Thursday, September 19, 2019
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 Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet:      Ham. A bloody deed;- 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, Coleridge’s interpretation is in conflict with others’. After all, the ghost does tell 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, 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 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 noble father in the dust:     Thou know'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,     Passing through nature to eternity. (1.2)  The queen obviously considers her son’s dejection to result from his father’s demise. Angela Pitt considers Gertrude â€Å"a kindly, slow-witted, rather self-indulgent woman. . . .†(47). She joins in with the king in requesting Hamlet’s stay in Elsinore rather than returning to Wittenberg to study. Respectfully the son re... ...analysis Into' Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet." Early Modern Literary Studies 6.1 (May, 2000): 2.1-24  http://purl.oclc.org/emls/06-1/lehmhaml.htm  Pitt, Angela. â€Å"Women in Shakespeare’s Tragedies.†Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. of Shakespeare’s Women. N.p.: n.p., 1981.  Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http://www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html  Smith, Rebecca. â€Å"Gertrude: Scheming Adulteress or Loving Mother?†Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. of â€Å"Hamlet†: A User’s Guide. New York: Limelight Editions, 1996.  Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. â€Å"Shakespeare.†Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publish  Â
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