“ Gertrude: Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended.
Hamlet: Mother, you have my father much offended.
Gertrude: Come, come you answer with an idle tongue.
Hamlet: Go, go, you question with a wicked tongue. ” - Lines 9-12
The way Hamlet does it in this context is that when Gertrude tries to bring to Hamlets attention that he is causing Claudius much distress, she refers to Claudius as Hamlets father. Gertrude also informs him, almost as if she were giving Hamlet the benefit of the doubt that he did not know he were inflicting this trouble upon the King. However, Hamlet’s reaction shows no disbelief that Claudius would be grieved at his actions, and in fact implies that whatever he has done to Claudius, the Queen has done worse to her former husband, and his true father. He does this by barely acknowledging what the Queen blames him of, and merely uses her words to bounce of and twist into an accusation towards her; e.g. by changing the person who has the name “father” to him, it is as if Hamlet is correcting her words.
Because of the sequence of events that has happened, Hamlet and his Mother have been emotionally separated. The audience know that at one point they must have been close because otherwise Hamlet would not be so disgusted with his mother’s actions. Also, in Act 1 Scene 2 Line 120 Hamlet says “I shall in all my best obey you madam”, meaning that he would only do what she wishes, not what Claudius wishes, confirming that it is only his mothers word he would listen to, so obviously he cares about her a great deal. However, we can see by the use of language used to talk to each other how their relationship has changed. Looking at the quotation above again (lines 9-12), you can see how Hamlet and Gertrude first address each other. Gertrude addresses him as “thou” which is a warm and affectionate way to greet a person you are close to. But Hamlet responds by referring to Gertrude as “you” which is cold and distant.
We next learn of how aggravated Hamlet is with the situation. Although there are no stage directions, Hamlet must act violently towards his mother because she says “What wilt thou do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help, help, ho!” – lines 21-22
She is clearly scared for her life and shrieks for help so Hamlet defiantly handled her in an over forceful way that implied even more physical torment. In hearing Gertrude’s cries, Polonius makes his presence known and is therefore “slain”. However, Hamlet is so passionate about how he feels that he dismisses the death and summarises his feeling on the situation in a simple sentence: “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell.” – line 31. He addresses Polonius as “thou” so thinks of him as close, however the words he uses to describe him cause the audience to think that it was indeed Polonius’ fault. The final word is “farewell” showing that this is Hamlets final thought on the situation of killing Polonius.
It is very out of character for Hamlet to make such an impulsive decision, as he has been such a procrastinator so far throughout the play. However, it is clear why he did it. In the previous scene, Hamlet catches Claudius praying, so could not kill him then as he was in a holy state and could go to heaven. At the time that Hamlet was written, people were very wary of their afterlife. If you had all your sins confessed you would got to heaven. If you were a bad person and had none of your sins confessed you would go to hell, and if you had some but not all of your sins confessed but you were a good person you would go to purgatory where you would stay until your sins were burned away. He wants Claudius to got to hell so wants to kill him when he has no thoughts of heaven in his mind. This is proved in Act 3 scene 3 lines 89-91 “drunk asleep, or in a rage, or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed” – in one of these situations is when he wants to kill Claudius. Hamlet and Gertrude are currently in a private area of Gertrude’s so Hamlet would have reason to think that if Claudius was there also, that his intentions were not innocent and if this were the case, he would be killed in an unholy state without his sins being confessed so would go to hell.
However the Queen is very much in shock at the death, but again Hamlets turns it around so the spotlight is on Gertrude.
“Gertrude: Oh what a rash and bloody deed is this!
Hamlet: A bloody deed? Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother?
Gertrude: As kill a King? ” -Lines 27-29
Gertrude describes Hamlets actions as “rash”, but as you can see above, Hamlet describes Polonius (and therefore his mother) as being rash in line 31. Hamlet also describes his actions as “almost” as bad as his mothers, again saying that whatever he has done, his mother has done worse. But the vital line is Gertrude’s “As to kill a king?” as the effect of this line greatly depends on how the line is delivered. The tone could be performed displaying genuine guiltless shock, meaning that the Queen was naive to the events, or it could be performed with an air of cunning, giving the audience the suspicion that in fact she did know of the plan to kill her first husband.
When Hamlet is rude to her, Gertrude questions why he is addressing her in such a manner. Instead of answering her question, Hamlet is even more rude to her, by referring to her as things such as a prostitute (blister on the forehead). This is a sexual insult which evokes a heavily suggested theme to this play – Hamlet suffers from the Oedipus complex. This is a condition where a son is in love with his mother. If Hamlet does suffer from this, it would explain a lot about his personality and how he deals with things in his life. For example we can tell that he has very acute sexual problems.