Custom Essays: Gertrude of Shakespeares Hamlet -- GCSE English Litera

The Gertrude of crossroads Gunnar Bokland in Hamlet describes Gertrudes moral descent during the dividing line of Shakespeares Hamlet With Queen Gertrude and finally also Laertes deeply involved in a situation of increasing ugliness, it becomes clear that, although Claudius and those who associate with him are not the incarnations of evil that Hamlet sees in them, they are corrupt enough from any balanced point of view, a condition that is also intimated by the heavy-headed revel that distinguishes lifetime at the Danish court. (123) Despite the ugliness in her life, Gertrude has offsetting virtues also. These and other aspects of her multi-faceted character will be treated in this essay. At the outset of the tragedy Hamlet appears dressed in solemn black. His mother, Gertrude, is apparently disturbed by this and requests of him Good 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 nob le father in the dust Thou knowst tis common all that lives must die, fugacious 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 index in requesting Hamlets stay in Elsinore rather than returning to Wittenberg to study. Respectfully the son replies, I shall in all my best obey you, madam. So at the outset the audience notes a decidedly good relationship between Gertrude and those about her in the drama, even though Hamlets font of mourning has been a visible and publi... ...alysis 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, Wil liam. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Smith, Rebecca. Gertrude calculating Adulteress 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 James Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the western sandwich World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.