The portrayal of Gertrude in Hamlet

As we know in Shakespeare’s tragedy: “Hamlet”1, one of the major characters is

the widowed queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother. Her behaviour has implied many

situations, in particular her relationship with her son, which has been analysed and

interpreted in different points of view. Then I will talk about Gertrude’s portrayal in

Almereyda’s and Doran’s adaptation.

It is true that females’ characters of Shakespeare have been created much more

repercussion than male. Focusing on Gertrude, we can say that is an ambiguous

character. Her reactions can be represented and showed it depending on how a person

sees it. If we analysed Gertrude’s focalisation in both adaptations we can see how David

Almereyda shows us a modern view of Gertrude much more close to a contemporary

woman than Gregory Doran, who tries to follow Hamlet’s scenarios.

In Almereyda’s adaptation we can see performed act I, scene II in 00:02:35

minutes where Claudius announces his marriage to Gertrude, and there is when we can

see her. Gertrude, who appears in minute 00:02:53, is showed like a modern woman.

She seems to be really interested on what Claudius is saying also has an admiring

glance when she sees Claudius talking. Her happiness is very obvious, so this could lead

us to think about her marriage to Hamlet’s father, and what happened to him. And as it’s

known “the murder of old Hamlet is not public knowledge, but does Gertrude know, or

at least suspect?” (Smith 82). She seems to have been really forgotten her deceased

husband. So this makes us to think, is she guilty of elder Hamlet’s murder? Probably

not, but that doesn’t mean that she could know something, and Hamlet’s suspects were

true. As he says: “These indeed “seem”; For they are actions that a man might

play.” (Hamlet 1.2.83). What is he trying to suggest? The appearances are not what we

see. So maybe that’s why the death of her husband it doesn’t really seems to affect her,

because she was never in love with him. And the adultery it could have been started

much time before.

On the other hand, we have Doran’s adaptation. If we analysed the same scene

following the minutes: 00:06:51; 00:07:53; 00:09:25, Gertrude, who is interpreted by

Penny Downie, shows “a cold version”. What I mean is that making a comparison with

1 Hamlet is a tragedy written at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the

Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet on his uncle Claudius,

who had murdered his own brother, Hamlet’s father.

Vista previa parcial del texto

¡Descarga Gertrude in Hamlet y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura inglesa solo en Docsity!

The portrayal of Gertrude in Hamlet

As we know in Shakespeare’s tragedy: “ Hamlet ”1, one of the major characters is the widowed queen of Denmark, Hamlet’s mother. Her behaviour has implied many situations, in particular her relationship with her son, which has been analysed and interpreted in different points of view. Then I will talk about Gertrude’s portrayal in Almereyda’s and Doran’s adaptation.

It is true that females’ characters of Shakespeare have been created much more repercussion than male. Focusing on Gertrude, we can say that is an ambiguous character. Her reactions can be represented and showed it depending on how a person sees it. If we analysed Gertrude’s focalisation in both adaptations we can see how David Almereyda shows us a modern view of Gertrude much more close to a contemporary woman than Gregory Doran, who tries to follow Hamlet’s scenarios.

In Almereyda’s adaptation we can see performed act I, scene II in 00:02: minutes where Claudius announces his marriage to Gertrude, and there is when we can see her. Gertrude, who appears in minute 00:02:53, is showed like a modern woman. She seems to be really interested on what Claudius is saying also has an admiring glance when she sees Claudius talking. Her happiness is very obvious, so this could lead us to think about her marriage to Hamlet’s father, and what happened to him. And as it’s known “the murder of old Hamlet is not public knowledge, but does Gertrude know, or at least suspect?” (Smith 82). She seems to have been really forgotten her deceased husband. So this makes us to think, is she guilty of elder Hamlet’s murder? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean that she could know something, and Hamlet’s suspects were true. As he says: “These indeed “seem”; For they are actions that a man might play.” (Hamlet 1.2.83). What is he trying to suggest? The appearances are not what we see. So maybe that’s why the death of her husband it doesn’t really seems to affect her, because she was never in love with him. And the adultery it could have been started much time before.

On the other hand, we have Doran’s adaptation. If we analysed the same scene following the minutes: 00:06:51; 00:07:53; 00:09:25, Gertrude, who is interpreted by Penny Downie, shows “a cold version”. What I mean is that making a comparison with

1 Hamlet is a tragedy written at an uncertain date between 1599 and 1602. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatises the revenge Prince Hamlet on his uncle Claudius, who had murdered his own brother, Hamlet’s father.

Almereyda’s adaptation, Gertrude seems to be affected. But why? Is it because of her husband’s death, or, because she is afraid of Hamlet’s reaction? If we focused on Gertrude’s reaction when Claudius is announcing to everyone his marriage to Gertrude, she pays more attention to Hamlet than what is her future husband saying. Also she doesn’t seem very excited about it. Her attitude is more confidential. The reason could be because there is no a passion between Gertrude and Claudius, and the commitment is just political or social. And as Bamber argued on “Comic Women, Tragic Men”: Although Hamlet sees his mother as a disgustingly sensual creature, the relationship that we see between Gertrude and Claudius is domestic and ceremonial, never sexual at all. There is less evidence of sexuality here than there is between some kings and queens in the history plays. The Gertrude that we see—as opposed to the one that Hamlet imagines—is her son’s mother and worries, affectionate partner to her husband, who happens to be going through a period of political danger. (75) Although that worry she feels about Hamlet it can be interpreted in a different way. Some critics say that there is a sexual tension between Hamlet and her mother. So they apply Sigmund Freud thesis: Oedipus complex 2. So critics like Ernest Jones, who applies a psychoanalytic view to Hamlet, as he says in one of his articles about Professor Freud:

He has shown that the main characteristics of these mechanisms are common to many apparently dissimilar mental processes, such as dreams, wit, psychoneurotic symptoms, etc. and further that all these processes bear an intimate relation to fantasy, to the realisation of non- conscious wishes, to psychological “repression” ( Verdrängüng ), to psychosexual life of the subject. (72) What this means is that applying psychoanalysis, Gertrude is tent to be seen as a sexual object. Indeed, in Gregory Doran’s adaptation, Gertrude, in my opinion, is focused in a sexual way. And that is the reason of her behaviour.

To sum up, female characters in Shakespeare, in this case Gertrude, are treat as sexual objects, they are “weak” so they can be manipulated easily. If we compare the image of Gertrude that has been created with women like Lydia Becker or Mary Wollstonecraft, we could see that there are big differences. To begin with, Gertrude is a character that is influenced by men; she is like a “submissive” of Claudius, Hamlet and

2 The term Oedipus complex denotes the emotion and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrates upon a child’s desire to have sexual relations with the parent of the opposite sex.

Gertrude in Hamlet, Apuntes de Literatura inglesa

Documentos relacionados

Vista previa parcial del texto

¡Descarga Gertrude in Hamlet y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura inglesa solo en Docsity!

The portrayal of Gertrude in Hamlet