Hamlet is a play of loss, of revenge and of insanity. What tends to get overlooked in the thrill of discussion of madness is the reality and truth that Shakespeare’s Hamlet holds. Many of the troubles of real life can be explained and reasoned through this work, specifically how a life outlook can impact a life outcome.
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, is one of Hamlet’s most overlooked characters. She is portrayed as this ambiguous character, without many speaking parts or ways to look into what she is really thinking, but there is lots learned about her through the voices of others. Even though the lens through which it is written is influenced by the restrictive common gender roles of the Shakespreare’s seventeenth century lifestyle, there …show more content…
The other belief is that Gertrude and Claudius were co-conspirators in the death of King Hamlet. However, neither of those are quite true. The story of “Hamlet” takes place in the late middle ages, or 14th-15th centuries, when Shakespeare didn’t publish the story until 1601. In one of his other works, “The Taming of the Shrew” which is also set in the Renaissance era, it is made abundantly clear by the society that there is a specific role women take on. “Such duty as the subject owes the prince Even such a woman oweth to her husband; And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, And not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel” (5.2.171-175). Those women who acted against what they were told were ridiculed and scoffed at. It is not evidenced in the play that Queen Gertrude should be treated any …show more content…
In that day-and-age, Gertrude would have essentially had nothing to gain by her husband being gone. If there was something going on, such as abuse, there is no way either one of them could have gone thirty years without Hamlet finding out or at least having suspicions. If his dad was truly terrible, which is the only explanation for why she would want to murder him, someone would have known about it and done better to protect Gertrude from the scrutiny she gets, even from her own son, about the quickness of her
Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, is one of Hamlet’s most overlooked characters. She is portrayed as this ambiguous character, without many speaking parts or ways to look into what she is really thinking, but there is lots learned about her through the voices of others. Even though the lens through which it is written is influenced by the restrictive common gender roles of the Shakespreare’s seventeenth century lifestyle, there …show more content…
The other belief is that Gertrude and Claudius were co-conspirators in the death of King Hamlet. However, neither of those are quite true. The story of “Hamlet” takes place in the late middle ages, or 14th-15th centuries, when Shakespeare didn’t publish the story until 1601. In one of his other works, “The Taming of the Shrew” which is also set in the Renaissance era, it is made abundantly clear by the society that there is a specific role women take on. “Such duty as the subject owes the prince Even such a woman oweth to her husband; And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour, And not obedient to his honest will, What is she but a foul contending rebel” (5.2.171-175). Those women who acted against what they were told were ridiculed and scoffed at. It is not evidenced in the play that Queen Gertrude should be treated any …show more content…
In that day-and-age, Gertrude would have essentially had nothing to gain by her husband being gone. If there was something going on, such as abuse, there is no way either one of them could have gone thirty years without Hamlet finding out or at least having suspicions. If his dad was truly terrible, which is the only explanation for why she would want to murder him, someone would have known about it and done better to protect Gertrude from the scrutiny she gets, even from her own son, about the quickness of her