To What Extent do you feel that Gertrude is responsible for Hamlet's state of mind in the play so far?

Henry Bain

To What Extent do you feel that Gertrude is responsible for Hamlet’s state of mind in the play so far?

One of the ambiguous themes in the play that is left widely to interpretation is the madness of Hamlet. Is he merely “mad in craft,” or, has he actually degenerated into a nihilistic man, to whom “to be or not to be” is a central preoccupation?

Hamlet is clearly angered by the marriage of his mother and his uncle so soon after his father’s death. In Hamlet’s first soliloquy he says:

‘Or that the Everlasting had not fixed

His canon gainst self slaughter’ (1.2.131-2)

Hamlet immediately tells us he wishes suicide was not a mortal sin. This, along with the rest of his soliloquy, shows the profound effect that the marriage of his mother and uncle has had upon him. He compares his mother to a “beast that wants discourse of reason,” and outlines that Claudius is as much like his father, as Hamlet is to Hercules. Hamlet considered his father as without fault (Hyperion) and, not being two months dead, his father was replaced in his mother’s affections and “incestuous sheets.”

Hamlet’s indignation to the marriage is explicit and the lines in his soliloquy are teeming with emotion. Hamlet also feels bound to suffer in silence, although this will “break” his heart. At this point in the play Hamlet’s feels depressed, alone and trapped within Denmark and within himself. The disjointed rhythm of Hamlet’s speech mirrors his inner turmoil and repressed emotion.

At the end of his meeting with Polonius in act 2 Hamlet once again expresses his desire to die:

‘You cannot sir take from me anything that I will more

willingly part withal; except my life, except my life, except my life’

This is the second time Hamlet has openly told the audience that he wants to die but the first time not in a soliloquy. Hamlet becomes more explicit in his emotions, telling Guildenstern and Rosencrantz that life seems to him a “sterile promontory,” and that he is “but mad north-north-west. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk form a handsaw.” His view on life is integrally nihilistic; his madness is as temperamental as the direction of the wind.

Gertrude is hugely responsible for Hamlet’s state of mind that we are first confronted with. The first time she speaks to Hamlet it is to tell him to “cast thy knighted colour off,” which potentially presents her as a loving mother. She also says, “let not the mother lose her prayers,” imploring him to remain in Denmark. She appears concerned for her son but it is her marriage to Claudius that has clouded Hamlet’s view of her.

If he did not love his mother, then he would not feel the extreme hatred towards her part in the marriage that he does, extending his hatred only towards Claudius. Hamlet is also obsessed by the sexual link of his mother and uncle. This is shown in the play by the “rank sweat of an enseaméd bed”, “the incestuous pleasures of his bed”, and “with such dexterity to incestuous sheets” that Hamlet uses to describe Gertrude and Claudius’s shared bed. This theme runs constant throughout the play and Hamlet will be left alone to contemplate this, until his meeting with ...

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Hamlet views the marriage as an insult to his father’s memory and this prevents him from overcoming the grief for his father’s death, thus, totally affecting his state of mind. This again reinforces that Hamlet is severely affected by the way his mother has behaved.

After Hamlet’s encounter with the ghost he is fixated by, and bound by his word to the revenge of his father. Later in Act 1, Hamlet says to the Ghost that within him, “thy commandment all alone shall live.” If Hamlet is driven solely by this motivation then by Gertrude being Claudius’s wife, she is caught up in this fixation, and will constantly be subject to the scrutiny of her son. An example that epitomises this fact is, after the Ghost has spoken to Hamlet, the first person he lists in his anger is the “o most pernicious woman. (Gertrude)”

The role of women in the patriarchy that is Denmark is to be subservient to the men. We have to consider how much choice and influence the women in Denmark would have had on their lives. Ophelia literally means ‘serving woman,’ and it is her obligation to her father that leads her to betray Hamlet. In Hamlet’s attitude and actions towards his mother and Ophelia we can achieve a further insight into his state of mind. He does not stop to consider the situation of Ophelia and Gertrude, instead looking at their faults in blissful isolation. By doing this Hamlet contributes as much to his troubled state of mind as both women do.

When Hamlet taunts Polonius (act 2 scene 2) he says:

‘For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a good

kissing carrion – Have you a daughter.’

In one stream of consciousness, Hamlet links death, sex and Ophelia. This is a very warped and disturbing image to portray, especially in the presence of Polonius. Hamlet’s emotions expressed for Ophelia are often at opposite ends of the spectrum from one scene to the next. In act 3 Hamlet tells Ophelia, “I did love you once,” and then “I loved you not,” within two lines of speech. Hamlet’s disgust with Ophelia (when he knows for certain the he is being set up), like with his mother, becomes centred on her sexual depravity.

Hamlet does not set out to talk to Ophelia in this way. Indeed and when he first catches sight of her he talks of “soft” “fair” Ophelia. By the end of their encounter, he sees Ophelia as a whore and as frailty personified rather than a person. When the play is being performed in Act 3 Hamlet asks Ophelia “if this is a prologue, or the posy of a ring.” She replies that “it is brief” and Hamlet immediately injects, “as a woman’s love.” Like the scene when Hamlet is alone with his mother, he takes her words and twists them to enforce his opinion. Hamlet is unable to let Ophelia’s remarks go unchallenged. This shows his conflicting emotions of love and hate towards her, that prevent him from moving on

I think that Hamlet is more affected by Ophelia’s betrayal than he lets on. Hamlet’s attitude to women is not totally misogynistic but more an eclectic collection of extreme emotions, that he can’t place or understand. We can’t blame Hamlet for his actions towards Ophelia now, and his mother at the beginning of the play. He feels he is being betrayed and in Ophelia’s case, he has a right to believe so.

Leading up to the “closet” scene there are few references to the way in which Gertrude truly knows Hamlet. It is the lack of insight and time spent considering Hamlet’s position that illuminates her failings as a mother. In act two she proclaims of Guildenstern and Rosencrantz:

‘And sure I am, two men there is not living

To whom he more adheres’ (2.2.20)

However, later in the play we find out that this is not true. Gertrude was “sure” that Hamlets affections for the two men were above any other and, finding out that she is wrong, leads us to question her validity as a good mother. In contrast to this, Gertrude acknowledges that Hamlet’s “madness” is due to “his father’s death and her “o’erhasty marriage” to Claudius. If Gertrude knew that her marriage was too soon after old Hamlet’s death, then she would not have done it. Hamlet’s opinion of his mother is governed by the notion that she is weak and ruled by lust, hence justifying the marriage by Gertrude’s flaws.

Just before Hamlet goes to see his mother we are able to see his opinion of her, untainted by any words she may say later in her defence. Hamlet says:

‘O heart, lose not the nature; let not ever

The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom’ (3.2.355)

Hamlet has to actively dispel the thoughts of killing his mother. This is unequivocal proof of the immense effect that Gertrude has had on Hamlet. Hamlet said to the Ghost, that his “commandment” alone would live within him. It is the other preoccupations excluding Hamlet’s revenge on Claudius that prevented him from killing Claudius in the previous scene. Hamlet is unable to ‘leave to heaven’ the judgement of his mother.

The “closet” scene is the only time we see Hamlet and Gertrude alone together. This is the time when Hamlet can address his mother’s actions and implore her to change. Hamlet mocks the rhythm of Gertrude’s words and turns her reprimands into accusations of his own:

Gertrude: ‘Hamlet, thou hast your 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’

Gertrude is still ignorant of the extent to which Hamlet’s father’s death and her marriage to Claudius has affected him and uses “your father,” to describe Claudius.

When Hamlet kills Polonius, he is accused by his mother of a bloody deed. He replies in a jeering couplet: ‘A bloody deed? Almost as bad, good mother, / As kill a King and marry his brother.’ Hamlet juxtaposes the severity of his deed with the actions of his mother, but Gertrude’s shocked echo of ‘Kill a King?’ shows that she has no knowledge of Hamlet’s insinuation. Later in the scene Hamlet uses the inversion of such phrases like ‘calls virtue hypocrite,’ to stress to Gertrude the unnatural connotations of old Hamlet’s murder.

Gertrud’s speech is full of desperation at her son’s hatred towards her. Hamlet tells his mother that she can’t justify her marriage to Claudius with love to Claudius at her age for ‘the heyday in the blood is tame.’ She tells Hamlet: ‘Thou turn’st my eyes into my very soul / And there I see such black and grained spots / as will not leave their tinct.’ Gertrude is ashamed of what she has done and truly feels that she has scarred her morality.

Hamlet uses a variety of language that could be attributed to a confession: Confess yourself to heaven…Repent…Virtue…Refrain. This is in essence, a complete confession of Hamlet’s soul to his mother, who is left with her ‘heart cleft in twain.’ The religious inference of this passage shows Hamlet’s deep and repressed grief, attributed to the ‘o’erhasty’ actions of his mother.

However, Hamlet reassures Gertrude that he is ‘mad in craft’ and, finally accepting what he has said, Gertrude says:

‘Be thou assured, if words be made of breath,

And breath of life, I have no life to breathe

What thou hast said to me.’

Although the three lines above do indeed verify Gertrude’s acceptance of her son’s wishes there is a deeper meaning within. The line, ‘I have no life to breathe’ can be juxtaposed with Hamlet saying that, to him, life is nothing more than a ‘sterile promontory.’ Hamlet and his mother carry the burden of their knowledge alone and it is this that finally unites them. There is a shared realisation that life, in view of this horrific knowledge, is not worth living.

Until now, Gertrude’s was Hamlet’s main degenerative catalyst. His state of mind was dominated by the sexual inferences of his mother and Claudius. Hamlet’s state of will change now. His mother is now not as responsible for the way he behaves; Hamlet must wait and see how she reacts to the news he has told her.