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shakespea... shakespea...
 
January 16, 2009 03:38 PM

Does Hamlet's mom know about Claudius?

One of the great unanswered questions in Hamlet is what to do about Gertrude.  If you've forgotten the plot, her husband was murdered by his brother Claudius.  Gertrude then, after an apparently short time, marries Claudius.   This begs several questions about the woman:  was she in on it?  Does she know or even suspect that Claudius did it?  Were they having an affair before her husband died?  By the end of the play, does she realize what she's (knowingly or not) been a part of?I have my own theories, but it's so much more fun to throw it out there and see what everybody else thinks.
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jonathan h jonathan h
 
 January 16, 2009 05:48 PM
My initial thought is she absolutely knows but pushes it out of her mind in an attempt to deny the truth about Claudius.
This paper I found seems to suggest otherwise, that Gertrude just has terrible judgment and her lack of resolve and assertion contributed to her relationship with Claudius: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/critical.html

There are several quotes throughout the play suggesting that Gertrude is simply dense and indecisive and thus has actions put upon her. At least, this is what Hamlet believes.

Gertrude: Come hither, my dear Hamlet, sit by me.
Hamlet: No, good mother, here's metal more attractive. (as he sits by Ophelia)
--In Act III, it's clear that Hamlet believes his mother is a thoughtless entity, entirely acted upon by other forces.

And then, of course, from Act III, Scene II
Gertrude: The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

This famous quote suggests that it is not a woman's job to protest. Perhaps she knows the truth about Claudius, and perhaps she doesn't, but either way she doesn't feel it's worth extending effort to change what's being superimposed upon her.
Source(s):
I grabbed these quotes using http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hamlet

An interesting read: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/critical.html

Asker's Rating:
• Has everything an answer like this needs - personal opinion, cited information to back it up, and sources.


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phil h phil h
 
January 16, 2009 07:33 PM
I haven't read Hamlet in a while and I never focused on Gertrude when writing papers on the play, so I won't bother to put together a halfway thought-out answer.

Here's some food for thought, though, in the whole what-did-Gertrude-know situation: In Shakespeare's time, the Gertrude-Claudius relationship was considered incest. Add that to all the other things she would have been considered in the public: an adultress and a participant in the murder of her husband the king. Seems like a lot of pain and embarrassment to go through while being totally oblivious as to why people might think that.

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shakespear... shakespear...
 
January 16, 2009 07:44 PM
Keep in mind, Phil, that the public does not necessarily know that King Hamlet was murdered, they just know that he died. So you can't count her as murderess. Incestuous, yes, at least in the strictest religious sense. I think that's one of the reasons that the first person we see (not counting the ghost scene) is a big procession with Claudius essentially saying, "Your king has spoken, and I want to marry this woman, anybody got a problem with that?" Nope, no problem, no sir. Goes to the whole "rotten Denmark" thing - it's all basically falling apart at the seams.

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glaspell glaspell
 
January 17, 2009 08:08 AM
I thought "The lady doth protest too much, methinks" was supposed to imply that she protests too much and thus is suspicious, which gives it a different and even more interesting slant, especially coming from Gertrude.

My sense is she really is that dense, but I need to read the play again before I really answer, and the ambiguity, after all, is part of what makes the play so satisfyingly dramatic!

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shakespear... shakespear...
 
January 17, 2009 01:31 PM
Good question, Glaspell. I always took it to be a reference more to the new king's wooing of the recently widowed queen, as if Gertrude believes they are mocking her o'erhasty marriage (i.e. it has nothing to do with the murder). I like to think of it as a Shakespearean version of the old joke that goes "Don't! Stop! Don't!.....stop.....don't stop!" In this case it'd be the player queen protesting the brother's romantic advances.

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