She wilfully disobeys Claudius by drinking the poisoned wine. She dies with cries of 'the drink! the drink! I am poisoned' (5.2. 264), and in so doing identifies Claudius as her killer.
She has a suspicion which is confirmed by the panic in Claudius' line "Gertrude, do not drink." She would figure out that there's poison in the cup and drink it anyway. She's discovered his treachery and doesn't want to be a part of it.
Gertrude is just a mother, trying to protect his son from being hurt. In the final scene of the play, Gertrude drinks the poisoned wine that Claudius has prepared for Hamlet. Even though Claudius tells Gertrude not to drink, Gertrude does it for his son.
Poison is used as a weapon throughout this play. Old Hamlet, the King of Denmark, is poisoned by his brother, Claudius. Claudius uses the poison for his own selfish ambition and marries Old Hamlet's widow, Gertrude, making him the new King of Denmark.
When Claudius offers Hamlet the poisoned goblet of wine, Hamlet refuses, and Gertrude picks up the cup instead. Toasting Hamlet, she drinks the poison, ensuring her eventual death.
Though her character can be seen as passive for the first part of the play, it is in Act 5, Scene 2 that she fully realises her dramatic potential. She wilfully disobeys Claudius by drinking the poisoned wine.
Hamlet, who has returned safely to confront the king, agrees to a fencing match with Ophelia's brother, Laertes, who secretly poisons his own rapier. At the match, Claudius prepares poisoned wine for Hamlet, which Gertrude unknowingly drinks; as she dies, she accuses Claudius, whom Hamlet kills.
Gertrude unwittingly drinks the poisoned wine intended for Hamlet. During the duel Laertes scratches Hamlet's leg, infecting him with the poison. The fight turns more violent and Hamlet mortally wounds Laertes in return. Gertrude succumbs to the poisoned wine and dies.
Hamlet, understanding that the swords are poisoned, stabs Claudius and forces him to drink from the poisoned wine. Claudius dies.
Claudius's love for Gertrude may be sincere, but it also seems likely that he married her as a strategic move, to help him win the throne away from Hamlet after the death of the king.
Her men forgive her for her shallow, sensual nature and her addictions to comfort and pleasure because they see that she is innocent of premeditation.
Maclise portrays an innocent Gertrude who apparently has no inkling of Claudius's guilt or even of the murder itself.
It follows Gertrude from her wedding to King Hamlet, through an affair with Claudius, and its murderous results, until the very beginning of the play.
Answer and Explanation: In the final scene of the play, Queen Gertrude dies by drinking a cup of poison that Claudius had intended for Hamlet. The dying Laertes then tells Hamlet that the poison was used by Claudius, and therefore his mother's death lies on the head of the king.
After her first husband is murdered, the new king decides to take her as his bride. Even if she was emotionally opposed to the pairing, Gertrude, a woman and royal only by marriage, would have almost no authority to reject the marriage to Claudius. Yet Hamlet still places the blame entirely upon Gertrude.
In Gertrude's room, Polonius hides behind a tapestry. Hamlet's entrance so alarms Gertrude that she cries out for help.
Their feelings about grief
Gertrude Lines 68-73 Gertrude tells Hamlet that he should no longer wear black mourning clothes and that he should look happier. She tells him he should not keep his eye downward as if he were looking for his father in the dirt. She reminds him that all people must die.
The last words Hamlet speaks are to his friend Horatio: "The rest is silence." These words were crucial to audiences at the time because they provided a sense of ease in death and the afterlife. Hearing that Hamlet could now rest in peace for avenging his father's death meant he was no longer suffering.
After Horatio departs, Claudius informs Gertrude that Ophelia has succumbed to the "poison of deep grief" following her father's demise and Hamlet's departure to England.
Interestingly, Hamlet never expresses a sense of guilt over Ophelia's death, which he indirectly caused through his murder of Polonius.
The poison poured in the king's ear by Claudius is used by the ghost to symbolize the corrosive effect of Claudius's dishonesty on the health of Denmark. Declaring that the story that he was killed by a snake is a lie, he says that “the whole ear of Denmark” is “Rankly abused. . . .” (I.v.36–38).
Although Gertrude seems to be a villain, she turns into a victim that leads to her demise. To begin, Gertrude is a victim because she is naive that eventually leads to her death. At the end of the play when Hamlet and Laertes are fencing, Gertrude unknowingly drinks the cup of wine filled with poison.
Gertrude, still shaken from Hamlet's furious condemnation of her, agrees to keep his secret.
One sadness comes after another, So fast it follows: your sister's drowned, Laertes. Laertes: Drowned!
Claudius orders her arrest but Gertrude shows her mercy, believing her show of insanity. The guards pursue her to the lake where she drinks Mechtild's poison and seemingly drowns. Horatio understood her request and digs her up as she wakes, but the poison has weakened her.