Gertrude (Hamlet)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark.

She and Hamlet have a complex and somewhat dysfunctional relationship; he resents her because she married her late husband's (also named King Hamlet) brother and murderer Claudius, almost immediately after the former's death, and there is some question as to whether or not she was involved in the murder. Her actions are often suspect, particularly because she scarcely mourned her husband's death before marrying his brother.

She is present when Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, thinking he was his stepfather. Claudius, realizing that Hamlet is now aware that he murdered Hamlet's father, tries to have Hamlet executed by sending him to England with his own death warrant. Hamlet survives, however, and returns home to claim his revenge. In this action he puts to death two of his childhood friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who have teamed up with Claudius to see why Hamlet was so sad, as Hamlet feels they have betrayed him. During a rigged duel with Polonius' son Laertes, Claudius poisons Hamlet's wine — which Gertrude inadvertently drinks, realizing too late that her husband is a murderer as she dies.

Some scholars and directors (e.g. Kenneth Branagh) believe that there is evidence of an incestuous relationship between Gertrude and Hamlet, a view popularised by Freud's famous notion of the Oedipus complex. This is highly disputed, but found in some film and theatre versions of the play.

Gertrude also appears as a character in Howard Barker's Gertrude—The Cry, which uses some of the characters from Hamlet.

Many actresses have portrayed Gertrude in the numerous film adaptations of the play. They include Eileen Herlie, Julie Christie, Glenn Close, and Diane Venora.