Gertrude reveals no guilt in her marriage with Claudius after the recent murder of her husband, and Hamlet begins to show signs of jealousy towards Claudius. According to Hamlet, she scarcely mourned her husband's death before marrying Claudius.
Hamlet feels betrayed and irritated by his mother. He is upset because she married his late father's brother Claudius. Hamlet thinks that remarriage in such circumstances is unacceptable. Through Hamlet's disappointment with his mother, his anger is increased towards Claudius.
Leviticus says, "Thou shalt not discover the shame of thy brother's wife: for it is thy brother's shame," which is often interpreted as a bar against the marriage of a widow to the deceased's brother. This is the biblical basis for calling Gertrude and Claudius's marriage incestuous.
Hamlet is jealous of Claudius because he was assumed to get the throne. Since Hamlet's father passed away, Claudius got the throne instead of Hamlet. Because Claudius married Hamlet's mother he got the throne instead of Hamlet.
Hamlet is still clearly bothered by the physical/sexual aspect of his mother's marriage. He constantly refers to the adulterous, incestuous sheets. He insists that his mother is too old to participate in that type of love and directs her not to go to Claudius' bed any longer.
For Hamlet, his mother's marriage is as disgusting as incest, and he is sure that "it is not, nor it cannot come to good." However, perhaps because no one else sees it his way, he says "I must hold my tongue."
Gertrude is vital in fuelling Hamlet's hatred of women as well as his drive for revenge. Her remarriage also causes Hamlet to sink into melancholy as Bradley states it provided a 'violent shock to his moral being'. Gertrude's remarriage for Hamlet is seen as the root cause of the corruption and decay of Denmark.
Hamlet admits that Claudius is now more than a family relation but he does not like him or his actions. Hamlet doesn't like the fact that Claudius has married his mother only weeks after his father died. Claudius also tells Hamlet not to grieve for his father so much.
Hamlet, who has a more justified cause for action, is meanwhile battling the idea of killing in revenge of his father. Because of Hamlet's difference in tactics, he feels insecure and Page 4 ashamed of his passivity, as he has done less to avenge his father as Fortinbras is doing to defend land.
In the beginning of his soliloquy he says, “My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent” (III. iii. 44), showing that he regrets murdering his brother, Page 2 2 and would have rather he had not done it despite what he has gained.
In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her marrying her husband's brother Claudius after he murdered the king (young Hamlet's father, King Hamlet).
Hamlet delays killing Claudius because Claudius represents Hamlet's innermost desires to sleep with his mother Gertrude.
Gertrude reveals no guilt in her marriage with Claudius after the recent murder of her husband, and Hamlet begins to show signs of jealousy towards Claudius. According to Hamlet, she scarcely mourned her husband's death before marrying Claudius.
His opinion of women has plummeted following his mother's hasty remarriage. “O most wicked speed, to post/ With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!/ It is not nor it cannot come to good/ But break my heart, for I must hold my tongue” – Hamlet, soliloquy.
After the death of her husband, Queen Gertrude quickly marries Claudius, her late husband's brother. She demonstrates that she never did truly love her husband, but rather that she only wanted to remain in her powerful position and have a male figure to depend on.
Though Claudius professes love and admiration for Gertrude, he never confides to anyone the extent of their relationship. Gertrude describes her love for Hamlet when she asks him not to return to Wittenberg.
Near the end of the play, Hamlet is seen to losing his sanity due to regret. Due to this, he gets emotionally weak leading to tragic mistakes, for example, his irrational act of killing Polonious. This fatal error leads to the death of Ophelia as she commits suicide.
His tragic flaw is 'procrastination'. His continuous awareness and doubt delays him in performing the needed. Hamlet finally kills Claudius but only after realizing that he is poisoned. His procrastination, his tragic flaw, leads him to his doom along with that of the other characters he targets.
In the aftermath of his father's murder, Hamlet is obsessed with the idea of death, and over the course of the play he considers death from a great many perspectives.
Hamlet's love for his mother was the primary force that drove his life. Everything he did in some way revolved around his love for his mother. His love was unconditional in many ways, and at times it also became sexual. These sexual thoughts that ran thought his mind took charge of his emotion and ultimately his life.
Exploring the character of Gertrude
Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. She was married to the murdered King Hamlet (represented by the Ghost in the play) and has subsequently wed Claudius, his brother.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the prince of Denmark named Hamlet is forced to deal with anger when his untrustworthy uncle Claudius marries Hamlet's mother, the queen Gertrude, right after the murder of his father, thus receiving the throne.
Gertrude marries Claudius two months after the death of her husband. Hamlet believes that is too short for mourning and his famous charge forms in this context: “Frailty, thy name is woman.”
Hamlet is disgusted by Gertrude's quick marriage to Claudius, he feels that Gertrude should have mourned longer. The quick marriage of Claudius and Gertrude seems suspicious, especially since Hamlet was next in line for the crown. .
But other interpretations, in both stage productions and paintings, suggest Gertrude's guilty knowledge of the murder, and Hamlet suspects her as well as Claudius; Hamlet's "mousetrap" therefore sets out to capture the conscience of a king and a queen.