You are the Queen, your Husband's Brother's Wife
It's Friday, which means it's day one of "We Love the Women That Fandom Hates" I'm doing Gertrude because she's pretty damn awesome. Half the fans think she must have killed her husband and many people are convinced she's a slut.
Gertrude's husband died and her son was unhinged. She couldn't let him inherit the throne because she was worried about him and didn't know if he'd be able to handle it, so she remarried. And what if she really loved Claudius? What if she was being a strong ruler and doing what she thought was best for her country?
We'll start with the end.
"Take my napkin," Gertrude insists, almost like a lady offering a favor unto her knight. If you can ignore the slight Oedipal hints in this, it's really telling. In the last moments of life, she's shifted her allegiance to her son. This shift probably started back in the closet scene, but this is the first time we see her actually proclaim her loyalty to her own blood.
Then she's about to drink and Claudius tells her not to - with an exclamation mark! This betrays his genuine emotion for her, which shows she must have some redeeming qualities. I believe he honestly cares whether she lives or dies. Another interpretation is simply that he doesn't want anything to go wrong, but even that shows Gertrude in a good light, because she truly is a victim of his indifference towards her.
But she ignores him, smiles, and says "I will my lord, I pray you pardon me." For what does she ask pardon? The answer to this matters incredibly, because it says alot about her as a character. Is it simply that she disobeyed him and took his cup? That would demonstrate a totally submissive personality, which doesn't jive with the rest of her lines in the play. Maybe, then, she apologizes for dying. Gertrude always believed she could do so much more than she was allowed to as a woman, and now there's no time for any of it. I like the idea that she's already struck by her own death and can see the ghost of Papa Hamlet, her proper lord. She apologizes for everything that's happened since his death, for loving another man, for not taking better care of their son. Or maybe since everyone in Denmark is so worried about what happens after death, this is her version of confession and she's actually speaking to The Lord. With any luck she dies in a state of grace, because she was just a woman doing the best she could with an impossible situation.
And then at the very end of her life, she lets Hamlet know he must lock the doors against treachery. Note the "O my dear Hamlet". If nothing else, she cared about her son.
Gertrude's husband died and her son was unhinged. She couldn't let him inherit the throne because she was worried about him and didn't know if he'd be able to handle it, so she remarried. And what if she really loved Claudius? What if she was being a strong ruler and doing what she thought was best for her country?
We'll start with the end.
"Take my napkin," Gertrude insists, almost like a lady offering a favor unto her knight. If you can ignore the slight Oedipal hints in this, it's really telling. In the last moments of life, she's shifted her allegiance to her son. This shift probably started back in the closet scene, but this is the first time we see her actually proclaim her loyalty to her own blood.
Then she's about to drink and Claudius tells her not to - with an exclamation mark! This betrays his genuine emotion for her, which shows she must have some redeeming qualities. I believe he honestly cares whether she lives or dies. Another interpretation is simply that he doesn't want anything to go wrong, but even that shows Gertrude in a good light, because she truly is a victim of his indifference towards her.
But she ignores him, smiles, and says "I will my lord, I pray you pardon me." For what does she ask pardon? The answer to this matters incredibly, because it says alot about her as a character. Is it simply that she disobeyed him and took his cup? That would demonstrate a totally submissive personality, which doesn't jive with the rest of her lines in the play. Maybe, then, she apologizes for dying. Gertrude always believed she could do so much more than she was allowed to as a woman, and now there's no time for any of it. I like the idea that she's already struck by her own death and can see the ghost of Papa Hamlet, her proper lord. She apologizes for everything that's happened since his death, for loving another man, for not taking better care of their son. Or maybe since everyone in Denmark is so worried about what happens after death, this is her version of confession and she's actually speaking to The Lord. With any luck she dies in a state of grace, because she was just a woman doing the best she could with an impossible situation.
And then at the very end of her life, she lets Hamlet know he must lock the doors against treachery. Note the "O my dear Hamlet". If nothing else, she cared about her son.