University of Baghdad

College of Languages
Department of English

(The character of the Queen in Hamlet)

A Paper Submitted by
Dania Hussain Abd Almunaam

Supervised by
Asst. Prof. Dr. Rasha Abd Almunaam

May 2021
 Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Asst. Prof. Dr. Rasha Abdulmunem Azeez for her
support to me during this year.
 Table of Contents
Title Page No.
Section one: I-III
William Shakespeare biography
The Feminism.
Section two: IV-X
The character of Queen Gertrude in Hamlet
Section three : XI
The Conclusion
Work cited XII-XIII
 I

Section one:

The introduction,

William Shakespeare biography:

William Shakespeare (born in 26 April 1564 – and died in 23 April 1616) he was an English

playwright, poet, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and

the world's greatest dramatist. His early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are

regarded as some of the best work produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until

1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth, all considered

to be among the finest works in the English language (Greenblatt, Stephen (2005). Will in the

World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. London: Pamlico.)

His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often

than those of any other playwright. They also continue to be studied and reinterpreted.

Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the age of 18, he

married Ann Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna and twins Hamlet and Judith.

Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer,

and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlains Men, later known as the

Kings Men. At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died three

years later (Shapiro, James (2005). 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. London:

Faber and Faber).

 II

Shakespeare occupies a position unique in world literature. Other poets, such as

Homer and Dante, and novelists, such as Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens, but no writer’s living

reputation can compare to that of Shakespeare, whose plays, written in the late 16th and early

17th centuries for a small repertory theatre, are now performed and read more often and in more

countries than ever before. The prophecy of his great contemporary, the poet and dramatist Ben

Jonson, that Shakespeare “was not of an age, but for all time,” has been fulfilled. Shakespeare is

astonishingly clever with words and images, so that his mental energy, when applied to

intelligible human situations, finds full and memorable expression, convincing and imaginatively

stimulating. As if this were not enough, the art form into which his creative energies went was

not remote and bookish but involved the vivid stage impersonation of human beings,

commanding sympathy and inviting vicarious participation. Thus, Shakespeare’s merits can

survive translation into other languages and into cultures remote from that of

Elizabethan England (Britannica the article written by: David Bevington)

William Shakespeare reflects and at times supports the English Renaissance stereotypes of women

and men and their various roles and responsibilities in society, he is also a writer who questions,

challenges, and modifies those representations. His stories afford opportunities not only to

understand Renaissance culture better but also to confront our own contemporary generalizations

about gender, especially what it means to be female. In his own time, Shakespeare seems to have

been raising questions about the standard images of males and females, about what the

characteristics of each gender are, about what is defined as masculine and feminine (Bartley

Research web).
 III

William Shakespeare was in many ways a sixteenth-century feminist. Shakespeare hides pro-

woman philosophies especially in his comedies, writing in a time period when speech was

heavily censored. All plays had to meet the standards of the Master of the Revels who prevented

the presence of blasphemous language, the representation of living monarchs on stage, and made

sure theater conformed to the tastes and interests of the English court (“Censorship”).

Renaissance society did not traditionally value the freedom of women, and this is why

Shakespeare is not viewed as a feminist by modern interpretations (The article by Virgina

Bateman/ College of DuPage). So we notice that Shakespeare did care about Feminism but he

was bound by laws in that era. Feminism, the belief in social, economic, and political equality of

the sexes. Although largely originating in the West, feminism is manifested worldwide and is

represented by various institutions committed to activity on behalf of women’s rights and

interests (Britannica the article written by: Elinor Burkett).

 IV

Section two: The character of Queen Gertrude in Hamlet

Like in the most literary works, there are always a character make the audience mind in between

whether she is a good character or a bad one, and this applies to the character of Queen Gertrude

in Hamlet, because at the beginning she appeared as a bad character to the audience as a mother

and a wife, because she married her late husband brother and her marriage was a hasty one, so

for the reader and for her son hamlet she did not respect the death of her late husband king

Hamlet.

Gertrude role was important in the paly even though she did not talk a lot but her son Hamlet

always mention her, so the reader focus on her unsettling relationship with her son and some

reader agree with Eamly Graf when she said in her essay about Gertrude's Role in Hamlet that

“Despite her limited speech throughout the play, Gertrude has been the subject of quite a bit of

research and speculation. Much of the research tends to focus on Gertrude's sexuality and the

potential strange and often-contested relationship between Hamlet and his mother”(Eamly Graf,

Gertrude Role in Hamlet).

Hamlet hated how his mother did not respect the death of his father by marrying his uncle and he

hated the relationship between them, so he was kind of losing faith or confidence in his mother

and Gertrude gave Hamlet a negative view on woman and even Hamlet said that “Frailty, thy

name is woman” here Hamlet describes all womankind as frail and weak in their personalities ,

so here we see that Gertrude make hamlet think that all women just like her not caring and they

all hasty and don’t respect their husband ,so in the beginning she give us a really bad impression

about her role as a mother she was like a careless mother (Act 1 Scene 2, P.22, L.146)
 V

Gertrude did not care about her son feeling she even told him that you had offending your father

by (your father) she meant Claudius and here the reader noticed how cruel she was she cared

about Claudius feeling and she didn't care about Hamlet at all she even blamed him on his

behavior toward Claudius and she was afraid of her one and only son she asked for help, she was

scared of her own son like we notice in this line “What wilt thou do? thou wilt not muther me?

Help, help, ho!” (Act 3 Scene 4, P.138, L.21)

Sometimes the audience might see Gertrude as an innocent character like when Adelman said

that, "[Gertrude] is kept ambiguously innocent as a character, but she is a part of the deep fantasy

that structures the play's imagery ... " (Adelman, Janet. Suffocating Mothers).

In general, readers would consider Gertrude to be guilty not only by marrying Claudius which he

was her brother in law, but the reader would argue that Gertrude was considered to be guilty not

by her own words but by the words of her son Hamlet. and with Hamlet words, readers receive

an image of Gertrude that is sensuous and disloyal to his father, and she was also guilty of taking

Hamlet’s away from the throne of Denmark who had the right to the throne. Inheritance laws in

Elizabethan England were rather complicated, especially when more than one marriage becomes

involved in the Kingdom. Gertrude's responsibility to Hamlet was to be a negative custodian to

his inheritance, to guard the family line until Hamlet could gain the throne. However, she

thought by making the right choice to the country is to marry Claudius, she is abandoning her

duty to her son and replacing it with a duty to her husband and their potential new line of

inheritance together.

Hamlet was feeling angry towards his mother and his obsession with her sexuality seems more

practical and understandable.” As Noel Blincoe describe what Rosenblscribatt's said about

Gertrude “Jason Rosenblatt argues that whereas the validity of Henry VIII’s marriage with
 VI

Katherine was intensely controversial, Gertrude’s marriage with Claudius was even under the

most lenient interpretation unlawful and void”("Is Gertrude an Adulteress?"/ NOEL BLINCOE)

Gertrude betrays Hamlet by marrying Claudius because her action is similar to replacing not only

King Hamlet but also Hamlet. Gertrude is, in other words, guilty of disregarding her son entirely

in favor of her new life.

Gertrude is a shadowy character because she's not talkative in the play we know about her from

the other character in the play like Hamlet and The Late King, actually the reader surprised about

the ghost of late king Hamlet when he told hamlet "Leave her to Heaven” This raises a question

in the mind of the reader, whether or not Gertrude was guilty of the crime of murdering the king

Hamlet here in this line the reader seems to be confused because they don't know if she was

guilty or not the readers are not sure it's like he is defending on her like, don't do anything to her

and on the other side he told him that leave her to Heaven it means that she'd do something she

was in the crime she was in this murder This line analyzes into four part or we can say thought.

the first part, the late king is trying to defend the queen, perhaps because of his love and loyalty

to her. In the second part, he gives the reader a hint that the queen is involved in the crime of

murder. In the third part, the king may have said so to Hamlet because of the queen's haste in

marrying his brother. And she was not loyal to the late king enough and the four part is that This

line implies that King Hamlet only wanted to save his son from the possible guilt that he may

have faced when he engaged in killing his own mother.

We note that there is a contradiction in the opinions of the readers and The audience, even

writers and critics, whose opinions differ greatly about Gertrude, while the opinions are divided

into two parts, a group defends Gertrude, and a group dislike Gertrude and considers her the

reason for the loss of her son Hamlet.

 VII

In the 1919 essay "Hamlet and his problems" T.S. Eliot suggests that the main cause of Hamlet's

internal dilemma is Gertrude's sinful behavior. He states, "Shakespeare's Hamlet... is a play

dealing with the effect of a mother's guilt upon her son." (“Hamlet and his problems", The Sacred

Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, 1922).

Carolyn Heilbrun's 1957 essay "Hamlet's Mother" defends Gertrude when she said “the character

of Hamlet's mother has not received the specific critical attention it deserves. moreover, the

traditional account of her personality is rendered by the critics will not stand up under close

security of Shakespeare's play”, arguing that the text never hints that Gertrude knew of Claudius

poisoning King Hamlet. This analysis has been championed by many feminist critics (the

character of Hamlet's mother by: Carolyn Heilbrun).

Gertrude's hasty marriage may leave the reader's mind constantly confused It makes the reader

divided in thinking whether she married Claudius because she loved him or for the good of the

Denmark or for her own benefit, because the woman at that time could not live without a

husband.

Perhaps here the reader changes his view of Gertrude. Here, Gertrude will appear in a good way,

because it is possible that she married Claudius for the good of the state, because Claudius may

have more knowledge of the affairs of the state than Hamlet, so here Gertrude's image, but that

doesn't preclude the more common possibility that she married primarily for her own good and

because she couldn't stand without a husband by her side.

Some reader may have thought that she loves Claudius and This gives rise to the impression that

she had waited for the day when her husband would be died, a time when she would marry her

brother in low. Considering that she was not even concerned about the impression that her
 VIII

actions would cause to the people of Denmark, and actually people in Denmark have all the right

to believe or to fall under suspicion that Gertrude had a hand in murdering the king, so she truly

might have been an accomplice in the plot to murder her husband or she was not able to control

her bodily desires.

Most of the critics believe that Gertrude married Claudius because women at the time couldn't be

alone they couldn't be without a husband or a man to depend on him.

So here it is raised to us the idea of feminism at the Elizabethan era Shakespeare want to show us

how the role of women wasn't important in the society at that time because Gertrude and Ophelia

on the play their role was small their speech wasn't enough to know anything about them they

were weak characters and they always depend on a man they want a man in their life it is like it's

necessary to have a man in life it is like the women can't live without a man at that era. even

though their speech were little but they were important, the women character in Shakespeare

play represent a very important role in the play because the writer. Want to show us the character

of the women at that time in the society and how she was marginalized, as all attention was

focused on the role of the man at the time, women of Shakespeare’s dramas have been bound to

rules and conventions of the patriarchal Elizabethan era. Therefore, it was very common back in

Elizabethan England to oblige woman into marriages in order to receive power and legacy.

The Elizabethan era was one of great transition, especially for women. Having a female Queen in

a society monopolized by men only, but Of course, by today’s standards, Elizabethan society’s

treatment of women was barbaric that why most of the critics and writer consider it as a bad era

for woman at that time like when the philosopher and feminist pioneer Mary Astell. said “If all

men are born free, how is it that all women are born slaves?” here it is a direct reference to the

situation of women at the time how it was miserable.

 IX

So because the society at that time the woman always felt that she had to depend on a man and

the women character was always represented as a weak one, the woman who cannot do anything

without a man like Gertrud ,and Perhaps Gertrude also got married due to the pressure of

society.

At the end of the play we notice that Gertrude regretted not believing her son Hamlet, and she

warned hamlet not drink the poisoned wine, here we see the caring mother inside Gertrude the

mother who doesn’t want her son to be hurt or die.

At the end of the play we noticed that there is a good relationship between Hamlet and his

mother he really was sad about his mother dying and she showed us that she cared about him

and she warned him about the poisoned wine, so there is a good relationship between them at the

end it wasn't always bad like what it had noticed in the whole play.

So at the end the reader notice that even after the end of the play, the reader’s mind is still

distracted. Here the reader feels confused because the thoughts have become confused and

Gertrude’s character has taken another direction because in the end she regretted it. Here comes

the confusion and many questions. Is Gertrude a good or bad character? Did she marry Claudius

for her own good or for the sake of the state? The frequency of questions escalates and the

reader’s mind is divided between that she is guilty or innocent, and in general, readers are

divided between supporters and opponents of Gertrude’s character. Perhaps in the minds of some

readers, she offended herself and wronged her son and herself to, because her end was tragic.

Perhaps if she had endured hardships and had not married Claudius and made her son the king,

maybe she would have changed the course of events and might end in a happy and not tragic way

as it is now.
 X

Some readers think that the end was tragic, but there is a small group of readers who feel that the

end was happy because King Hamlet is dead and in the end Hamlet and his mother died,

meaning that there is no more sadness because the whole family is dead now, here this small

group of readers think that although it’s a tragic play and Gertrude's death was also tragic, but

they consider death a relief from the hardships of life They also believe that death has now

reunited the family, and they believe that Hamlet is now happy to be with his parents.
 XI

Conclusion:

Although critics continued to understand Gertrude as a sensual character, it was noted that she

was a bad character, but when the reader think about the character of Gertrude they found that

their mind is divided into three stages, where the first stage is her role as a mother, the second is

her role as a wife, and the last is her role as a queen.

Gertrude's role as a mother at the beginning of the play was bad so the reader found that she was

a cruel mother who only cares about herself and her interests and did not pay attention to Hamlet

and even she did not believe him, so the reader found her role as a mother in the beginning was a

bad one and represented the role of the mother in that era in a bad way at first but when The

events came to an end and the reader found that Gertrude regretted what she did and the reader

found her as an acceptable character, not very bad because the person who regrets what he did in

the end is someone who has admitted his mistake, meaning that she has a conscience and a sense

for this the audience found her character as a mother. She was a mixture of a caring mother and a

bad one at the same time, and for her role as a wife was very bad in the audience point of view.

She did not respect her husband's death not only that, but also married her brother-in-law and

proved that women at that time were not able to endure and withstand without a man. As for her

role as a queen, here is the role that probably corrects Gertrude's character for the reader, because

they can say that she married quickly for the sake of the kingdom and married her brother-in-

law, because maybe he knows more about the state of the kingdom than Hamlet.

Despite all the criticism or praise that Gertrude received, in some reader’s opinion, they used to

think that each critic has his own view about her, and opinions may differ from one generation to

another.
 XII

Work cited:

- (Greenblatt, Stephen (2005). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare.

London: Pamlico.) / Greenblatt, Stephen (2005). Will in the World: How Shakespeare

Became Shakespeare. London: / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

- (Shapiro, James (2005). 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. London: Faber

and Faber.)/Shapiro, James (2005). 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare.

London: Faber and Faber ./ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare

- Bevington, David, Spencer, Terence John Bew and Brown, John Russell. "William

Shakespeare". Encyclopedia Britannica, 7 Jun. 2021,

https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Shakespeare. Accessed 5 July 2021.

- (Bartley Research web) https://www.bartleby.com/writing/

- William Shakespeare: Sixteenth Century Feminist Virgina Bateman, College of DuPage

Recommended Citation Bateman, Virgina (2003) "William Shakespeare: Sixteenth

Century Feminist," https://dc.cod.edu/

- (Britannica the article written by: Elinor Burkett) Burkett, Elinor and Brunell, Laura.

"Feminism". Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Mar. 2021,

https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism. Accessed 5 July 2021.

- (Adelman, Janet. Suffocating Mothers) ,(the character of Hamlet's mother by: Carolyn

Heilbrun) https://commons.emich.edu/ Eastern Michigan University

DigitalCommons@EMU Senior Honors Theses Honors College 2013 Gertrude's Role in

Hamlet Emily Graf

 XIII

- (Act 1 Scene 2) p.22 L 146 , (Act 3 Scene 4)P138 L 21, the works of Shakespeare /the

tragedy of hamlet/edited by Edward Dowden/Methuen and co./36 Essex street: strand,

London 1899 / https://scholar.google.com/

- Is Gertrude an Adulteress? /NOEL BLINCOE, Pacifica, California /p 20 ANQ/

https://www.scribd.com/

- T.S. Eliot (1888–1965). The Sacred Wood. 1921. Hamlet and His Problems /

https://www.bartleby.com