Sultan Qaboos University

Collage of Arts and Social Sciences

The Department of English

Gertrude in Hamlet:

An Independent and Powerful Female Character

Done by: Juhaina Alshabibi, ID # 103044

Course: ENGL4230/ Shakespeare

Section: 10

Tutor: Dr. Christa Knellwolf

Semester/year: Fall 2017

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Gertrude has always been viewed by critics to be incestuous mother who

betrays her dead husband, who is weak and is victimized by male characters around

her. However this unfavorable image of her that is delivered to the audience is not

accurate and contrived. Gertrude is not given much lines to demonstrates all of this

about her characterization. It is not her words that we find clue that she is sexual,

sensuous, disloyal and dependent. They are the narratives of two main characters who

portray Gertrude in this unfavorable and exaggerated way. In this essay I would argue

that the narratives of Hamlet and the Ghost about Gertrude are unreliable and I would

focus more on Gertrude as an independent powerful queen, a mother who protects her

son, a moral character who is aware of her wrongs, has her own free will and as an

important character; playing a significant role in the play which is the interpreter.

The portrayal of Gertrude as sensuous and unfavorable female character in

Hamlet is not accurate and artificial. All these unsympathetic attributions associated

with her character are in fact not based on her own words and actions but are based

the biased impressions of male characters around her. Levin explains (2008):

“Gertrude is the victim of a bad press…since she and her libido are constructed for us

by the two men who have grievances against her…while she herself is given no

opportunity to testify on her own behalf” (p. 323). Thus, it is not her words and

actions that we find evidence for her sensuality and disloyalty to her family but the

narratives of Hamlet and the Ghost who Richard Levin (2008) calls “unreliable

characters”. She justifies that characters should be viewed like real people whose

environment and situations have major role in changing them depending on their

surrounding. Thus, the grievances of both Hamlet and the Ghost manipulate the kind
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of image they portray about Gertrude. To elaborate, Levin writes in her article

“Gertrude’s Elusive Libido and Shakespeare’s Unreliable Narrators”:

the characters . . . possess an interior dimension,

including personal agendas, attitudes, and feelings, that can

influence the statements they make and can therefore affect

their reliability . . . This would seem to apply to the

speeches of Hamlet and the Ghost ... (p. 317).

The statements and declarations of Hamlet and the Ghost are charged

emotionally. They both have reasons behind depicting Gertrude in this unfavorable

and exaggerated way. First we will look at how the ghost’s perspective determine the

character of Gertrude. Although the Ghost tells Hamlet that he would feel revenge

after his speech because of his murder, he, the Ghost seems to focus more in his

speech on Gertrude’s remarriage to his brother, Claudius:

With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts-

0 wicked wit and gifts that have the power

So to seduce!-won to his shameful lust

The will of my most seeming virtuous queen.

0 Hamlet, what a falling-offwas there

From me, whose love was of that dignity

That it went hand in hand even with the vow

I made to her in marriage, and to decline

Upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor

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To those of mine!

But virtue, as it never will be moved,

Though lewdness court it in a shape of heaven,

So lust, though to a radiant angel link' d,

Will sate itself in a celestial bed

And prey on garbage. (1.5.49-64)

In the previous quotation, the Ghost briefly explains about his murder and

devotes the rest of the speech to condemn the marriage of Gertrude which causes him

to feel betrayed by her and therefore accuses her with adultery. His preoccupation, as

evident from the speech, is his position’s loss with Gertrude instead of his position as

a king, “The Ghost grievance obviously is Gertrude’s adultery, and his agenda is… to

explain it in away that will completely condemn her role and Claudius’s and volarize

his own.” (Levin, p. 309).

The second key character who plays a significant yet biased image about

Gertrude is her son Hamlet. While the Ghost seems to condemn Gertrude because she

made him feel betrayed, Hamlet accuses her with adultery and lust because he sees

that she is too old for love, saying:

If thou canst mutine in a matron's bones,

To flaming youth let virtue be as wax

And melt in her own fire. Proclaim no shame

When the compulsive ardor gives the charge,

Since frost itself as actively doth burn,

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And reason panders will. (3.4. p. 93-98)

From here, the audience trusts the creditability of Hamlet and believes that

Gertrude is a really incestuous mother. Although he appears to be interested in

revenge against his uncle after the conversation between him and the Ghost who also

tells him to ignore Gertrude’s marriage and focus on Claudius, Hamlet’s later actions

shows that he does the opposite. He focuses on Gertrude’s guilt to extent that he

ignores and disregards his revenge plan. For more elaboration, when he finds the

perfect chance to murder Claudius and revenge his father, he chooses to step back

and instead goes lecturing Gertrude about her behaviors. He instead attempts to

revenge against his mother for making him feel offended by her remarriage. The

blame shifting from Claudius to Gertrude displays Hamlet’s grudge against his

mother who is made responsible for all wrong taking place in the play. It is this

grudge and anger that shape Hamlet’s biased view of his mother. His anger and

resentment also make him accuse his mother of not only seducing Claudius but also

planning to murder King Hamlet, which we find no evidence in the play. His lines

directed to Gertrude: “A bloody deed-almost as bad, good mother,/ As kill a king and

marry with his brother” (3.4. p.34-35) shows how Hamlet think of his mother as the

active criminal and depicts the absence of the real murderer, Claudius who is thought,

by Hamlet, to be a victim of Gertrude’s seduction. When Hamlet accuses his mother

for a crime he cant make sure of and when he makes Claudius appear to be a passive

victim of her, the audience, certainly ,when realizing this, would lose the creditability

of Hamlet as a narrator simply because his statements and thoughts are dominated by

his opinions and sentiments.

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To make Hamlet’s anger, which is the cause behind his unreliability as a

narrator, more reasonable and understandable we would look at the potentials

Gertrude has that make Hamlet as resentful as such. According to inheritance law in

the time, Gertrude has the power to threaten Hamlet’s right in the line of throne.

Gertrude’s marriage to the king of Denmark changes the line of success=sion to the

throne. If Hamlet does not get married and has an offspring while the union of

Gertrude and Claudius results in one, the throne would pass automatically from

Claudius to his offspring not to Hamlet. In this regard, Jardine (1989) writes: “... the

mother's 'duty' towards her children is defmed in terms of patriarchal linear descent:

she is custodian of the carriers of the line" (p. 81), explaining Hamlet’s expected duty

of his mother towards him that she should be a preserver of his right in the line of the

throne instead of threatening it by getting married to Claudius. Thus, Hamlet believes

that his mother is betraying him when she neglects and ignores her duty towards him.

His frustration is ascribed to the fact that she chooses to use the power she has for the

benefit of her husband instead of her son. Hamlet couldn’t bear the idea that his

mother has such potential and power over him. This power that Gertrude has as a

woman in making such changes in the law if inheritance makes the obsession Hamlet

carries towards his mother’s sexuality understandable. Thus, Hamlet considers her

guilty because of using the power she has to threaten Hamlet’s political position by

benefiting from her sexuality.

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Although critics view the closet scene to be shifting the loyalties of Gertrude

from her son to her husband, it emphasizes the characterization of Gertrude as a

mother who attempts to protect her son. The scene is a set up for Hamlet plotted by

Claudius with the help of his counselor Polonius in order to figure out if Hamlet Is a

real threat to the king or is really becoming mad which therefore means Claudius is

safe. However, Gertrude manages the situation in order to make Hamlet understands

that they are being watched and not safe. The whereabouts of Gertrude’s invitation of

her son to her most private place, in which even her husband rarely meets her, is a

signal to Hamlet that the place is being breached and private no more, because the

actual attendance of Hamlet himself in the place suggests that there is an absence of

privacy. When Polonius responds to Gertrude’s cry, Hamlet, who is supposed to be

technically unaware of the situation of an intruder, responds immediately and says:

“How now, a rat?” (3.4.28). He also “thrusts a rapier through the arras” (3.4.28). This

stage directions and his immediate respond to Polonius suggest that he is not at all

surprised by the fact that there is a third person in the place breaching the privacy

because he is ready to react instantly by interacting with the voice coming from

behind the curtains and by raising his sword to kill him. Thus, Hamlet understands

the secret message behind his mother’s invitation, which signifies Gertrude’s intent to

protect Hamlet from the King.

A better understanding of Gertrude’s character is provided to the reader from

the same scene. Hamlet’s lecturing his mother in this scene makes it clear that

Gertrude is a moral character that recognizes her wrongs. When Hamlet announces

very harsh statements to Gertrude regarding her remarriage from her brother-in-law,

the response of her is filled with regret and embarrassment: “O Hamlet, speak no
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more! Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul, and there I see such black and grained

spots, As will not leave their tinct” (3.4 99-102). The shame and disgrace she feels

makes her unable to listen to him lecturing her about her wrongs. She feels guilt

regarding her son’s situation and that of Denmark. Another evidence that proves her

character to be loyal to her son, moral and independent is when she helps Hamlet in

his revenge plot against Claudius. He persuades her to lie to Claudius and make him

believe that he is really mad in order to make Claudius think Hamlet cannot threaten

him with his deteriorated state of mind. She promises him and says: “Be thou assured,

if words be made of breath/ And breath of life, I have no life to breath? What thou

hast said to me” (3.4.219-221). This shows how Gertrude is capable to make choices

and promises by her own and keeps them to the end, which is an attribution of a

moral independent women. She does tell her husband for three times that her son’s

madness is “genuine.” She disregards her oaths to her husband and chooses to fulfill

her promise to Hamlet, through which she demonstrates her independency from any

man and resolve to her own wants. Until the last scene of the play, Gertrude keeps her

oath to Hamlet and chooses to be on her son’s side instead of her husband and the

king. This is evident when she watches her son proceeding in the fight and drinks the

poisoned cup an act of encouraging her son despite her husband and the king’s

instructions not to do so. She exercises her right to choose what she desires firmly

and directly saying to the superior instruction of disapproval of the king: “I will, my

lord; I pray you pardon me”(5.2.318). Another pivotal moment in this scene is when

she discloses Claudius plans of murdering Hamlet using the poised cup saying: “No,

no, the drink, the drink,! O, my dear Hamlet!/ The drink, the drink, the drink! I am

poisoned”(5.2.340-341). By her exclamation, she keeps her oaths to protect Hamlet.

She finds her voice once again and shows it despite the fact that her statements will
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threaten the position of the king and eliminate him, she chooses to put the blame on

its right place no matter what happens later on. She, even in her last moments endures

the role Shakespeare associated with her of a messenger and an interpreter and

clarifies that Claudius was plotting against Hamlet to murder him bus she end up as

the victim of the conspiracy when drinking the poisoned cup. The action in the scene

supports the argument that only her actions are the real representations of her

character and that her actions are the only valid and accurate sources for the analysis

of her character independently from the biased impressions of male characters in the

play.

As mentioned earlier, Shakespeare gives Gertrude very significant role in the

play, which is the messenger or the interpreter. This demonstrates the power her

charcter has in the play to announce and explain the actions taking place in the play.

Beside her disclosing the conspiracy of Claudius in the last scene, she, earlier, gives

the news of Ophelia’s death to Laertes and Claudius. Although critics believe that

Opelian committed suicide and that Gertrude herself is not present when Ophelia

dies, she senses the responsibility to deliver the news to her brother in a gentle way

since he needs to be consoled specially because the death o Ophelia follows the death

of his father. Thus she doesn’t tell Laertes that Ophelia’s grief over her dead father

leads to her to commit suicide and drown herself in the river. She makes a story in

which she portrays Ophelia’s death as a simple and calm accident in order not to

escalate Laertes’s grief and anger: “Her clothes spread wide,/ And Mermaid-like

awhile they bore her up,/ Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,/ As one

incapable of her own distress/ Or like a creature native and endued/Unto that element.

But long it could not be/ Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pulled the
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door wretch from her melodious lay/ to muddy death”(4.7. 200-208). If we come to

compare Laertes’s reactions to the news of his father’s death and that of Ophelia, he

appears to be more calm that angry when hearing the story of Ophelia’s death, unlike

when hearing about his father. He seems to accepts his fate and thus shows only grief

with no frustration and replies: “Too much of water hast thou, poor Ophelia,/ And

therefore I forbid my tears”(4.7.211-212). This reaction is an evidence of Gertrude’s

right choice to portray Ophelia’s death as an accident and therefore not causing

feeling of guilt and anger to Laertes. Gertrude’s capability to explain, interpret and

announce the events of the play to the characters and the audience is a huge clue to

her power, independency as well as the responsibility and the trust Shakespeare

provides her with as Montgomery (2009, p. 106) demonstrates: “Given both her

active and interpretive contributions to several of the play’s key moments,

Shakespeare plainly trusts Gertrude with the responsibility of shaping and analyzing

the plot- so should we”. In contrast with the narratives of Hamlet and the Ghost,

Gertrude seems to be more trusted by Shakespeare who gives her responsibly and

relay on her to analyze and interpret the play’s events. This responsibility and

capability of Gertrude is of a critical significance since it illustrates how Gertrude is a

character that is trustworthy. Although the audience keep viewing her as guilty and

incestuous, Montgomery (2009, p. 107) argues that: “if Gertrude were not an

independent reasoning self, if she were merely a domestic and emotionally focused,

unimportant female, she would be necessarily incapable of performing emotional or

rhetorical analysis” demonstrating that Shakespeare wouldn’t give her such

responsibility if she was not a strong independent reliable narrator especially when

compared to biased narratives of Hamlet and the Ghost.

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Although Gertrude is seen and considered to be guilty when getting married to

her brother-in-law at the time, it is not fair to see her character from only this angel.

Her characterization as an independent powerful queen, a mother who protects her

son, a moral character who is aware of her wrongs, playing a significant role in the

play which is the interpret, must not be disregarded.

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References:

Primary source(s):

Shakespeare, W. (1982). Four Great Tragedies. USA: Signet Classics.

Secondary sources:

Blincoe, N. (1997). Is Gertrude an adulteress?. ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short

Articles, Notes and Reviews, 10(4), 18-24. Retrieved from:

http://ezproxysrv.squ.edu.om:2295/doi/pdf/10.1080/08957699709600785?

needAccess=true

Graf, E. (2013). Gertrude's Role in Hamlet. Retrieved from:

http://commons.emich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1358&context=honors

Kermode, F. (1983). Still harping on daughters: women and drama in the age of

Shakespeare. The New York Review of Books, 31. Retrieved from:

https://philpapers.org/rec/JARSHO

Kumamoto, C. D. (2006). Gertrude, Ophelia, Ghost: Hamlet's Revenge and the

Abject. In Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (Vol. 6, p. 48). SOUTHERN

UTAH UNIVERSITY PRESS. Retrieved from:

http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=c971ba3c-

2042-4c01-892c-54878de1458a%40sessionmgr4007&hid=4103
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Levin, R. (2008). Gertrude's elusive libido and Shakespeare's unreliable

narrators. SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 48(2), 305-326.

Retrieved from: http://ezproxysrv.squ.edu.om:2313/article/238639

Montgomery, A. L. (2009). Enter QUEEN GERTRUDE Stage Center: Re-Viewing

Gertrude as Full Participant and Active Interpreter in Hamlet. South Atlantic

Review, 74(3), 99-117. Retrieved from:

http://ezproxysrv.squ.edu.om:2709/stable/25681397?

seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents