The Relationship Between Mother And Son In
Hamlet Essay, Research Paper
In many of his dramas, particularly calamities, William Shakespeare examines the relationships people have with one another. Of these relationships, he is peculiarly interested in those between household members, above all, those between parents and their kids. In his drama Hamlet, Shakespeare examines Prince Hamlet & # 8217 ; s relationships with his dead male parent, female parent and step-father. His relationship with Gertrude, one of the lone two adult females in the drama, provides Hamlet with a deep sense of choler and hurting. Hamlet feels that Gertrude has betrayed his male parent by get marrieding with his brother. Throughout the drama, he is consumed with revenging his male parent & # 8217 ; s decease and all the mistreatment the former King had suffered and still suffers after his life is over. Gertrude adds to the dead King & # 8217 ; s tarnished memory by non mourning and alternatively joying in her new matrimony. Hamlet is therefore highly angry with Gertrude and expresses this choler towards her straight and indirectly through his words, both to himself and to other characters.
Gertrude & # 8217 ; s actions of get marrieding her hubby & # 8217 ; s brother after this male monarch was merely & # 8220 ; two months dead & # 8221 ; ( I.ii. 138 ) causes Hamlet & # 8217 ; s view on love to alter. He noted that when Gertrude was with his male parent & # 8220 ; he was so loving to [ her ] & # 8221 ; and & # 8220 ; she would hang on him & # 8221 ; ( I.ii. 140, 143 ) . This is how Hamlet believed true, stable love was to be. But his female parent & # 8217 ; s ability to get married so rapidly after his male parent & # 8217 ; s decease made Hamlet conclude that a adult female & # 8217 ; s love is volatile and he states & # 8220 ; infirmity, thy name is adult female & # 8221 ; ( I.ii. 146 ) . By & # 8220 ; infirmity & # 8221 ; Hamlet is non mentioning to a adult female & # 8217 ; s physical abilities, but instead her emotional infirmity and her ability to alter so rapidly after holding, assumingly, loved so profoundly. Thus Hamlet feels that Gertrude, non merely bewray his male parent, but besides has betrayed the holiness of love and matrimony.
This altered position of love has besides doubtless changed Hamlet & # 8217 ; s relationship with the adult females he loves and who claims to love him, Ophelia. He remarks on the love of a adult female in general when he is seated beside Ophelia, watching the drama and he asks her about the prologue. She responds & # 8220 ; & # 8217 ; Tis brief, my Godhead & # 8221 ; for which Hamlet replies & # 8220 ; As adult female & # 8217 ; s love & # 8221 ; ( III.ii. 137-138 ) . Hamlet distances himself from Ophelia and tells her that he had ne’er loved her ( III.i. 119-120 ) . This is obviously non true when, after she dies, Hamlet declares to Laertes & # 8220 ; I loved Ophelia. Forty 1000 brothers/Could non, with all their measure of love, /Make up my amount & # 8221 ; ( V.i. 254-256 ) . Although, Hamlet does non truly believe that Ophelia & # 8217 ; s love for him was untrue, he does believe that her love could be every bit volatile as his female parent & # 8217 ; s in the hereafter.
Hamlet believes, at times, that his female parent helped his uncle Claudius in killing his male parent. This enrages Hamlet as this is non merely lese majesty, but the greatest offense his female parent could hold committed. After he kills Polonius in his female parent & # 8217 ; s sleeping room, misidentifying him for Claudius, Gertrude remarks on Hamlet & # 8217 ; s actions stating & # 8220 ; O, what a roseola and bloody title is this! & # 8221 ; ( III. four. 26 ) . Hamlet so accuses Gertrude of cabaling to kill his male parent and says & # 8220 ; A bloody title & # 8212 ; about as bad, good-mother, /As kill a male monarch and marry with his brother & # 8221 ; ( III. four. 27-28 ) . But Gertrude & # 8217 ; s obfuscation in her response & # 8220 ; As Kill a male monarch? & # 8221 ; ( III.iv. 28 ) leaves Hamlet to presume that she did non kill his male parent and this is when he shifts from impeaching his female parent to warning her of her incestuous actions. He still believes that Gertrude has betrayed his male parent, but now he does non believe that she murdered him.
This incestuous nature of Gertrude & # 8217 ; s new matrimony to her dead hubby & # 8217 ; s brother is another factor that antagonizes Hamlet. The male monarch was merely & # 8220 ; two months dead & # 8212 ; nay, non so much, non two, & # 8221 ; harmonizing to Hamlet, and already Gertrude has & # 8220 ; married with [ his ] uncle & # 8221 ; ( I.ii. 138, 151 ) . Prince Hamlet, in make up one’s minding T
o “speak stickers to [ Gertrude ] , but use none” ( III.ii. 366 ) , uses rough words upon his entry into her bedroom and tells his female parent “You are the Queen, your husband’s brother’s wife” ( III.iv. 15 ) . Gertrude is really defensive at this point and tells her boy that he should non talk to her that manner. But Hamlet is overwrought and asks his female parent “O shame, where is thy bloom? ” ( III.iv, 72 ) . He compares, for Gertrude the images of his male parent and his uncle and asks Gertrude how she could get married Claudius, who is “like a mildewed ear” ( III.iv. 63 ) after holding loved King Hamlet “A combination and a signifier indeed” ( III.iv. 59 ) . He warns his female parent to “Repent what’s past, avoid what is to come” ( III.iv. 141 ) and tells her “go non to mine uncle’s bed” ( III.iv. 150 ) . He tries to assist Gertrude experience sorrow for her actions, by abandoning Claudius and recognizing her offense to her first hubby.
After Hamlet has compared the two work forces for Gertrude she can non bear his words any longer and says & # 8220 ; O Hamlet, speak no more! / Thou bend & # 8217 ; st mine eyes into my really soul, / And there I see such black and grained musca volitanss & # 8230 ; & # 8221 ; ( III.iv. 78-80 ) . This is the point in the drama where Gertrude & # 8217 ; s position displacements and she realizes what she has done in bewraying her dead hubby. She was non consciously cognizant that her new hubby, Claudius, had killed her former, but she was ever cognizant that her actions were incestuous, although she ne’er admitted it. If she had non subconsciously known this, Hamlet & # 8217 ; s words would non hold caused her to look into her psyche and be appalled by what she viewed. He reveals to his female parent that his lunacy has been feigned the full clip and that she is non to unwrap this information to anyone, but instead conceal his secret and non return to her hubby & # 8217 ; s bed that dark. This is the beginning of Hamlet and Gertrude & # 8217 ; s restored relationship as she aides her boy in seeking retaliation for King Hamlet & # 8217 ; s decease.
Gertrude continues to do Claudius to believe Hamlet & # 8217 ; s unreal status. Claudius asks Gertrude how Hamlet is and she responds & # 8220 ; Mad as the sea and air current when both contend/Which is the mightier. & # 8221 ; ( IV.i. 6-7 ) . Therefore, Claudius is continually fooled into believing Hamlet & # 8217 ; s lunacy and fears the Prince & # 8217 ; s actions. Gertrude, obviously takes commitment with her boy, instead than her new hubby as seen during the fencing lucifer between Hamlet and Laertes when she says & # 8220 ; Here, Hamlet, take my serviette. Rub thy brows./ The Queen carousals to thy luck, Hamlet & # 8221 ; ( V.ii. 231-232 ) . She so drinks from the poisoned cup to Hamlet & # 8217 ; s luck, even though Claudius says & # 8220 ; Gertrude, do non imbibe & # 8221 ; ( V.ii. 233 ) . This is a grade that she now is on her boy & # 8217 ; s side and does non wish to listen to her hubby Claudius any longer, believing that he killed her first hubby. Therefore, Gertrude and Hamlet & # 8217 ; s relationship, although still full of intense feelings, has begun to be mended before Gertrude & # 8217 ; s decease.
Hamlet, throughout most of the drama, believes that Gertrude has betrayed his male parent & # 8217 ; s memory and that she does non experience any compunction for her actions, non sing them incorrect at all. He wants to take retribution against those who had mistreated his male parent, but does non wish to harm his female parent. Although disquieted with his female parent, he still loves her a great trade. Alternatively, he forces Gertrude to recognize that her actions were a perfidy to her former hubby and they begin to work together in seeking penalty for King Hamlet & # 8217 ; s decease. Hamlet & # 8217 ; s destroyed relationship with Gertrude, so is reflected in his feelings of obfuscation and choler at the beginning of the drama and the Restoration of this relationship is the excess push Hamlet required to transport out the concluding actions of killing his uncle in order to revenge his male parent & # 8217 ; s decease.
Bibliography
Shakespeare, William. & # 8220 ; Hamlet. & # 8221 ; The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Stephen Greenblatt. New York: W.W. Norton & A ; Compnay Inc. , 1997. 1668-1759.
