Hamlet Chart Essay

As the play progresses, Hamlet becomes extremely accusatorial and mistrustful of every other character. He is wary of characters from his mother Gertrude to his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Even his love interest Ophelia is subject to his doubts. Horatio, on the other hand, is the only character with which Hamlet shares all of his darkest secrets and plans. As readers, it is easy for us to predict the outcome of Hamlet’s quest.

We see an array of “personalities” to her, linking with the many different reactions she receives throughout her time in the play. Often times, she is seen as a wife in many different respects, where she both follows the typical standards set for her and defies them. There are also moments where Gertrude is a mother first and a wife second; in her interactions with Hamlet, she is much weaker than she appears beside Claudius, and her

      We first realize in Act I, Scene 2 that poor judgment is her major character flaw. As the mother of a grieving son, Gertrude should have been more sensitive to Hamlet's feelings. Instead, less than two months after King Hamlet's death, Gertrude remarries Claudius, her dead husband's own brother. Gertrude should have realized how humiliated Hamlet would feel as a

Queen Gertrude is the mother to Hamlet, widow to the late King, and new wife to King Claudius as shown within the first act of Hamlet. Following her marriage to King Claudius, her relationship with her son Hamlet becomes strained. Queen Gertrude symbolizes much of what is considered to be a negative aspect of womanhood. To Hamlet, Queen Gertrude is a failure of a woman. Through his dialogue, it is presented that Hamlet desires a woman and mother to be concerned for her family and place tradition above all else. When Hamlet’s mother makes a decision outside of that realm and marries King Claudius, Hamlet strives to berate her for her choices. Through

Much of the dramatic action of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet is within the head of the main character, Hamlet.   His wordplay represents the amazing, contradictory, unsettled, mocking, nature of his mind, as it is torn by disappointment and positive love, as Hamlet seeks both acceptance and punishment, action and stillness, and wishes for consummation and annihilation. He can be abruptly silent or vicious; he is capable of wild laughter and tears, and also polite badinage.

When Hamlet asks her if she is enjoying the play, Gertrude says “‘The lady protests too much, methinks’” (III.ii.215). The queen in the play goes on and on to her husband that she will never love anyone else if he dies and Gertrude’s comment indicates that she is uncomfortable that the play is indicating she betrays the king by saying all of these things, and marrying someone else later. Queen Gertrude outright admits she did wrong when Hamlet confronts her, “‘O Hamlet, speak no more!/Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul/ And there I see such black and grained spots/as will not leave their tinct’”

character of Hamlet, has many character traits which are contrasted by other figures in the play.

Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark and Hamlet’s mother. In the play she is portrayed as an unknown character who is merely watching the action unfold around her and as Graf puts it “The words of other characters both affect negatively and make awry our interpretations about her character and choices” (Graf, 16). Gertrude is often read as a sensuous female, lacking in any of the qualities of a decent woman of her time or position. She can be considered as a voiceless and silent female character since she does not have many lines in the play and she depends mostly on the male characters, Hamlet, Claudius and the Ghost. Although Gertrude seems not to have any part in the death of King Hamlet, she is seen as the root of the problems surrounding

Although written over 400 hundred years ago, Hamlet remains a puzzling and complex play, partially due to the ambiguous Queen Gertrude. The Queen is a puzzling character as her motives are unclear and readers question her intentions throughout the play. Townsend and Pace in "The Many Faces Of Gertrude: Opening And Closing Possibilities In Classroom Talk" view her “as a simple-minded, shallow woman...who has no self beyond a sexual one” while Harmonie Loberg in "Queen Gertrude: Monarch, Mother, Murderer" sees Gertrude as murderess who “is responsible for the death of Ophelia.” Although Gertrude seems innocent of the death of King Hamlet, Graf believes “Gertrude is considered to be guilty not by her own actions or words but by the words of two key characters, Hamlet and the Ghost;” these two characters suggest that the Queen is “sensuous and disloyal,” even if not openly aware of her first husband’s murder (Graf). These contrasting views of Queen Gertrude reveal the many possible answers to readers who question whether Queen Gertrude’s words and actions are genuine or self-serving. Queen Gertrude, although a fairly minor character, is a primary example of dramatic irony in the play as she is evidently unaware of the murder of her first husband and her new husband’s plot to eliminate her son. Her seeming disloyalty in marrying Claudius less than two months after King Hamlet’s death, her seemingly willful naivete at those who conspire against Hamlet, and her apparent tendency to

In an effort to maintain her position as Queen, she marries he recently-deceased husband’s brother, Claudius. Assumedly, unbeknownst to her, Claudius is also the murderer of her first husband, King Hamlet – her son’s, and protagonist’s, namesake. Whether Gertrude was in love with Claudius prior King Hamlet’s death, was involved in the murder, or is completely innocent, is a subject for another debate altogether. This is a topic that has been bandied about for almost as long as the existence of the play, and may never be resolved. What is evident, however, is that Gertrude plays a balancing role between Hamlet and Claudius. Assuming she is unaware of the murder, she is viewed as a mother and peacemaker in a relationship that, in her eyes, is equal parts joyous and melancholy. Her recent marriage is a point to be celebrated. Not only has she maintained her position in court through the joyous occasion of marriage, Hamlet has been confirmed as the next in line to the throne (Shakespeare, 2003, pg. 28). Thus she feels that her role as both mother and wife have been reconciled. Despite this reconciliation of roles, the two remaining men in her life are at odds. Thus, she continues her attempts at reconciliation by shuttling in between both Hamlet and Claudius, while never really committing to one or the other. Though she has chosen to commit herself to Claudius through marriage, she still worries over Hamlet at every

Her feelings of confusion and unsure loyalty reflect some of Hamlet's deep-seated weaknesses, while her unnatural sexuality and traitorousness ultimately reflect the darker qualities of Claudius. Gertrude - though distinctly female and independent in her worldview - is in many respects tainted or misguided by the flaws in both her lover and her son.

Shakespeare’s Hamlet brings into question a plethora of qualities of humanity itself. It would seem that Hamlet, the obvious protagonist of the work, should appear to be the character to exemplify these qualities. Hamlet does encompass these ideas, but only in part—it is a seemingly minor character that demonstrates a major share of the themes in the work. This character is Gertrude: mother of Hamlet, wife of Claudius, and root of Hamlet’s emotional distress. With her naïve nature, weak morality and, worst of all, her ignorance, Gertrude manages to not only turn Hamlet’s world on its head, but to also exemplify the overarching theme of corruption present throughout the play.

Hamlet's character represents people in all circumstances. He questions everything, and has experienced love, hate, betrayal, depression, grief, and anger. He is sometimes

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet went through a series of events causing him to be what he is in the play. The character traits are significant to help readers understand who the character is and what that person serves throughout the book. Throughout the play, Hamlet is the protagonist who is trying to get the job done. Readers believe that the qualities of a King are shown in the protagonist of Hamlet. Furthermore, the qualities that Hamlet possesses shows loyalty to all the characters, he is ambitious towards his goals, and he is intelligent.

Working back from this moment, you have got to form a call concerning Gertrude. Did she aggroup with Roman Emperor to murder the king? is that this a love story? Did she “Lady Macbeth” that shit and set the entire unhappy plot in motion? Is she oblivious? Is she numb from grief and trauma? Is she maintaining plausible deniability to make sure her own survival and perhaps discount for her son’s life? Instigator, victim, clever survivor–the text leaves space for all of those prospects, however if you’re swing on Hamlet, you have got to make a decision. you have got to visualize her as a personality's being United Nations agency