Hamlet Paradoxes In Hamlet

Gertrude tries to bring her sons’ sanity back but Hamlet does not give in and keeps disturbing Gertrude:

The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude is strained at first. From the beginning of the play to act III, Hamlet is bitter with his mother. He feels this way because it has been less than

Hamlet puts off avenging his father’s death because of his severe Oedipus complex. Hamlet did not kill Claudius until his mother had already died. This is a sign that Hamlet did not want to hurt his mother because of the sexual feelings he had for her. Hamlet felt that killing Claudius would hurt his mother too much, and he could not do that to her. Hamlet wants to save Gertrude form Claudius because of his feelings for her, his incestual feelings, not maternal ones. Subconsciously the queen knows the effect she has on her son. Gertrude tries to play off that fact that’s she knows about Hamlet’s feeling several times in the play. Gertrude is very fond of her son and wants to protect him however she can. This can be seen in the play, many times even up to when Gertrude is about to die. She tries to save Hamlet from drinking the poison himself. She also decided not to tell Claudius that Hamlet knows what Claudius has done.

When a parent dies, you need someone to fall back on. This person helps you get through it and make you feel loved. If you do not have someone there to help you through this time, you often turn to other things like acting crazy and wanting to take your own life because you feel as if you are not loved and you want to get rid of the pain. Hamlet loved his father and his death took a big part of his life away from him. His mother, Gertrude, needed to spend time with him, to show him he was loved and someone cared about him. Gertrude was not there for Hamlet the way she should have been, and because of this he began to act like he was crazy. Instead of spending time with her son, Gertrude was busy getting married to the late Kings

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, doubt is one of the most important themes. In fact, the whole play is based on the story of a ghost who claims to be Hamlet’s father, and nobody can be sure if what he says is the truth. In this essay, I am going to focus on the theme of doubt throughout the play. I will first speak about the opening scene, and then I will talk about the ghost, which is a supernatural element used by Shakespeare to create doubt in the play. I will also analyse the passage in which Hamlet declares his love to Ophelia. Finally, I will briefly discuss Hamlet’s sanity.

Gertrude responds submissively, “I shall obey you.” Familial love is first among Gertrude’s priorities. When, at the presentation of The Mousetrap, she makes a request of her son, “Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me,” and he spurns her to lie at Ophelia’s feet, Gertrude is not offended; her loyalty to family overrides such slights. She considers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to be friends of her son, and only for that reason sends them to learn about her son; she would never use them as Claudius later does in an attempt to murder Hamlet. And even at the moment of her death, her last words include, “O my dear Hamlet.” Yes, Gertrude is pro-family and friends.

In addition, Gertrude goes through a moment where she is figuratively blind when making a judgment. When Hamlet told her about how King Hamlet was killed she didn’t believe it. He says she has been blind this whole time to it and even though Claudius appears innocent he is not. Gertrude married soon after King Hamlet’s death because her love and loneliness blinded her. This led to her to make incestuous actions. Hamlet is annoyed with his mother and how naive she is to his father’s death:

The nature of Shakespeare’s plays, with its notable lack of stage directions, gives way to multiple different interpretations of the characters, plot, and even of the purpose of the play itself. The character of Gertrude is no exception. Gertrude’s character and motives, being left ambiguous, have been interpreted in many different ways in various productions of Hamlet. Was she implicit in the death of King Hamlet, or was she merely a clueless bystander? Did she drink the poison as an act of motherly self-sacrifice, or was it an accidental tragedy? Zefferelli’s Hamlet (1990) and Almereyda’s Hamlet (2000) provide two different interpretations on Gertrude’s characterization. In particular, there exist substantial differences in their renditions of Gertrude’s death—while Almereyda portrays her death as a noble suicide, Zefferelli paints her death as a by-product of her unceasing lust for pleasure. Furthermore, in that scene, we also notice a difference in Hamlet’s attitude towards Gertrude. By analyzing these points along with other scenes within the context of the entire film, we manage to develop an understanding of Almereyda’s and Zefferelli’s view on Gertrude and how use that to develop the tragic conclusion of the final scene.

Before we make any conclusion regarding the character of Gertrude, we should understand the norms of the society in which she lives in. Established order of the society is maintained through the process of socialization. Petriarchy power structure of 16th century is well represented in Hamlet and judged as a mysterious character. Gertrude in Hamlet holds the political power within the traditional power structure and also has potentially has the power to collapse within that structure. Gertrude fails to represent the moral of society as a queen of the state by marrying Claudius, but she completely believes in the standards set for women by the society. She appreciates qualities like-youth, beauty and purity- in Ophelia:

The effect of this was that it allowed the emphasis of the contrast between truth and pretence, reality and illusion. The plays and fictions of Hamlet fit inside one another until the boundaries between reality and illusion become incredibly blurred. The major themes that therefore arise from this blurring are the conflicts between truth and illusion, honesty and pretence, reality and appearance and the boundaries between youth and age, audience and actor, and most importantly the inescapable boundary between death and life. The play itself constantly hovers between reality and pretence, and at the zenith of its dramatic tension; during the performance of The murder of Gonzago, the boundaries of identity between Gertrude and the Player Queen and Claudius and the Player King creates the merging of pretence and reality, momentarily, into one confused

In her final moments: Gertrude, "No, no, the drink, the drink - O my dear Hamlet...The drink, the drink! I am poisoned." (5.2.288)

Shakespeare applies characterization of Queen Gertrude to display Hamlet's feeling of betrayal and anger towards her. Hamlet adored his father and was dissatisfied that his mother appeared as if she was not in the similar depressive state that Hamlet was in. Hamlet began to feel the betrayal because two months after her husband’s death, her and Claudius decide to get married. Hamlet believed his mother

A few characters in this play give insight on Gertrude that point in the direction of her being shallow and evil. One example is late in the first act when Hamlet cries “O most pernicious woman! O villain, villain, smiling, dammed villain!” This is when, deep in thought, Hamlet realizes that his mother could have possibly taken part in his father’s death and he thinks she’s evil. In Hamlet’s head, everything makes sense now because it is now understandable how she got over the death so quickly. This is the first time that Hamlet realizes his mother’s true character. This is a very imperative notion about Gertrude’s personality because for her very own son to think a validation like this is extreme. Often times a man will love and defend his mother until the day he dies, while Hamlet, on the other hand, is thinking of her playing a role in his father’s death. When the ghost speaks of Gertrude’s speedy marriage, it provides more evidence of her shallowness. The King’s ghost says that she is “seeming virtuous”. He is basically saying that while she looks holy and righteous, she isn’t. The new King offered her something (or many things) that she wanted, and she took the bait and married him. She didn’t care that her husband had just died, or how her son would react to this

      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

Since Gertrude caused the death of King Hamlet, she is unable to be granted to heaven. Gertrude is viewed as an incenstous person to Hamlet since he tells her God will judge her based upon her acts of incest and murder. Gertrude's involvement with the murder of King Hamlet has cost her the mother-son connection with Hamlet which leads to him having an unstable relationship with Gertrude.