Gertrude: Strong Spear

Gertrude seems like she’s a character that kind of take the brunt of the audience’s hate. As the woman who married her husband’s brother and the mother who has no sympathy to give her son, I think she is at times misinterpreted. I think Gertrude is more of a cold stone hearted woman weathered by a culture of hardness and a tough life. But who can blame her for that? Personally I think in order to understand Gertrude’s actions we must remember where she’s from: Denmark. What is Denmark, or Scandinavia, most famous for (other than Danishes)? Vikings! The Danish aren’t exactly remembered as being very emotionally expressive. They’re remembered as hard warrior brutes.

As we look at this culture through Hamlet we can actually see that Hamlet himself is the most abnormal of them with his extreme set of emotions and lack of ability to act. He’s not very Viking.


So how can you really be so upset that Gertrude isn’t motherly? She’s a Queen of a hard nation. Being in such a high political position alone might make you a little austere but even her name, compared to a name like Ophelia, Gertrude kind of just doesn’t roll so fluidly off the tongue. It’s a hard, brutal sounding name.
The origin of the name Gertrude comes from the German meaning Strong Spear (http://www.babynames.com/name/GERTRUDE). You should expect that with a name like that she is not going to be easily broken. Not even by hardships like death. When King Hamlet died she didn’t mourn him. Why not? I think it has a lot to do with who she is in general. Like I said her name meaning Strong Spear I think we have to think that even under pressure she’s not going to break so easily. I can imagine what was going through Gertrude’s mind: my husband’s dead, how horrible I knew this man. Now here’s where I think that the idea of Gertrude and King Hamlet’s relationship might divert into two different paths:
1. I didn’t love this man so therefore I cry (because it’s human to cry) for him because I knew him and he’s dead, but I’ll get over it.
2. I loved this man, but what am I going to do? It’s not like my tears are going to bring him back, and as Queen of my country still I got a job to do, and I need to look out for myself.
1. We never really learn the relationship of Gertrude and King Hamlet. All we ever know is through the Ghost and through Hamlet himself. Hamlet you cannot trust his judgment because he’s an outsider and their child chances are if they were good parents they would have hid it from him. Not to mention he’s been off in Wittenberg. He wasn’t even there to know what they were doing.
We never really get any solid insight on how Gertrude felt about Hamlet’s dad. For all we know (which is most likely true knowing the ways of the time) she wasn’t even in love with Hamlet, instead their marriage was arranged. Maybe, for all we know, Gertrude always loved Claudius and was forced into marrying Hamlet (Think Prince Charles and Camilla much?). Whatever the story may be, we don’t know it. She could have been fawning over her husband because she was either playing the part of the devoted wife and queen, or she just never LOVED him romantically but loved him on a platonic level. This would explain why she cried for him. We can support this theory about a lack of love with the fact that Hamlet doesn’t have any siblings. Were they not sleeping together? Was she sterile? Who knows.
2. Perhaps Gertrude did love Hamlet. But like she said to her son in act 1. Stop brooding cause it won’t bring him back to life. The other thing to consider is that because Hamlet is her son she knows him. Don’t you think she already knew he was a big brooding baby? Maybe she saw this in him and figured look: he’s not King material, not yet anyway, Denmark needs a man who can stand up for it and make a decision. Hamlet in the entire play can’t make a decision and every time he finally does make a decision he decides he still can’t do it because of another reason (Ex: Act III scene 3). Maybe Gertrude married Claudius because he would be able to be king and do the job right. Or perhaps she wanted her son to get an education… what a modern thought.
Not to mention, she needs to look after herself. It is possible that Gertrude’s name meaning Strong Spear is actually ironic. For all we know maybe Claudius pulled a fast one on her like Richard did to Anne. Perhaps he just kind of comforted her with her loss and that’s how she was like “Oh Claudius I love you, Marry me!” Grief sometimes gets the best and worst of us… if we see it like that then Gertrude is looking after herself by getting a comfort blanket. If we don’t look it like that well there’s another way to see it too. While Hamlet was still in Wittenberg, his mother was on the throne of Denmark, by herself. We know Fortinbras is out to get Denmark. He may have attacked earlier if he knew it was just Gertrude holding down the fort. (Not that I think she couldn’t handle it, but women are not generally associated with leading wars, unless they’re War Goddesses or Amazon Women) Or perhaps if it was Hamlet himself crowned King, I don’t know exactly how old Hamlet is, but being off in Wittenberg for schooling I don’t think he’s extremely old either, and even if he is, the fact that he’s off at school says he’s still a student and still learning: he’s never been King, what better time to besiege the kingdom than with a new king or a lone queen on it? Marrying Claudius might have been a military strategy by Gertrude. Claudius probably has more experience that either Hamlet or Gertrude does.

Returning back to Gertrude’s relationship with Hamlet, I don’t think it is necessarily fair to say that she is uncaring for her son. She does display throughout the play concern for him and his madness. We see her telling Hamlet not to fret over his father’s death in Act 1. Why? Because he’ll go mad if he does, that’s some sane motherly advice there.
In Act II she says to Claudius after he inquires about Hamlet’s manner: “I doubt it is no other but the main-/ His father’s death and our o’er-hasty marriage.” (Act II, scene 2, 56-57)
She obviously knows that her marriage was kind of bad timing. And she obviously understands where Hamlet is coming from. I just think that she doesn’t know how to show Hamlet any real support. I think because of the emotionless culture she believes Hamlet needs space to cope and I think that’s what she’s giving him instead of smothering or comforting him which might be what he really needs. (Shakespeare has some pretty frosty Mamas doesn’t he?)
The other thing with Gertrude and Hamlet is I don’t really think she completely considered her actions and what effect they could have. Yeah she probably thought…well this is going to be a doozy for my son once he learns his uncle is his step-dad but he’ll get over it. I don’t think she really thought about how awkward it would be, or how the true nature of the act of going from one brother to the next is rather home-wrecker-ish. In Act III sc 4 when Hamlet is telling her about what she’s done that’s so wrong she frequently questions him about why he’s being so rude to her. This we can see as a confirmation that she doesn’t really understand the level of betrayal she’s tread upon. And then in lines 78-81 she says:
“O Hamlet, speak no more!
Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul,
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct.”
She further says in lines 84-86
“O, speak to me no more!
These words like daggers enter in mine ears,
No more, sweet Hamlet.”
It’s quite ironic that she talks about daggers to the ears when her ex-husband got a poison to the ear!
It took her son’s explosion for her to finally realize what she has done wrong and how serious a matter it really is. “Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul.” She didn’t think about the morals this marriage would pose because again as the Viking strong spear Queen, she’s thinking diplomatically not spiritually.
I think in 3:4 Hamlet, although begins this tale only pretending to be mad, finally falls into madness for real. Hamlet’s father in Act I told him to leave his mother to God’s Judgment and not to harm her. In this scene the ghost has to come back to remind Hamlet of this because in a brief moment of insanity (heat of passion) Hamlet probably would have killed her. If he did he would have ruined everything. Gertrude was scared for her life in this scene we know this because she had to call out for help, hence Polonius’ death.
At the end of Act 3 Hamlet starts to lure Gertrude into the plan to bring Claudius down. In Act 4 we see Gertrude talk to Claudius about Hamlet being crazy. We are left to wonder whether or not Gertrude is sincere here. Does she believe Hamlet is crazy? Or does she believe Hamlet is only acting? I mean his speech in Act 3, Scene 4, lines 165-180 can confuse a person just reading it, I can imagine how much more confusing it would be to hear it. He insanely tells her to tell the king that he’s crazy. I mean I think Gertrude supports Hamlet with what he’s trying to do especially when she basically does tell Claudius that Hamlet is crazy but I don’t know if she 100% believes him that he isn’t necessarily crazy. I personally don’t. I think that dealing with such a Jerry Springer worthy family could drive you at least slightly insane. I think the situation has definitely had a negative effect on Hamlet… To speak that way alone (165-180) is insane in its own right.
Concluding, I think we can expect Gertrude to be more than what she appears to be at the end of Hamlet.