Gertrude Acts 1 and 2

Gertrude Act 1:

The Queen (1.2.70-75): The Queen is approaching Hamlet for the first time in the play to address his  grieving: 

Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off,

And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark.

Do not forever with thy vailéd lids

Seek for thy noble father in the dust.

Thou know’st tis common; all that lives must die,

Passing through nature to eternity. 

Analysis: This is the first time that we see Queen Gertrude approach Hamlet about his grieving techniques. Hamlet has been dressing in all black and rather upset about the whole thing while his mother was off marrying his uncle, Claudius. Gertrude tells Hamlet that he should try to move on because everyone dies, it is just a matter of time. This shows a side of Gertrude that isn’t upset about the Kings death and she was perfectly okay with what happened; She has even moved on to someone new. Hamlet on the other hand has chosen to dwell of his father’s death. 

Hamlet (1.2.153-164): Hamlet in speaking in his first soliloquy after everyone exits the room but him, is angry about his family situation: 

Like Niobe, all tears––why she,<even she>

(O God, a beast that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourned longer!), married with my

        uncle,

My father’s brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules. Within a month,

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing in her galléd eyes,

She married. 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. 

Analysis: Hamlet is very upset with his mother. He does not understand why she would marry Claudius. The fact that Gertrude did marry Claudius makes Hamlet angry. He calls her “incestuous” and says she cried “unrighteous tears”. Hamlet thinks that she did not spend enough time grieving since she married within a month of his father’s death. He also clearly does not approve of Claudius as her spouse since he is of course, Hamlet’s uncle. Claudius was already family and you don’t marry your family. This passage portrays a conflicting view of the queen. One typically looked at as a caring mother is now depicted as being someone disgusting and hated. 

Gertrude Act 2: 

Gertrude (2.2.19-21): Gertrude and Claudius are giving Rosencratz and Guildenstern their assignment to go spy on Hamlet: 

Good gentlemen, he heath much talked of you

And sure I am two men there is not living

To whom he more adheres. 

Analysis: Queen Gertrude is showing a caring but also diabolical side. She wants to help Hamlet tone down his madness, and is willing to do what ever she can to do so. She is even willing to send two of Hamlets friends to spy on him so that he will not be suspicious. Gertrude and Claudius have thought it out, who they want to send, and settled on people that would make it easier to find out the truth even if it involves using Hamlet’s friends against him. 

Gertrude (2.2.59-60): Polonius had told the king and the queen that Hamlet is simply crazy in love, however, Gertrude does not agree: 

I doubt it is no other but the main––

His father’s death and our {o’erhasty} marriage. 

Analysis: The characteristic represented here is realization. Gertrude admits that Hamlet is upset about her marriage and his father’s death. Gertrude is being portrayed as a deeply caring mother who truly cares about her son’s well-being. However, she does the one thing that upsets Hamlet knowing how he would feel and react to it, then questions why he would feel that way. So while Gertrude may look like a mother trying to care for her son, she simply just doesn’t understand him . 

I think that Billie Burke would be a good fit to play Gertrude if we look at her when she played Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz. Gertrude is trying to take care of and help Hamlet by spying on him to find out his issues and she doesn’t show that she cares much that the old King Hamlet has died. Similarly, Glinda watches over Dorothy to help her get to oz and she doesn’t pay much attention to the that fact that the Wicked Witch of the East (who can be considered to be like her sister) was just crushed by a house.