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 character Gertrude in Shakespeares tragedy, Hamlet Ham. A cover deed- almost as bad, good mother, As kill a king, and marry with his brother. Queen. As kill a king? I oink that Shakspere has left the character of the Queen in an unpleasant perplexity. Was she, or was she not, intended of the fratricide? (364-365) As literary critic, Coleridges interpretation is in conflict with others. After all, the ghost does tell Hamlet not to prosecute the queen, merely only Claudius. This essay intends to explore this situation and many others in an cause to answer many questions about Gertrude, the queen, wife of Claudius and former wife of his deceased brother, King Hamlet. Prince Hamlet initially appears in the play dressed in solemn black. His mother, Gertrude, is appar ently disturbed by this and requests of him Good Hamlet, cast thy unpunctual colour off, And let thine eye look like a virtuoso on Denmark. Do not for ever with thy vailed lids Seek for thy noble pose in the dust Thou knowst tis common all that lives must die, go through through nature to eternity. (1.2) The queen obviously considers her sons ordure to result from his fathers demise. Angela Pitt considers Gertrude a kindly, slow-witted, kind of 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 Tragedy of Hamlet, P rince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Smith, Rebecca. Gertrude Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother? Readings on Hamlet. Ed. take Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of Hamlet A Users Guide. New York Limelight Editions, 1996. Wilkie, Brian and jam Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publish