Hamlet’s love for Ophelia, that when Claudius asks Gertrude to leave, she simply says “I shall obey you” (Shakespeare 3.1.1725). Additionally, one can see the powerlessness portrayed within Gertrude when Hamlet begins to berate her in her bedroom, attacking her physically and verbally. Throughout this scene, much of what Gertrude says is simply “O Hamlet, speak no more”, but her pleas work to no avail, this giving her a connotation of being weak as she cannot even assert her dominance over her own son (Shakespeare 3.4.2481). However, this powerlessness falls in stark contrast to the Gertrude portrayed in her dying scene. As King Claudius demands that she not drink the wine, Gertrude poignantly and forcibly says “I will, my lord”, a subtle shift in speech that represents Gertrude’s assertion of power over her husband in her final moments (Shakespeare 5.2.277). Although there is intense disagreement on whether or not Gertrude knew that the wine was poisoned as she drank it, this change in the characterization of Gertrude’s speech provides evidence that she did, in fact, know it was poisoned. Had she not known, it is likely that, based on her speech
Gertrude is victimized throughout the novel for having married Claudius soon after he murdered her late husband. However, considering the idea that throughout the book Gertrude rarely stood up for herself, it may be assumed that Gertrude truly had other feelings towards Claudius but did not defy him for fear of his retribution. After the death of Ophelia, Gertrude describes her suicide to Laertes. However, in contrast to how others antagonize Ophelia for her suicide, Gertrude seems to describe it lightly and kindly, describing Ophelia in the water as “a creature native and indued unto that element” (Shakespeare 4.7.177). By implying that Ophelia appeared to be native to the water in which she killed herself, one can infer that Gertrude recognizes the underlying revenge that triggered Ophelia’s suicide and appreciates it. If the water can be seen as a metaphor for the revenge upon which Ophelia acted, Gertrude describes how it appeared that she belonged there, likely inspiring Gertrude to exact her revenge in a similar way. By looking at the way in which Gertrude died, one can assume that she planned it in a manner which would clearly put her husband in a position where he would have to choose between her or his own plans. By deciding in the specific moment during which much of the