Gertrude

The queen mother (Acts I & II)

Gertrude is introduced in the second scene of Act I by her new husband, Claudius, as the “imperial jointress to this warlike state.” Her remarriage within a month of her first husband’s death has ensured her regal position as queen but stoked controversy among her subjects and sowed discontent in Prince Hamlet. Gertrude’s chief concern is her son’s troubled state of mind, which is clouded by his prolonged mourning for the late King Hamlet. Her maternal appeal to him to “cast thy nighted colour off” places her at odds with Hamlet, who believes his mother’s grief has dissipated too soon. Gertrude, however, persists in trying to soften his misery and seeks reconciliation. She succeeds in convincing Hamlet to stay in Denmark in accordance with Claudius’s wishes and to not return to university in Wittenberg, but the prince seethes within. He feels that even a “beast” devoid of logic and reason would have grieved for the late king longer than Gertrude has.

In Act II Gertrude’s distress about Hamlet has not abated. She aligns with Claudius’s plan to entrust Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to find out what is troubling the prince. Aware that her son’s mood and behavior have changed, Gertrude wants the two friends to cheer up the prince and get to the root of his seemingly insurmountable sorrow. In this way, Gertrude demonstrates intuition, remarking that Hamlet’s behavior springs from “his father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.” However, when counselor Polonius suggests the theory that Hamlet is mad for Polonius’s daughter Ophelia’s love, the queen feels “it may be, very like.”

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Moral turmoil (Act III)

In the third act Gertrude’s role deepens. She meets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern briefly and asks about Hamlet’s condition. The friends inform her that Hamlet, who had received them well, has found a distraction in the form of a play that a group of actors are to stage at the palace. In the play, called The Mousetrap, Hamlet has included a scene that mimics the circumstances of the late king’s murder, with the hope that Claudius and Gertrude will react in a manner that will indicate their involvement in the regicide. The queen watches the performance but remains unperturbed, while Claudius’s conscience betrays him. Soon, Guildenstern brings word to Hamlet that the queen, stricken by her husband’s reaction to the play, has requested that the prince meet with her.

The queen’s pivotal moment comes in the famous closet scene (Act III, scene 4). While Gertrude waits for Hamlet, Polonius hides behind a tapestry in her chamber. In accordance with Gertrude’s plan, he intends to eavesdrop on the conversation to understand why Hamlet has been behaving erratically. However, Hamlet arrives in a confrontational mood, and it forebodes trouble. When Gertrude tells him that he has his “father much offended,” meaning Hamlet’s demeanor has annoyed Claudius, Hamlet twists her words to say that it is Gertrude’s actions that have offended his true father, the late king. When Hamlet forcibly stops his mother from leaving the chamber, the terrified queen, assuming he wants to kill her, calls out for help. Clueless about what is transpiring in the room, Polonius shouts from his hiding spot, culminating in his accidental murder by Hamlet, who thrusts a sword through the tapestry, suspecting that the king is spying on them.

Gertrude is shaken by this “rash and bloody deed,” but an unfazed Hamlet continues spewing invectives at her, accusing her of lust and betrayal. The queen admits that her son’s words have cut into her like “daggers,” baring her soul and exposing “black…spots” within. However, she appears genuinely surprised when Hamlet mentions the regicide, pausing to ask, “As kill a king?” In a scene fraught with emotional turmoil, Gertrude is even more appalled to see Hamlet, with a vacant look in his eyes, conversing with what appears to her as empty space. She questions her son’s sanity, but Hamlet convinces her that he is speaking with his dead father’s ghost. Hamlet also explains that he is feigning madness, and on his insistence Gertrude vows not to reveal this to Claudius.

Poisoned by mistake (Acts IV & V)

It falls on Gertrude to report Polonius’s death to Claudius. She describes Hamlet as “Mad as the sea and wind when both contend / Which is the mightier” and explains that he has killed the counselor in a “lawless fit.” When Polonius’s daughter, Ophelia, stricken by grief over her father’s death, descends into madness, Gertrude is compassionate yet remains helpless as the young woman’s mind unravels. Later, when Ophelia’s brother, Laertes, storms in to demand justice, Gertrude remains by her husband’s side, trying to calm the enraged young man. Unfortunately, she is once again the bearer of tragic news, announcing to Laertes and the court that Ophelia has drowned, describing the loss in a haunting lyrical passage:

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There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clamb’ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook.

Genuinely aggrieved by Ophelia’s death, Gertrude laments having to scatter flowers on Ophelia’s grave when she had once pictured bedecking the young woman in them as Hamlet’s bride. Hamlet and Laertes quarrel bitterly at the graveyard while the queen tries to pacify them, again citing Hamlet’s madness to shield the prince. Claudius, however, chooses to fan Laertes’s anger, plotting to have Hamlet killed in a duel against Laertes with a poisoned sword. During the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, Gertrude gently wipes Hamlet’s brow and drinks to his health, unaware that she is drinking from a poisoned cup that Claudius had prepared for Hamlet. Realizing her end is here, she warns her son, “O my dear Hamlet! / The drink, the drink! I am poison’d.”