Shakespeares Hamlet: Who is Gertrude? Essay -- GCSE English Literatu

Hamlet Who is Gertrude? Back in 1883 Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and Other English Poets comments on what he interprets as a problem or inconsistency in the presentation of the pillow slip Gertrude in Shakespeares tragedy, Hamlet Ham. A bloody operation- almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. Queen. As kill a king? I confess that Shakspere has left the character of the Queen in an unpleasant perplexity. Was she, or was she not, conscious of the fratricide? (364-365) As literary critic, Coleridges interpretation is in conflict with others. After all, the ghost does enjoin Hamlet not to prosecute the queen, but only Claudius. This essay intends to explore this situation and many others in an attempt to answer many questions about Gertrude, the queen, married woman of Claudius and former wife of his deceased brother, King Hamlet. Prince Hamlet initially appears in the play dressed in solemn black. His mother, G ertrude, is apparently disturbed by this and requests of him upright Hamlet, cast thy nighted colour off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy terrible father in the dust Thou knowst tis common all that lives must die, Passing through nature to eternity. (1.2) The queen obviously considers her sons dejection to result from his fathers demise. Angela Pitt considers Gertrude a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman. . . . (47). She joins in with the king in requesting Hamlets stay in Elsinore rather than returning to Wittenberg to study. Respectfully the son re... ...analysis Into Kenneth Branaghs Hamlet. Early Modern Literary Studies 6.1 (May, 2000) 2.1-24 http//purl.oclc.org/emls/06-1/lehmhaml.htm Pitt, Angela. Women in Shakespeares Tragedies. Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. of Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tra gedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Smith, Rebecca. Gertrude Scheming jade green or Loving Mother? Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet A Users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Wilkie, Brian and crowd Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publish