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Analysis of Hamlet and Gertrude Relationship in Shakespeare’s Tragedy

Categories: Hamlet Relationship William Shakespeare

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Published: Dec 3, 2020

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Works Cited:

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LaBau, E. (2014). The sweet book of candy making: From the simple to the spectacular-how to make caramels, fudge, hard candy, fondant, toffee, and more!. Quarry Books.
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Wolke, R. L. (2015). What Einstein told his cook 2: The sequel: Further adventures in kitchen science. W. W. Norton & Company.

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Hamlet and Gertrude’s Relationship in Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’

Hamlet and Gertrude’s Relationship in…

Shakespeare presents Hamlet’s and Gertrude’s relationship as a crucial factor for the plot of the play. Gertrude is vital in fuelling Hamlet’s hatred of women as well as his drive for revenge. Her remarriage also causes Hamlet to sink into melancholy as Bradley states it provided a ‘violent shock to his moral being’. Gertrude’s remarriage for Hamlet is seen as the root cause of the corruption and decay of Denmark.

Many critics argue that female characters in ‘Hamlet’ are passive and in the use of De Beauvoir’s terms for femininity as immanence. Gertrude could be seen as a passive character pushed aside by the male characters; however, she could also be seen as a transcending female; one that is not simply an object in the play, but a subject.

Arguably, without Gertrude, Hamlet’s passion for revenge and hatred for women won’t be the same. And like Adelman argues that “as an avenger, Hamlet seems motivated more by his mother than by his father”. One of Hamlet’s main reasons for seeking revenge is his mother’s remarriage and he tells Horatio that Claudius has “Killed my king and whored my mother” thus revealing his greater emphasis on his mother’s remarriage, hence their relationship as mother and son is crucial for the plot as a revenge tragedy.

Throughout the play, Hamlet obsesses over Gertrude’s haste remarriage and lack of grief for his father’s death. After she accuses Hamlet of faking his grief at the start of the play, Hamlet replies “‘seems’ madam – nay it is”. The anaphora of ‘nor’ here reiterates his grief of his father and reveals his deep inner suffering which comes about with his mother’s ‘incestuous’ and haste remarriage. Here Hamlet is mocking his mother.

This contrast in mourning emphasizes Hamlet’s concern for his mother’s lack of grief also emphasizing his agitation towards her not showing her true feelings. Hamlet’s obsession with her remarriage is shown in one of his soliloquies when saying “but two months dead” also comparing his father and Claudius as “Hyperion to Satyr”.

The use of Greek mythology here shows us that he sees his father as God-like and idolizes him meanwhile Claudius is a low-life ‘satyr’ often associated with lust and intoxication. Therefore, his anger at the remarriage fuels his passion for revenge thus making him plan his revenge.

A moment in the play where Hamlet’s relationship with Gertrude is shown to fuel his revenge is in the Closet Scene. Hamlet attacks Polonius after confronting his mother thinking it is Claudius who’s behind the arras.

Right before he kills Polonius Hamlet touches on the familial troubles that have befallen the royal family. Hamlet says to Gertrude “You are the queen, your husband’s brother’s wife”, here the confusing use of familial roles reveals the confusion that has ensued Denmark causing Hamlet inner suffering and ‘violent shock to his moral being’ (Bradley) which came about with his mother’s remarriage.

The start of the closet scene reveals his anger at his mother which fuels his passion for revenge hence leading to Hamlet’s remorseless murder of Polonius. After the murder Hamlet remarks “thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!”

He shows no sympathy or remorse as he calls him ‘fool’ and ‘rash’ which is ironic and hypocritical, as Hamlet is rash here for killing Polonius without knowing who was behind the arras. He is presented as a morally responsible prince who has been contemplating whether he should commit murder or not but ends up killing the innocent with ease thus showing how his anger at his mother’s marriage encouraged him to take action against the person behind the arras.

Accordingly, Hamlet responds to his mother’s remark at the murder of “what a rash and bloody deed is this!” with “almost as bad… as kill a king and marry with his brother”. Here Hamlet does not only focus on his father’s murder but also Gertrude’s remarriage revealing how it is crucial to his revenge and it pushed him in this specific scene to act ‘rash[ly]’. Therefore, Gertrude and Hamlet’s relationship is presented as crucial to the plot as it fuels his passion for revenge.

Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship is also presented as the reason behind Hamlet’s hate for women. Rebecca Smith states that Hamlet “attacks what he perceives the brevity of women, women’s wantonness and women’s ability to make ‘monsters’ of men”. We see this with his anger at Gertrude’s remarriage as he states “Frailty, thy name is women.” The word ‘frailty’ suggests weakness thus he is belittling women and showing his hatred towards them. This comes right after his confrontation with Gertrude when she thinks he ‘seems’ mournful.

This reveals his newly found hatred towards women as now he is suffering due to the mistrust his mother has created. Gertrude’s lack of grief and haste remarriage leads to his generalized hatred and mistrust of women as seen by his mistreatment of Ophelia. When attacking her at the ‘nunnery scene’ he generalizes women by saying “I have heard of your paintings too, well enough. God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.”

Shakespeare uses the inauthenticity of painting the face with makeup as an analogy for women’s deception just like Gertrude’s betrayal of marrying Claudius and Ophelia knowingly being a pawn used by Claudius and Polonius. Hamlet shifts his specific criticism of Ophelia in this scene to attack women in general as a criticism of makeup was a standard element of misogyny in Elizabethan England. This shift from specific to general criticism links to his anger at his mother who initially caused his hatred for women.

Hamlet also says to Ophelia in this scene that “wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them.” This is an allusion to the idea that men whom their wives cheated on grew horns thus suggesting that all women are unfaithful and turn their husbands into monsters.

Hamlet is doubting Ophelia’s loyalty and faithfulness however this doubt sparked with his mother’s marriage to Claudius which led to Hamlet’s deep mistrust of women thus making their relationship as mother and son crucial in developing Hamlet’s hatred for women.

Finally, Hamlet sees his mother’s remarriage as a reason for Denmark’s ‘rotten’ and corrupt state. Marcellus says “something is rotten in the State of Denmark” which connects to the Elizabethan idea that the health of the nation is connected to the legitimacy and purity of the throne.

Laertes describes Hamlet by saying his choice “affects the health of the State” thus showing how his actions are important as he has the responsibility of looking after Denmark and upholding its stability.

This arguably applies to Gertrude as well, as Hamlet describes her marriage bed as the “Royal bed of Denmark” and by then describing it as ‘enseamed’ and ‘rank in corruption’ reveals how Hamlet associates his mother’s marriage with rot and decay.

His mother’s hast remarriage affects the whole of Denmark and the image of her marriage bed being the bed of Denmark reinforces the idea that corruption has become innate to Denmark and the decay and rot that comes with corruption spreads from the throne to society.

The use of the extended metaphor of an ‘unweeded garden’ to describe Denmark as the corruption of the throne and his mother has spread like an ‘unweeded garden’ to the state and people causing troubled times and for this to end, corruption needs to be stopped. Thus, we see Gertrude as presented in some play adaptations willingly drinking the poison, which is representative of corruption, therefore she ends her inner corruption with suicide as she couldn’t bear it any longer.

Denmark has to decay to be saved from the corruption just like human flesh rots and decays then fertilizes the ground hence the extended use of imagery of rot and decay associated with Gertrude’s remarriage and the throne of Denmark. Therefore, Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship is crucial in revealing the corruption of Denmark.

Overall, Shakespeare reveals the importance of Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship as his mother’s remarriage is the main factor that fuels his passion for revenge as well as hatred for women. Their relationship also reveals the corruption of Denmark thus Hamlet’s need to take action to purify it.

Claudius’ Role and Personality in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Did Hamlet Love for Ophelia?
Decay in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Moral Order in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Madness in Hamlet

Author: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

Hamlet and Gertrude’s Relationship of Love

Introduction, hamlet and gertrude’s relationship, works cited.

Hamlet is a story about love which involves lies and betrayal. Human relationship as a theme is very significant in this story. The natural, intimate or logical association between two or more people could be defined as a relationship. A lot of relationships are interwoven in this story and the bonds in these relationships are very strong. This can be seen in the relationship between Gertrude and her son young Hamlet. In spite of their differences, she was always trying to protect her son even at the point of death; she stops him from drinking poison. Another example of a relationship with a strong bond is the relationship between young Hamlet and his closest friend and confidant Horatio. (Benson 121)

Claudius’ love for Gertrude causes him to kill his brother old king Hamlet. The intensity of their love reminds the reader of other famous lovers throughout history. The central theme of this story is love. However, the love relationship between Claudius and Gertrude has its roots in lies, fear, betrayal and even death. This relationship between Hamlet’s uncle and his mother puts a strain on his relationship with his mother Gertrude. Constant lies, deceit and manipulation escalate the evil that characters in the story perpetrate against one and other.

Lastly, the lessons learnt from this story will be highlighted and the necessary measures or steps needed to curtail such a situation will be suggested. (Benson 128)

Young prince Hamlet was born in the family of old king Hamlet and Queen Gertrude of Denmark. The character Hamlet has many relationships with different people in the story. Some of these relationships can be termed or described as just or unjust relationships depending on the flaws, feelings and position of the person or character that had a relationship with Hamlet. Hamlet’s relationship to his mother Gertrude is known or described as an Oedipus complex. The feelings and thoughts some men have towards their mothers are referred to as Oedipus complex. Some examples in the play show that truly Hamlet did indeed have such thoughts about his mother. (Benson 155)

After prince Hamlet’s encounter with the supposedly ghost of his father old king Hamlet, he found out about his uncle’s evil deed. Adhering strictly to the advice of his father’s ghost, prince Hamlet tried not to hurt his mother Gertrude. Although he constantly risked her life, young prince Hamlet did not want his mother to get hurt.

On the other hand, through out the story, Gertrude’s love and fondness for her son is displayed. She was always trying to protect prince Hamlet. When Hamlet told her about Claudius’ evil deed, instead of doubting her son she rather believed he was insane. He also told his mother not to reveal to Claudius that he, Hamlet was aware of his murderous evil act. In other to be extremely sure about Claudius’s guilt and prove it to his mother Gertrude, Hamlet organized a play depicting his father’s death. While the play went on, Claudius left due to the uneasiness he felt from watching the play which depicted how he wickedly killed his brother old king Hamlet and married his wife, Queen Gertrude. (Benson 148)

After proving his sanity to his mother and clearly showing Claudius’ guilt, Prince Hamlet Urged his mother not to let Claudius take her to bed again. He tried to save his mother’s life while there was still time.

Hamlet’s feelings towards Gertrude his mother were very just although at some instances towards the end of the story, he risked her life.

Throughout this story, there is a complicated web of lies. After confiding in his best and closest friend Horatio about Claudius’ evil act, prince Hamlet begins to think of a perfect place and time to avenge his father’s death. Polonius in this story is a great liar and manipulator. Although he is king Claudius’ trusted counselor but he and his son had ulterior motives. Polonius and his son Laertes deceived Ophelia about Hamlet’s sincerity concerning their courtship. (Benson 167)

Ophelia succumbed to the whims and caprices of her father and brother thus she never behaved well towards Hamlet. Her desires were her primary goals and she never showed any respect for her womanhood. Subsequently, Prince Hamlet discovered she had been lying to him and he denounced his love for her and also called her a prostitute then he insulted her father Polonius in the presence of King Claudius and Queen Gertrude by calling him a fishmonger. (Benson 205)

Another example of lies in the story is the situation between Prince Hamlet and his childhood friends namely; Guildenstern and Rosencrantz. Disturbed by prince Hamlet’s change of attitude, King Claudius asked Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what was actually troubling prince him. The duo went to Hamlet under the pretence of been concerned friends. In reality, the twin brothers were there simply for the fact that they wanted to find out what was wrong with Hamlet so they could tell King Claudius. They tried hiding under lies to enable them dig into his soul and find out what was actually responsible for his change in attitude. After a failed attempt, the twin brothers returned a second time to try again but they were rebuffed by Hamlet who insulted and called them liars. (Benson 315)

Betrayals seem to be the order of the day through out this play. Schemes of lies and betrayals are plotted and orchestrated by friends and loved ones.

Claudius betrayed his brother’s love by killing him, marrying his wife and taking over his kingdom. Unfortunately for Claudius, the ghost of old king Hamlet appears to his son the prince and reveals the truth how Claudius had poisoned him. As the story unfolds, Hamlet plans how to avenge his father’s death. (Benson 444)

Ophelia also betrayed Hamlets love by listening to the advice of her father and brother. Hamlet had real love for Ophelia but instead she choose to betray that love. When Hamlet finally denounced his love for her and also called her a prostitute, Ophelia could not handle it any longer and that broke her down then it eventually led to insanity.

Another case of betrayal in this story is the situation between Prince Hamlet and his childhood friends. Hamlet reposed his confidence in his friends little did he know his good deed would be paid back in an evil manner. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern had been Hamlet’s friends from childhood and when they agreed to spy on him for King Claudius, that friendship was not only betrayed but also it also broke. Unknown to Hamlet, the concern shown by his twin friends was as a result of their plot with King Claudius to find out what was actually wrong with him. However, when Hamlet finally discerns their real intent, he rebuffed them. In a final attempt to cleverly kill Hamlet, King Claudius sends him to England where he was to be executed on arrival under the guise of diplomatic errand. The twin brothers were supposed to closely watch Hamlet during the course of their journey. But instead of going with the brothers, Hamlet cleverly sends the twins to England with out him. (Benson 323)

This story ends as a tragedy because, all the main characters died including Hamlet, his mother queen Gertrude and King Claudius. A lot of lessons are to be learnt from the story.

Prince Hamlet was driven by youthful exuberance did not take his time to think or consider the implications of his intended act of murder. Blinded by the urge to avenge his father’s death, Hamlet threw caution to the winds and took a dangerous path which eventually led to his untimely death. On the path to avenge his father’s death Hamlet killed three people namely; Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. In the case of Polonius, he did not feel any remorse for stabbing him because Polonius was eavesdropping on the conversation between him and his mother. While for the case of the twin brothers, he concluded that they got what they deserved for playing along the king’s plot to kill him. Hamlet died from the poisoned tip of Laertes’ sword. (Benson 512)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were friends with Hamlet even before the assumption of the throne by Claudius. But apparently, this did not matter to them as they connived with King Claudius against him. First they tried to get information from him by pretending to be concerned about his well being and later, they were also associated in the plot to kill him in England. The duo eventually met their doom as the faced persecution meant for Hamlet in England. (Benson 276)

Ophelia also paid dearly for her sins of betrayal. She simply complied with the advice of her father and brother not minding if what they said was true or not. The turning point for her was the point when Hamlet discovered about her lies and denounced his love for her. She could not handle this and she lost sanity.

King Claudius was the main character in the play whose evil deeds eventually drove other character like Prince Hamlet to go extra miles just to avenge his father’s death. Claudius committed murder, treason, and adultery all in a bid to ascend his brother’s throne. After killing his brother old king Hamlet, he eventually married his wife and tried to kill his son. On the path to this dangerous adventure, Claudius involved friends of his predecessor’s family who unfortunately succumbed to his whims and caprices. After master minding the death of King Hamlet and Queen Gertrude both who died of poisoning, he eventually arranged a fight between Laertes Polonius’ son who also wanted to avenge his father death and Hamlet. King Claudius poisoned the tip of Laertes sword hoping he would kill Hamlet. Although Hamlet died but not before stabbing King Claudius with the same sword he had poisoned. To sum it all up, King Claudius did not got free after committing so many crimes and to complement the play, he died through a weapon he had put in place to destroy Hamlet. (Benson 499)

Benson, George. The Norton Anthology of World Literature: “Shorter Second Edition, Volume 1” Oxford: Blackwell 2005. Print

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Hamlet and Gertrude Relationship Analysis

The famous British playwright, William Shakespeare, explored the issue of paternal and maternal love in most of his works.

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Hamlet, the most significant play both in English and world literature, is a masterpiece of Shakespeare who is famous as the most well-known poet and dramatist. His masterpiece Hamlet was possibly written in the first period of the 17th century, but the source of Hamlet is Amleth (a revenge tale) which was published in the 16 th century. However, because of Shakespeare's genius, Hamlet, instead of Amleth, has become the source or subject for many studies and works going on the present since the 17 th century. Even though people do not take place in academic life, and do not read Shakespeare, they have knowledge about Hamlet in one way or another. Hamlet has taken place in their daily language and has been used to speak out for specific worldviews. In this play, it is easily observed that most of critics and scholars give full attention to Hamlet himself, but Hamlet is not just an attractive character in this tragedy. We can focus on characters of Hamlet that are victimized/ marginalized by the other, 'important' characters. Two victimized/ marginalized women characters are involved in Shakespeare's play. These women characters are Gertrude and Ophelia. They should be regarded as important for their very detailed positions, and by the help of these women characters; the play has raised in value. The purpose of this paper is to explain the power of males' effects over these characters, and analyse victimized Gertrude's and Ophelia's characteristic features.

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Hamlet’s Relationship With Gertrude

Introduction, conflict between mother and son, call for responsibility, progressiveness of views.

As a targeted literary work to analyze, the world-famous play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare will be considered. For the first time, the tragedy was published in 1603, and to this day, this is one of the outstanding works of the genius of classic English literature. The play tells about the fate of Hamlet, the young Danish prince, who goes through a serious shock after losing his father, which is aggravated by the quick marriage of his widowed mother. Shakespeare expresses the idea that even an intelligent and educated person can take revenge and harshness to defend justice. Hamlet’s conflict with Gertrude, his mother, reflects the difference in views between them and the young prince’s desire for ideals that are illusory in the midst of royal intrigue.

The conflict between Hamlet and Gertrude is a consequence of the disagreement between the prince and the Queen over the family values and the importance of staying true to high ideals. Gertrude understands her son’s claims, but she is less worried and wants the young prince to come to terms with the loss, which, in turn, annoys Hamlet even more. The Queen says: “I doubt it is no other but the main, his father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage” (Shakespeare 59). In stating this, she emphasizes two key reasons for the disagreement with her son, and their conflict is difficult to resolve due to diverging views on the future life. Although Gertrude does this for the good of her son and sacrifices her reputation, Hamlet sees her as a traitor and calls for responsibility.

By calling his mother responsible, Hamlet wants revenge but not only just justice. When turning to Gertrude, he accuses her of betrayal, which, in turn, entails misunderstanding between them and the Queen’s longing for the child who refuses to accept her views. The young prince states as follows: “A bloody deed – almost as bad, good mother, as to kill a king, and marry with his brother” (Shakespeare 35). This statement of his proves the complete disagreement about what happened and Hamlet’s tough position. Intransigence with injustice contradicts the prince’s original ideas about life and family, which proves the progressiveness of his views compared to that of his mother.

Hamlet looks to the future and is guided by views that shape universal human values, while Gertrude is more superficial. While addressing the mother, the prince wants to convey to her the idea that betrayal in relation to her husband is a rejection of herself, which makes the woman think about the words of her son. He says as follows: “My mother. Father and mother is man and wife; man and wife is one flesh” (Shakespeare 60). This phrase confirms that Hamlet is wiser than Gertrude and considers the family as a whole, which his mother cannot understand due to her narrow-mindedness. Thus, this difference in beliefs is the result of their conflict.

Differences in views on the family shape the conflict between Hamlet and Gertrude and highlight the young prince’s inability to convey high values and ideals in the midst of royal intrigue. When calling his mother for responsibility, Hamlet displays more progressive views the Queen cannot understand, which causes disagreement between them. Shakespeare’s play is an example of a classic tragedy and conveys deep ideas about high moral values and ideals that a person is unable to realize due to others’ narrow-mindedness.

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark . Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Washington Square Press, 1992.

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Essays on hamlet.

Written as the author taught Hamlet every semester for a decade, these lightning essays ask big conceptual questions about the play with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover, and answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar. In doing so, Hamlet becomes a lens for life today, generating insights on everything from xenophobia, American fraternities, and religious fundamentalism to structural misogyny, suicide contagion, and toxic love.

Prioritizing close reading over historical context, these explorations are highly textual and highly theoretical, often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Readers see King Hamlet as a pre-modern villain, King Claudius as a modern villain, and Prince Hamlet as a post-modern villain. Hamlet’s feigned madness becomes a window into failed insanity defenses in legal trials. He knows he’s being watched in “To be or not to be”: the soliloquy is a satire of philosophy. Horatio emerges as Shakespeare’s authorial avatar for meta-theatrical commentary, Fortinbras as the hero of the play. Fate becomes a viable concept for modern life, and honor a source of tragedy. The metaphor of music in the play makes Ophelia Hamlet’s instrument. Shakespeare, like the modern corporation, stands against sexism, yet perpetuates it unknowingly. We hear his thoughts on single parenting, sending children off to college, and the working class, plus his advice on acting and writing, and his claims to be the next Homer or Virgil. In the context of four centuries of Hamlet hate, we hear how the text draws audiences in, how it became so famous, and why it continues to captivate audiences.

At a time when the humanities are said to be in crisis, these essays are concrete examples of the mind-altering power of literature and literary studies, unravelling the ongoing implications of the English language’s most significant artistic object of the past millennium.

Publications

Why is Hamlet the most famous English artwork of the past millennium? Is it a sexist text? Why does Hamlet speak in prose? Why must he die? Does Hamlet depict revenge, or justice? How did the death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet, transform into a story about a son dealing with the death of a father? Did Shakespeare know Aristotle’s theory of tragedy? How did our literary icon, Shakespeare, see his literary icons, Homer and Virgil? Why is there so much comedy in Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy? Why is love a force of evil in the play? Did Shakespeare believe there’s a divinity that shapes our ends? How did he define virtue? What did he think about psychology? politics? philosophy? What was Shakespeare’s image of himself as an author? What can he, arguably the greatest writer of all time, teach us about our own writing? What was his theory of literature? Why do people like Hamlet ? How do the Hamlet haters of today compare to those of yesteryears? Is it dangerous for our children to read a play that’s all about suicide?

These are some of the questions asked in this book, a collection of essays on Shakespeare’s Hamlet stemming from my time teaching the play every semester in my Why Shakespeare? course at Harvard University. During this time, I saw a series of bright young minds from wildly diverse backgrounds find their footing in Hamlet, and it taught me a lot about how Shakespeare’s tragedy works, and why it remains with us in the modern world. Beyond ghosts, revenge, and tragedy, Hamlet is a play about being in college, being in love, gender, misogyny, friendship, theater, philosophy, theology, injustice, loss, comedy, depression, death, self-doubt, mental illness, white privilege, overbearing parents, existential angst, international politics, the classics, the afterlife, and the meaning of it all.

These essays grow from the central paradox of the play: it helps us understand the world we live in, yet we don't really understand the text itself very well. For all the attention given to Hamlet , there’s no consensus on the big questions—how it works, why it grips people so fiercely, what it’s about. These essays pose first-order questions about what happens in Hamlet and why, mobilizing answers for reflections on life, making the essays both highly textual and highly theoretical.

Each semester that I taught the play, I would write a new essay about Hamlet . They were meant to be models for students, the sort of essay that undergrads read and write – more rigorous than the puff pieces in the popular press, but riskier than the scholarship in most academic journals. While I later added scholarly outerwear, these pieces all began just like the essays I was assigning to students – as short close readings with a reader and a text and a desire to determine meaning when faced with a puzzling question or problem.

The turn from text to context in recent scholarly books about Hamlet is quizzical since we still don’t have a strong sense of, to quote the title of John Dover Wilson’s 1935 book, What Happens in Hamlet. Is the ghost real? Is Hamlet mad, or just faking? Why does he delay? These are the kinds of questions students love to ask, but they haven’t been – can’t be – answered by reading the play in the context of its sources (recently addressed in Laurie Johnson’s The Tain of Hamlet [2013]), its multiple texts (analyzed by Paul Menzer in The Hamlets [2008] and Zachary Lesser in Hamlet after Q1 [2015]), the Protestant reformation (the focus of Stephen Greenblatt’s Hamlet in Purgatory [2001] and John E. Curran, Jr.’s Hamlet, Protestantism, and the Mourning of Contingency [2006]), Renaissance humanism (see Rhodri Lewis, Hamlet and the Vision of Darkness [2017]), Elizabethan political theory (see Margreta de Grazia, Hamlet without Hamlet [2007]), the play’s reception history (see David Bevington, Murder Most Foul: Hamlet through the Ages [2011]), its appropriation by modern philosophers (covered in Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster’s The Hamlet Doctrine [2013] and Andrew Cutrofello’s All for Nothing: Hamlet’s Negativity [2014]), or its recent global travels (addressed, for example, in Margaret Latvian’s Hamlet’s Arab Journey [2011] and Dominic Dromgoole’s Hamlet Globe to Globe [2017]).

Considering the context and afterlives of Hamlet is a worthy pursuit. I certainly consulted the above books for my essays, yet the confidence that comes from introducing context obscures the sharp panic we feel when confronting Shakespeare’s text itself. Even as the excellent recent book from Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich announces Hamlet has entered “an age of textual exhaustion,” there’s an odd tendency to avoid the text of Hamlet —to grasp for something more firm—when writing about it. There is a need to return to the text in a more immediate way to understand how Hamlet operates as a literary work, and how it can help us understand the world in which we live.

That latter goal, yes, clings nostalgically to the notion that literature can help us understand life. Questions about life send us to literature in search of answers. Those of us who love literature learn to ask and answer questions about it as we become professional literary scholars. But often our answers to the questions scholars ask of literature do not connect back up with the questions about life that sent us to literature in the first place—which are often philosophical, ethical, social, and political. Those first-order questions are diluted and avoided in the minutia of much scholarship, left unanswered. Thus, my goal was to pose questions about Hamlet with the urgency of a Shakespeare lover and to answer them with the rigor of a Shakespeare scholar.

In doing so, these essays challenge the conventional relationship between literature and theory. They pursue a kind of criticism where literature is not merely the recipient of philosophical ideas in the service of exegesis. Instead, the creative risks of literature provide exemplars to be theorized outward to help us understand on-going issues in life today. Beyond an occasion for the demonstration of existing theory, literature is a source for the creation of new theory.

Chapter One How Hamlet Works

Whether you love or hate Hamlet , you can acknowledge its massive popularity. So how does Hamlet work? How does it create audience enjoyment? Why is it so appealing, and to whom? Of all the available options, why Hamlet ? This chapter entertains three possible explanations for why the play is so popular in the modern world: the literary answer (as the English language’s best artwork about death—one of the very few universal human experiences in a modern world increasingly marked by cultural differences— Hamlet is timeless); the theatrical answer (with its mixture of tragedy and comedy, the role of Hamlet requires the best actor of each age, and the play’s popularity derives from the celebrity of its stars); and the philosophical answer (the play invites, encourages, facilitates, and sustains philosophical introspection and conversation from people who do not usually do such things, who find themselves doing those things with Hamlet , who sometimes feel embarrassed about doing those things, but who ultimately find the experience of having done them rewarding).

Chapter Two “It Started Like a Guilty Thing”: The Beginning of Hamlet and the Beginning of Modern Politics

King Hamlet is a tyrant and King Claudius a traitor but, because Shakespeare asked us to experience the events in Hamlet from the perspective of the young Prince Hamlet, we are much more inclined to detect and detest King Claudius’s political failings than King Hamlet’s. If so, then Shakespeare’s play Hamlet , so often seen as the birth of modern psychology, might also tell us a little bit about the beginnings of modern politics as well.

Chapter Three Horatio as Author: Storytelling and Stoic Tragedy

This chapter addresses Horatio’s emotionlessness in light of his role as a narrator, using this discussion to think about Shakespeare’s motives for writing tragedy in the wake of his son’s death. By rationalizing pain and suffering as tragedy, both Horatio and Shakespeare were able to avoid the self-destruction entailed in Hamlet’s emotional response to life’s hardships and injustices. Thus, the stoic Horatio, rather than the passionate Hamlet who repeatedly interrupts ‘The Mousetrap’, is the best authorial avatar for a Shakespeare who strategically wrote himself and his own voice out of his works. This argument then expands into a theory of ‘authorial catharsis’ and the suggestion that we can conceive of Shakespeare as a ‘poet of reason’ in contrast to a ‘poet of emotion’.

Chapter Four “To thine own self be true”: What Shakespeare Says about Sending Our Children Off to College

What does “To thine own self be true” actually mean? Be yourself? Don’t change who you are? Follow your own convictions? Don’t lie to yourself? This chapter argues that, if we understand meaning as intent, then “To thine own self be true” means, paradoxically, that “the self” does not exist. Or, more accurately, Shakespeare’s Hamlet implies that “the self” exists only as a rhetorical, philosophical, and psychological construct that we use to make sense of our experiences and actions in the world, not as anything real. If this is so, then this passage may offer us a way of thinking about Shakespeare as not just a playwright but also a moral philosopher, one who did his ethics in drama.

Chapter Five In Defense of Polonius

Your wife dies. You raise two children by yourself. You build a great career to provide for your family. You send your son off to college in another country, though you know he’s not ready. Now the prince wants to marry your daughter—that’s not easy to navigate. Then—get this—while you’re trying to save the queen’s life, the prince murders you. Your death destroys your kids. They die tragically. And what do you get for your efforts? Centuries of Shakespeare scholars dumping on you. If we see Polonius not through the eyes of his enemy, Prince Hamlet—the point of view Shakespeare’s play asks audiences to adopt—but in analogy to the common challenges of twenty-first-century parenting, Polonius is a single father struggling with work-life balance who sadly choses his career over his daughter’s well-being.

Chapter Six Sigma Alpha Elsinore: The Culture of Drunkenness in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Claudius likes to party—a bit too much. He frequently binge drinks, is arguably an alcoholic, but not an aberration. Hamlet says Denmark is internationally known for heavy drinking. That’s what Shakespeare would have heard in the sixteenth century. By the seventeenth, English writers feared Denmark had taught their nation its drinking habits. Synthesizing criticism on alcoholism as an individual problem in Shakespeare’s texts and times with scholarship on national drinking habits in the early-modern age, this essay asks what the tragedy of alcoholism looks like when located not on the level of the individual, but on the level of a culture, as Shakespeare depicted in Hamlet. One window into these early-modern cultures of drunkenness is sociological studies of American college fraternities, especially the social-learning theories that explain how one person—one culture—teaches another its habits. For Claudius’s alcoholism is both culturally learned and culturally significant. And, as in fraternities, alcoholism in Hamlet is bound up with wealth, privilege, toxic masculinity, and tragedy. Thus, alcohol imagistically reappears in the vial of “cursed hebona,” Ophelia’s liquid death, and the poisoned cup in the final scene—moments that stand out in recent performances and adaptations with alcoholic Claudiuses and Gertrudes.

Chapter Seven Tragic Foundationalism

This chapter puts the modern philosopher Alain Badiou’s theory of foundationalism into dialogue with the early-modern playwright William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . Doing so allows us to identify a new candidate for Hamlet’s traditionally hard-to-define hamartia – i.e., his “tragic mistake” – but it also allows us to consider the possibility of foundationalism as hamartia. Tragic foundationalism is the notion that fidelity to a single and substantive truth at the expense of an openness to evidence, reason, and change is an acute mistake which can lead to miscalculations of fact and virtue that create conflict and can end up in catastrophic destruction and the downfall of otherwise strong and noble people.

Chapter Eight “As a stranger give it welcome”: Shakespeare’s Advice for First-Year College Students

Encountering a new idea can be like meeting a strange person for the first time. Similarly, we dismiss new ideas before we get to know them. There is an answer to the problem of the human antipathy to strangeness in a somewhat strange place: a single line usually overlooked in William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet . If the ghost is “wondrous strange,” Hamlet says, invoking the ancient ethics of hospitality, “Therefore as a stranger give it welcome.” In this word, strange, and the social conventions attached to it, is both the instinctual, animalistic fear and aggression toward what is new and different (the problem) and a cultivated, humane response in hospitality and curiosity (the solution). Intellectual xenia is the answer to intellectual xenophobia.

Chapter Nine Parallels in Hamlet

Hamlet is more parallely than other texts. Fortinbras, Hamlet, and Laertes have their fathers murdered, then seek revenge. Brothers King Hamlet and King Claudius mirror brothers Old Norway and Old Fortinbras. Hamlet and Ophelia both lose their fathers, go mad, but there’s a method in their madness, and become suicidal. King Hamlet and Polonius are both domineering fathers. Hamlet and Polonius are both scholars, actors, verbose, pedantic, detectives using indirection, spying upon others, “by indirections find directions out." King Hamlet and King Claudius are both kings who are killed. Claudius using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet mirrors Polonius using Reynaldo to spy on Laertes. Reynaldo and Hamlet both pretend to be something other than what they are in order to spy on and detect foes. Young Fortinbras and Prince Hamlet both have their forward momentum “arrest[ed].” Pyrrhus and Hamlet are son seeking revenge but paused a “neutral to his will.” The main plot of Hamlet reappears in the play-within-the-play. The Act I duel between King Hamlet and Old Fortinbras echoes in the Act V duel between Hamlet and Laertes. Claudius and Hamlet are both king killers. Sheesh—why are there so many dang parallels in Hamlet ? Is there some detectable reason why the story of Hamlet would call for the literary device of parallelism?

Chapter Ten Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: Why Hamlet Has Two Childhood Friends, Not Just One

Why have two of Hamlet’s childhood friends rather than just one? Do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have individuated personalities? First of all, by increasing the number of friends who visit Hamlet, Shakespeare creates an atmosphere of being outnumbered, of multiple enemies encroaching upon Hamlet, of Hamlet feeling that the world is against him. Second, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are not interchangeable, as commonly thought. Shakespeare gave each an individuated personality. Guildenstern is friendlier with Hamlet, and their friendship collapses, while Rosencrantz is more distant and devious—a frenemy.

Chapter Eleven Shakespeare on the Classics, Shakespeare as a Classic: A Reading of Aeneas’s Tale to Dido

Of all the stories Shakespeare might have chosen, why have Hamlet ask the players to recite Aeneas’ tale to Dido of Pyrrhus’s slaughter of Priam? In this story, which comes not from Homer’s Iliad but from Virgil’s Aeneid and had already been adapted for the Elizabethan stage in Christopher Marlowe’s The Tragedy of Dido, Pyrrhus – more commonly known as Neoptolemus, the son of the famous Greek warrior Achilles – savagely slays Priam, the king of the Trojans and the father of Paris, who killed Pyrrhus’s father, Achilles, who killed Paris’s brother, Hector, who killed Achilles’s comrade, Patroclus. Clearly, the theme of revenge at work in this story would have appealed to Shakespeare as he was writing what would become the greatest revenge tragedy of all time. Moreover, Aeneas’s tale to Dido supplied Shakespeare with all of the connections he sought to make at this crucial point in his play and his career – connections between himself and Marlowe, between the start of Hamlet and the end, between Prince Hamlet and King Claudius, between epic poetry and tragic drama, and between the classical literature Shakespeare was still reading hundreds of years later and his own potential as a classic who might (and would) be read hundreds of years into the future.

Chapter Twelve How Theater Works, according to Hamlet

According to Hamlet, people who are guilty of a crime will, when seeing that crime represented on stage, “proclaim [their] malefactions”—but that simply isn’t how theater works. Guilty people sit though shows that depict their crimes all the time without being prompted to public confession. Why did Shakespeare—a remarkably observant student of theater—write this demonstrably false theory of drama into his protagonist? And why did Shakespeare then write the plot of the play to affirm that obviously inaccurate vision of theater? For Claudius is indeed stirred to confession by the play-within-the-play. Perhaps Hamlet’s theory of people proclaiming malefactions upon seeing their crimes represented onstage is not as outlandish as it first appears. Perhaps four centuries of obsession with Hamlet is the English-speaking world proclaiming its malefactions upon seeing them represented dramatically.

Chapter Thirteen “To be, or not to be”: Shakespeare Against Philosophy

This chapter hazards a new reading of the most famous passage in Western literature: “To be, or not to be” from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . With this line, Hamlet poses his personal struggle, a question of life and death, as a metaphysical problem, as a question of existence and nothingness. However, “To be, or not to be” is not what it seems to be. It seems to be a representation of tragic angst, yet a consideration of the context of the speech reveals that “To be, or not to be” is actually a satire of philosophy and Shakespeare’s representation of the theatricality of everyday life. In this chapter, a close reading of the context and meaning of this passage leads into an attempt to formulate a Shakespearean image of philosophy.

Chapter Fourteen Contagious Suicide in and Around Hamlet

As in society today, suicide is contagious in Hamlet , at least in the example of Ophelia, the only death by suicide in the play, because she only becomes suicidal after hearing Hamlet talk about his own suicidal thoughts in “To be, or not to be.” Just as there are media guidelines for reporting on suicide, there are better and worse ways of handling Hamlet . Careful suicide coverage can change public misperceptions and reduce suicide contagion. Is the same true for careful literary criticism and classroom discussion of suicide texts? How can teachers and literary critics reduce suicide contagion and increase help-seeking behavior?

Chapter Fifteen Is Hamlet a Sexist Text? Overt Misogyny vs. Unconscious Bias

Students and fans of Shakespeare’s Hamlet persistently ask a question scholars and critics of the play have not yet definitively answered: is it a sexist text? The author of this text has been described as everything from a male chauvinist pig to a trailblazing proto-feminist, but recent work on the science behind discrimination and prejudice offers a new, better vocabulary in the notion of unconscious bias. More pervasive and slippery than explicit bigotry, unconscious bias involves the subtle, often unintentional words and actions which indicate the presence of biases we may not be aware of, ones we may even fight against. The Shakespeare who wrote Hamlet exhibited an unconscious bias against women, I argue, even as he sought to critique the mistreatment of women in a patriarchal society. The evidence for this unconscious bias is not to be found in the misogynistic statements made by the characters in the play. It exists, instead, in the demonstrable preference Shakespeare showed for men over women when deciding where to deploy his literary talents. Thus, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a powerful literary example – one which speaks to, say, the modern corporation – showing that deliberate efforts for egalitarianism do not insulate one from the effects of structural inequalities that both stem from and create unconscious bias.

Chapter Sixteen Style and Purpose in Acting and Writing

Purpose and style are connected in academic writing. To answer the question of style ( How should we write academic papers? ) we must first answer the question of purpose ( Why do we write academic papers? ). We can answer these questions, I suggest, by turning to an unexpected style guide that’s more than 400 years old: the famous passage on “the purpose of playing” in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet . In both acting and writing, a high style often accompanies an expressive purpose attempting to impress an elite audience yet actually alienating intellectual people, while a low style and mimetic purpose effectively engage an intellectual audience.

Chapter Seventeen 13 Ways of Looking at a Ghost

Why doesn’t Gertrude see the Ghost of King Hamlet in Act III, even though Horatio, Bernardo, Francisco, Marcellus, and Prince Hamlet all saw it in Act I? It’s a bit embarrassing that Shakespeare scholars don’t have a widely agreed-upon consensus that explains this really basic question that puzzles a lot of people who read or see Hamlet .

Chapter Eighteen The Tragedy of Love in Hamlet

The word “love” appears 84 times in Shakespeare’s Hamlet . “Father” only appears 73 times, “play” 60, “think” 55, “mother” 46, “mad” 44, “soul” 40, “God" 39, “death” 38, “life” 34, “nothing” 28, “son” 26, “honor” 21, “spirit” 19, “kill” 18, “revenge” 14, and “action” 12. Love isn’t the first theme that comes to mind when we think of Hamlet , but is surprisingly prominent. But love is tragic in Hamlet . The bloody catastrophe at the end of that play is principally driven not by hatred or a longing for revenge, but by love.

Chapter Nineteen Ophelia’s Songs: Moral Agency, Manipulation, and the Metaphor of Music in Hamlet

This chapter reads Ophelia’s songs in Act IV of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the context of the meaning of music established elsewhere in the play. While the songs are usually seen as a marker of Ophelia’s madness (as a result of the death of her father) or freedom (from the constraints of patriarchy), they come – when read in light of the metaphor of music as manipulation – to symbolize her role as a pawn in Hamlet’s efforts to deceive his family. Thus, music was Shakespeare’s platform for connecting Ophelia’s story to one of the central questions in Hamlet : Do we have control over our own actions (like the musician), or are we controlled by others (like the instrument)?

Chapter Twenty A Quantitative Study of Prose and Verse in Hamlet

Why does Hamlet have so much prose? Did Shakespeare deliberately shift from verse to prose to signal something to his audiences? How would actors have handled the shifts from verse to prose? Would audiences have detected shifts from verse to prose? Is there an overarching principle that governs Shakespeare’s decision to use prose—a coherent principle that says, “If X, then use prose?”

Chapter Twenty-One The Fortunes of Fate in Hamlet : Divine Providence and Social Determinism

In Hamlet , fate is attacked from both sides: “fortune” presents a world of random happenstance, “will” a theory of efficacious human action. On this backdrop, this essay considers—irrespective of what the characters say and believe—what the structure and imagery Shakespeare wrote into Hamlet say about the possibility that some version of fate is at work in the play. I contend the world of Hamlet is governed by neither fate nor fortune, nor even the Christianized version of fate called “providence.” Yet there is a modern, secular, disenchanted form of fate at work in Hamlet—what is sometimes called “social determinism”—which calls into question the freedom of the individual will. As such, Shakespeare’s Hamlet both commented on the transformation of pagan fate into Christian providence that happened in the centuries leading up to the play, and anticipated the further transformation of fate from a theological to a sociological idea, which occurred in the centuries following Hamlet .

Chapter Twenty-Two The Working Class in Hamlet

There’s a lot for working-class folks to hate about Hamlet —not just because it’s old, dusty, difficult to understand, crammed down our throats in school, and filled with frills, tights, and those weird lace neck thingies that are just socially awkward to think about. Peak Renaissance weirdness. Claustrophobicly cloistered inside the castle of Elsinore, quaintly angsty over royal family problems, Hamlet feels like the literary epitome of elitism. “Lawless resolutes” is how the Wittenberg scholar Horatio describes the soldiers who join Fortinbras’s army in exchange “for food.” The Prince Hamlet who has never worked a day in his life denigrates Polonius as a “fishmonger”: quite the insult for a royal advisor to be called a working man. And King Claudius complains of the simplicity of "the distracted multitude.” But, in Hamlet , Shakespeare juxtaposed the nobles’ denigrations of the working class as readily available metaphors for all-things-awful with the rather valuable behavior of working-class characters themselves. When allowed to represent themselves, the working class in Hamlet are characterized as makers of things—of material goods and services like ships, graves, and plays, but also of ethical and political virtues like security, education, justice, and democracy. Meanwhile, Elsinore has a bad case of affluenza, the make-believe disease invented by an American lawyer who argued that his client's social privilege was so great that it created an obliviousness to law. While social elites rot society through the twin corrosives of political corruption and scholarly detachment, the working class keeps the machine running. They build the ships, plays, and graves society needs to function, and monitor the nuts-and-bolts of the ideals—like education and justice—that we aspire to uphold.

Chapter Twenty-Three The Honor Code at Harvard and in Hamlet

Students at Harvard College are asked, when they first join the school and several times during their years there, to affirm their awareness of and commitment to the school’s honor code. But instead of “the foundation of our community” that it is at Harvard, honor is tragic in Hamlet —a source of anxiety, blunder, and catastrophe. As this chapter shows, looking at Hamlet from our place at Harvard can bring us to see what a tangled knot honor can be, and we can start to theorize the difference between heroic and tragic honor.

Chapter Twenty-Four The Meaning of Death in Shakespeare’s Hamlet

By connecting the ways characters live their lives in Hamlet to the ways they die – on-stage or off, poisoned or stabbed, etc. – Shakespeare symbolized hamartia in catastrophe. In advancing this argument, this chapter develops two supporting ideas. First, the dissemination of tragic necessity: Shakespeare distributed the Aristotelian notion of tragic necessity – a causal relationship between a character’s hamartia (fault or error) and the catastrophe at the end of the play – from the protagonist to the other characters, such that, in Hamlet , those who are guilty must die, and those who die are guilty. Second, the spectacularity of death: there exists in Hamlet a positive correlation between the severity of a character’s hamartia (error or flaw) and the “spectacularity” of his or her death – that is, the extent to which it is presented as a visible and visceral spectacle on-stage.

Chapter Twenty-Five Tragic Excess in Hamlet

In Hamlet , Shakespeare paralleled the situations of Hamlet, Laertes, and Fortinbras (the father of each is killed, and each then seeks revenge) to promote the virtue of moderation: Hamlet moves too slowly, Laertes too swiftly – and they both die at the end of the play – but Fortinbras represents a golden mean which marries the slowness of Hamlet with the swiftness of Laertes. As argued in this essay, Shakespeare endorsed the virtue of balance by allowing Fortinbras to be one of the very few survivors of the play. In other words, excess is tragic in Hamlet .

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Gertrude: A Portrait of Conflicting Loyalties Anonymous

Women living in Elizabethan times, although more liberated than medieval women, were still expected to do their husband's will and obey at all times. In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Queen Gertrude begins the play acting as a typical Elizabethan woman. She sits beside her new husband, Claudius, and reiterates each statement he makes. Further into the play, persuaded by Hamlet, Gertrude begins to question her quick remarriage. As she finally learns the truth of Claudius's betrayal, she breaks free from his hold and warns Hamlet of the poisoned cup. Shakespeare's character Gertrude shows emotional growth, from her dependency on Claudius, to questioning her actions, to her betrayal of Claudius in a futile attempt to save her son, Hamlet.

Gertrude begins the play supporting Claudius and backing up his every word. As the deceased King's widow, she possesses more authority than Claudius, but she chooses not to exercise that authority. As the newly crowned Claudius first speaks to Hamlet, he begins by praising him, but then reprimands him for mourning the King's death for too long. "'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet... 'Tis unmanly grief" (1.2.90-98). After Claudius's...

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essay on hamlet and gertrude's relationship

Hamlet’s Relationship with His Mother (Gertrude) – Attitude Towards Her Research Paper

Hamlet and his mother’s relationship, hamlet’s relationship with ophelia, hamlet’s relationship with his mother: how does hamlet treat his mother, does hamlet love his mother, works cited.

William Shakespeare, the famous playwright, has addressed the issue of relationships in most of his plays, especially as of family ties. He has in most of his books and in particular, The Tragedies exposed the good and the bad side of family ties, especially between parents and their kids, including oedipal complex issues.

In Hamlet, the must-read chef-d’oeuvre, Shakespeare brings to light the connections between members of a family, namely Hamlet, who is a prince, his late father, his mother Gertrude and his stepfather Claudius. This paper seeks to address Hamlet’s relationship with his mother as brought out in the play though the analysis of the characters.

In this play, Shakespeare uses a woman called Gertrude, who is among the few women featured in the masterwork. Through her relationship with her son Hamlet, Shakespeare paints a picture of betrayal. Gertrude marries the brother of Hamlet’s father and this why Hamlet is upset with his mother. In his opinion, remarriage is a tremendous act of betrayal.

In the whole book, Hamlet dedicates most of his time and energy trying to take revenge for the death of the king, his father, whom he believes was cruelly treated by those for whom he cared. Therefore, he suffered during his whole lifetime. Hamlet feels that Gertrude hurts the king more by not mourning during the king’s burial.

She instead delights in her new marriage depicting some freedom from oppression that she went through in her former marriage, as the reader can insinuate. As a result, Hamlet develops significant irritation towards her mother, which he manifests through his monologue and dialogue with other people as depicted in the play.

Hamlet is made to change his perception of love after his mother marries his late father’s brother, two months after the death of his father (Shakespeare I.ii.138). As a result, Hamlet concludes that his father truly loved his mother, yet his mother never loved him.

He fails to understand how his mother could so much dangle on his father (Shakespeare I. ii. 140, 143) then marry Claudius so soon after his father’s death. He refuses to admit Gertrude and Claudius’ relationship. He, therefore, resolves that woman’s adoration is so frail and can be changed so easily depending on the situation that the woman finds herself. Faulkner calls women “frail beings not because of their physical abilities but because of their weak emotions” (146).

According to Hamlet, his mother betrayed not only his father but also the love and the marriage his parents shared. Gertrude’s unrefined actions change Hamlet’s perception of love towards others. He reaches the level of hating Ophelia, the girl who truly loves him fearing that she might be in possession of his mother’s betrayal character.

Because of Gertrude’s evil plans of betraying her once-beloved husband, Hamlet’s love for Ophelia, the woman who he loved and one who gave back an equal share of the love changes, and is significantly affected.

When with her and watching a play, Ophelia comments that the prologue is very brief and Hamlet likens the briefness to a woman’s love (Shakespeare III. ii. 137-138). As time goes by, the gap between Hamlet and Ophelia widens to the level of Hamlet declaring that he does not love Ophelia at all and is not ready to love her anymore (Shakespeare III.i.119-120).

However, after Ophelia’s death, the reader realizes that Hamlet was not sincere with his previous words concerning his faded love to Ophelia since he later on confirms to Laertes that he loved her so much and no amount of love could match his love for her (Shakespeare V.i.254-256).

The reader realizes the reason behind Hamlet’s words that though he knows very well that Ophelia loves him, he fears that it might take after that between his mother and his late father, which was in no doubt fake.

Gertrude’s actions instil a lot of anger to Hamlet who in turn reaches the level of killing any man who seems to take up the position of his late father.

Hamlet ends up believing his mother conspired with his uncle into killing his beloved father. He is filled up with so much rage and hatred until he kills Polonius in his mother’s bedroom after seeing him and thinking that he is Claudius.

His temper is fueled by the conviction that his mother by conspiring to kill the king and then marrying the killer caused an offence too great to be forgiven. After mistaking Polonius for Claudius and killing him, his mother calls the action “a bloody deed to which Hamlet replies that a bloody deed is killing a king and marrying the brother” (Shakespeare III. iv. 26-28).

Hamlet’s mother is shocked at this accusation, and the shock is so big until Hamlet begins to doubt if she really killed his father. From this point, though still convinced that she betrayed his father, he changes and starts warning her of her evil actions instead of accusing her. He comes to the full conclusion that his mother never killed her father.

The unacceptable marriage of his mother to his uncle continues to antagonize him. He, therefore, decides to only “speak daggers to her but use none” (Caxton 366).

With this, he speaks to her harshly addressing her as the queen, wife to the king’s brother. He asks her where her shame is and proceeds to compare his father, who he refers to as a combination and a form indeed and his uncle who he calls a ‘mildewed ear’.

Of course, Gertrude becomes defensive, orders him not to speak to him in that manner but he continuous, and warns her to repent her actions and prevent that which is to come (Shakespeare III. iv. 141). He even cautions her against going into her uncle’s bed. He tries to make her mother realize she is not doing the right thing and should feel sorry and stop her unrefined actions.

The conversation between Hamlet and his mother brings back Gertrude to her senses where she feels guilty and ashamed of her actions (Caxton 80).

It is at this point that she realizes that all along, she had been doing what was not right, and it was a great act of betrayal to her late husband. She admits that though she had never consciously been aware that Claudius had killed his brother, she had never fully approved of her actions.

Gertrude admits that when she looked into her soul, she was shocked by what she saw. Meanwhile, Hamlet has been acting very madly, where he discloses to his mother that it is just but a feigned state, but he will not reveal it to anyone. From this point henceforth, as Horatio points out, Hamlet and Gertrude’s relationship is restored (14). Together now, they begin to seek revenge for the king’s death.

Hamlet continues with his feigned state of madness while Gertrude continues to make Claudius trust that the condition is real, and these actions become of great importance later (Shakespeare IV. i. 6-7).

Claudius hence comes to believe the prince’s simulated state, and he starts fearing what he may do to him. During the fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes, Gertrude shows that her allegiance is with the prince and not with the king for she gives her son her napkin and tells her that she rejoices in his fortunes.

Mother of Hamlet goes on to drink from the poisoned cup that was meant for him and though her new husband warns and orders her to stop drinking it, she continues and finishes it. This shows where her full allegiance is, and despite there still being intense feelings between them, they find their relationship becoming better before she finally dies.

It is noted throughout the play that even though Hamlet is hurt by her mother’s act of betrayal of marrying her husband’s brother a short time after her husband’s death, he never wishes to hurt her. His main aim all along is to avenge his father’s death. His quest for vengeance does not compromise his love for his mother, and all through the play, his love for him is evidently displayed.

He tries and succeeds at convincing her to realize that her actions were wrong and together, they undertake to avenge the king’s death. So despite the tense relationship between Hamlet and his mother at the beginning marked with feelings of anger and rage (Friedlander 3), their relationship is restored at the end, and Hamlet finally achieves his objective of avenging his father’s death. It is all a message of hope.

Caxton, Charles. Commentary on Hamlet . New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 2006.

Faulkner, William. The Hamlet Commentary . New York: Thumshire publishers, 2008.

Friedlander, Gibson. Enjoying Hamlet by William Shakespeare . London: P. Press, 2010.

Horatio, Joseph. Enjoying Hamlet. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc., 1997.

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Hamlet Characters – List & Descriptions

April 10, 2024

Whether you’ve read the play or not, you’re probably familiar with the plot of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark —moody Prince Hamlet mopes around wondering how to avenge his father’s death. (Maybe you remember Mel Gibson talking to a skull ?) If you need a summary, here’s a link . At the same time, a summary can only take you so far. Hamlet is Shakespeare’s longest play, so while you might remember the events, you might need a review of the characters and their motivations. Below, I’ve tried to provide a list of most of the main characters in Hamlet as well as the drama and tension that each of them deals with.

If you’re looking for a closer reading of specific quotes from the text, check out this link — and, if you want a good analysis of Hamlet’s famous “To be or not” soliloquy, look no further than here .

HAMLET, Prince of Denmark

Hamlet: character-specific overview.

When the play opens, Hamlet is having a rough time. His dad (the former king) died two months previous and his mom (Gertrude) promptly married his uncle Claudius (now the current king). Hamlet is also dealing with girl problems. He’s been courting Ophelia, who, on the advice of her father Polonius, has been giving Hamlet the cold shoulder. Accordingly, Polonius thinks Hamlet’s melancholy is caused by this unrequited love.

If all this weren’t hard enough, Hamlet encounters the ghost of his dead father while on the castle ramparts. The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him (poison in the ear) and asks him to avenge his death. While Hamlet considers the ghost’s demand, Claudius and Gertrude have summoned Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlet’s university buddies, to try to suss out what ails the prince of Denmark. It doesn’t take Hamlet long to figure out what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are up to, so he doesn’t give up any information. What’s more, Hamlet doesn’t take kindly to what he perceives as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s allegiance to the king. (Hamlet will directly cause their death by the end of the play.)

Hamlet might be bent on revenge, but he hasn’t lost all his critical faculties. That is, he’s not completely convinced that the ghost he saw wasn’t some sort of devil trying to trick him. To see if the ghost is telling the truth, Hamlet gets a traveling troupe of actors to put on a play in which a king is murdered with poison in his ear. Claudius freaks out and stops the play – Hamlet knows the ghost has spoken the truth.

Hamlet: Character-Specific Overview (con’t)

With his guilt confirmed, Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Not wanting to kill someone with a freshly-laundered conscience, Hamlet holds off on killing him and goes to speak with his mother. What Hamlet doesn’t know is that Polonius is hiding behind a curtain to listen to their conversation. Hamlet hears something and, thinking it’s Claudius, stabs and kills Polonius by mistake. Before leaving, he tells his mother not to go back to bed with Claudius.

Claudius is understandably miffed. He summons Hamlet and convinces him to go to England. Claudius reveals (to the audience) that he’s signed Hamlet’s death warrant. On the boat to England, Hamlet looks through the papers the king has sent and sees that he’s to be killed. He rewrites the letters, asking that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern be killed instead. Pirates attack. Hamlet makes it back to Denmark in time for Ophelia’s funeral and converses with gravediggers about the profundities of death.

At this point, Claudius and Laertes both want Hamlet dead. They decide to set up a duel between Hamlet and Laertes during which the latter will try to stab Hamlet with a poisoned blade. If this fails, Claudius also prepares a poisoned cup of wine. Upon his return to Elsinore, Hamlet agrees to the duel – disaster ensues. Laertes is accidentally cut with his own (poisoned) blade and dies, the Queen drinks from the poisoned chalice and dies, Hamlet stabs Claudius with the poisoned sword and makes him drink the poisoned wine – he dies. Hamlet, who has also been nicked with the poisoned blade, dies.

What’s Hamlet’s deal with Ophelia?

Now that we understand the complexities of Hamlet’s situation, we can better understand the tension at the heart of his character. As I see it, Hamlet is torn between personal and structural commitments. On the one hand, he’s a person with individual thoughts and desires – on the other, he’s the future king of Denmark and responsible to its citizens. We can sort Hamlet’s relationships according to these two categories and understand how conflicted he feels.

Nowhere is this tension clearer than in Hamlet’s interaction with Ophelia in the “nunnery scene” (Act III, Scene I). Recall that Hamlet has just given his famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy, in which he considers the relative value of suicide. (Check out an analysis of this soliloquy here .) When he sees Ophelia, he pauses and says “The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remember’d.” On first read, this line seems tender, which makes Hamlet’s subsequent rudeness to Ophelia hard to understand.

Hamlet Characters (Continued)

The famous Shakespeare scholar John Dover Wilson offers a reading of this scene that makes Hamlet’s subsequent remarks to Ophelia more than mere “madness.” Wilson argues that Hamlet realizes that Claudius and Polonius are observing him. Wilson argues that Ophelia’s words and actions tip Hamlet off that he’s being duped (he points to Hamlet’s “Ha, ha!” as the moment of recognition). In effect, Wilson posits that most of Hamlet’s words in the “nunnery scene” are addressed to Polonius and Claudius.

This allows us to read Hamlet’s behavior as a strategic – a conscious performance of the “antic disposition” he mentions to Horatio in Act I, Scene 5. What’s more, we can now understand this scene as animated by the tension between the personal (his erstwhile love for Ophelia) and the structural (Polonius and Claudius). In effect, this scene marks the moment when Hamlet’s personal life is dragged into the political sphere.

What’s up with Hamlet and his mom?

Like Ophelia, Gertrude stands at the intersection of the personal and political. On the one hand, she is his mother, on the other, she is the once and current queen of Denmark. Hamlet’s disappointment with his mother is clear. Recall his words in Act I, Scene 2: “Why, she would hang on him / As if increase of appetite had grown / By what it fed on; and yet, within a month…married with mine uncle.” The love and loyalty Hamlet imagined between his mother and father seems now an illusion.

At the same time, Gertrude’s actions make political sense. In a time of political instability, Gertrude’s marriage to Claudius gives his rule the imprimatur of the previous regime. While her marriage is traumatic from Hamlet’s (personal) point of view, it makes good political sense. Hamlet’s angst stems from his inability to see Gertrude as anything but a mother. What Hamlet fails to realize is that Gertrude has political responsibilities beyond Hamlet.

OPHELIA and GERTRUDE

There’s no doubt that the women in Hamlet get the short end of the stick. Both Ophelia and Gertrude die as a result of political machinations beyond their control. Ophelia goes crazy at the death of her father and drowns herself, Gertrude accidentally drinks the poisoned chalice that Claudius prepared for Hamlet.

What is striking is that regardless of their position in society, neither woman has any real agency over their personal affairs. Recall the scene where Ophelia talks to her brother and father about Hamlet. Before leaving for England, Laertes warns Ophelia that Hamlet “is subject to his birth: / He may not, as unvalu’d persons do, / Carve for himself.” In other words, whatever Hamlet’s romantic intentions toward (the lower born) Ophelia, as the future king of Denmark, he will have to marry someone of much higher political stature.

Indeed, there may be grave consequences should Ophelia give in to Hamlet’s affections. Laertes warns Ophelia to think of the “loss your honour may sustain / If with too credent ear you list his songs, / Or lose your heart, or your chaste treasure open [ wink ] / To his unmaster’d importunity.” In other words, Hamlet’s feelings (at the moment) may be real, but Ophelia could damage herself (and her future marital prospects) should she forget the structural limitations on Hamlet’s choices. Ultimately, Ophelia chooses to side with her family rather than act on her own feelings toward Hamlet.

I think that we can see a similar dynamic at work in Gertrude’s choices. There’s little doubt as to what Hamlet thinks about Gertrude’s choice to marry his uncle – recall his declaration that “Frailty, thy name is woman!” Indeed, after he kills Polonius, Hamlet berates his mother and begs her not to return to Claudius’ bed. Hamlet is particularly descriptive when he describes Gertrude “honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty.” (For a more detailed discussion of Gertrude’s sexuality, I recommend Richard Levin’s “Gertrude’s Elusive Libido and Shakespeare’s Unreliable Narrators.” ) However, as pointed out in Manuel Aguirre’s “ Life, Crown, and Queen: Getrude and the Theme of Sovereignty, ” Gertrude’s actions show a definite political calculus. While Hamlet may claim that her actions are purely as a result of lust, her choice shows a commitment to the stability of the Danish state.

In many ways, Claudius is the least interesting character of the play. Compared to the interior churn of Hamlet, Ophelia, and Gertrude, Claudius’s actions and motivations, though unscrupulous, lack dramatic depth. Throughout the play, Claudius functions mostly as a motor for the plot. For example, once Claudius admits that he killed Hamlet’s father, the focus shifts to how Hamlet will get his revenge. Similarly, when Claudius mentions his plot to have Hamlet killed, the audience wonders at Hamlet’s Houdini-like escape. And when Claudius schemes with Laertes, the audience anxiously awaits Hamlet’s response.

Ophelia and Laertes’ father, Polonius mostly as a plot engine. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, Polonius remains convinced that Hamlet’s mood results from his unrequited love for Ophelia. While eavesdropping behind some curtains, he is killed by Hamlet. Polonius’s most famous line is “To thine own self be true,” which even made its way into Clueless.

MINOR-ISH CHARACTERS

The ghost of the late king.

The ghost of Hamlet’s father first appears to Barnardo, Marcellus, and Horatio in the first scene of the play. Hamlet then comes to see the ghost for himself. The ghost tells Hamlet that Claudius killed him and asks him to avenge him. The ghost reappears during Hamlet’s conversation with his mother to “whet thy [Hamlet’s] almost blunted purpose.”

Polonius’s son, Laertes goes to France, though not before he tells his sister that she shouldn’t believe Hamlet’s loving words, lest he sully her “chaste treasure.” Upon his father’s death, he returns, seeking revenge. He duels with Hamlet and is killed by his own poisoned blade.

Horatio is Hamlet’s bestie and the sole survivor of the bloodbath at the end of the play (Hamlet stops him from drinking the last of the poisoned wine). When Fortinbras arrives at the end of the play, it is Horatio who tells the story of Hamlet, “lest more mischance / On plots and errors happen.”

Prince of Norway and erstwhile enemy of Denmark, Fortinbras arrives at the end of the play to absolute carnage. Before he dies, Hamlet endorses Fortinbras to become the king of Denmark. Earlier in the play, the sight of Fortinbras’s courage inspired Hamlet to exclaim, “O, from this time forth, / My thoughts be bloody or be nothing worth.”

ROSENCRANTZ & GUILDENSTERN

Besides being the inspiration for the famous Tom Stoppard play , Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Hamlet’s friends from the University of Wittenberg. While Hamlet initially welcomes them, he grows increasingly distrustful as it becomes clear that they are doing Claudius’s bidding.

MARCELLUS, BARNARDO, and FRANCISCO

These soldiers are on duty when the ghost first appears in the first scene of the play, though Francisco leaves before seeing the ghost. Hamlet swears them to secrecy and warns them to say nothing if they notice in him an “antic disposition.”

OSRIC and REYNALDO

Portrayed as slightly dull, Osric comes to Hamlet in the last scene to explain the terms of the proposed duel with Laertes. Reynaldo is Polonius’s servant and is sent by the latter to keep tabs on Laertes while he in France.

Hamlet Characters – Wrapping Up

Ultimately, all the characters in Hamlet are torn between their individual desires and their political commitments. Some may dismiss Hamlet as moody, but the tension that animates him is the same tension that animates all of the characters in the text. In some ways, Hamlet teaches us how to live. The play asks how one should balance the competing demands of individual feelings and the requirements of political or familial commitments.

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Devon holds a bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing & International Relations, an MFA in Poetry, and a PhD in Comparative Literature. For nearly a decade, he served as an assistant professor in the First-Year Seminar Program at Whitman College. Devon is a former Fulbright Scholar as well as a Writing & Composition Instructor of Record at the University of Iowa and Poetry Instructor of Record at the University of Montana. Most recently, Devon’s work has been published in Fugue , Bennington Review , and TYPO , among others.

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Hamlet Character Analysis

This essay about Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” examines the intricate layers of the protagonist’s character, exploring his profound introspection, internal conflicts, and complex relationships. Through Hamlet’s existential contemplation, struggles with indecision, and interactions with other characters, the essay illuminates timeless themes of love, betrayal, and the search for meaning. Ultimately, it highlights Hamlet as an emblem of the human condition, showcasing Shakespeare’s enduring genius and the enduring relevance of his work.

How it works

In the realm of literary treasures, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” stands as an enigmatic gem, captivating scholars and audiences alike with its intricate protagonist. This essay endeavors to dissect the complexities of Hamlet’s character, offering a fresh perspective on this enduring figure.

Hamlet, the youthful Prince of Denmark, emerges amidst a backdrop of familial tragedy and political unrest. His father’s abrupt demise and his mother Gertrude’s hasty remarriage to his uncle Claudius thrust him into a whirlwind of sorrow and suspicion.

It is within this tumultuous milieu that the genesis of Hamlet’s internal strife unfolds, a storm of conflicting emotions driving the narrative forward.

At the core of Hamlet’s persona lies his profound introspection and philosophical depth. Unlike conventional heroes propelled solely by external forces, Hamlet is characterized by his relentless contemplation of life’s existential conundrums. His soliloquies serve as portals into his tortured psyche, grappling not only with the notion of vengeance but also with the very essence of human existence, showcasing his intellectual profundity.

Yet, Hamlet’s introspective nature proves to be both a boon and a bane, often leaving him ensnared in a labyrinth of indecision. Despite his initial determination to avenge his father’s murder, he finds himself entangled in a web of uncertainty, tormented by doubts regarding the righteousness of his cause and the potential consequences of his actions. This inner conflict manifests in his erratic behavior and seemingly irrational outbursts, further cementing his reputation as a character of complexity and unpredictability.

Moreover, Hamlet’s interactions with other characters offer glimpses into his multifaceted personality. His relationship with Ophelia, for instance, oscillates between tender affection and bitter resentment, reflecting his conflicted attitudes towards love and betrayal. Similarly, his dealings with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern highlight his skillful manipulation and deceit as he navigates the treacherous waters of court politics with cunning and guile.

Of particular fascination is Hamlet’s dynamic with his mother Gertrude, a relationship fraught with tension and ambiguity. While he professes love and reverence for her, he struggles to reconcile her swift marriage to Claudius with his sense of filial duty. Their charged confrontation in her chamber lays bare the complexities of their bond, as Hamlet vacillates between tenderness and fury, yearning for maternal affection yet unable to forgive her perceived transgressions.

In essence, Hamlet’s character is a mosaic of contradictions, his flaws and virtues intertwined in a complex tapestry. His journey towards self-discovery is fraught with pitfalls and obstacles, yet through his struggles, he emerges as a figure of enduring fascination and relevance. Despite his tragic demise, Hamlet’s legacy endures as a testament to the human capacity for introspection, resilience, and redemption.

In conclusion, Hamlet remains an emblem of the human condition, his character a mirror reflecting the intricate depths of the psyche. Through his introspection, indecision, and intricate relationships, he transcends the confines of his Elizabethan origins to convey timeless truths about love, betrayal, and the quest for meaning in a tumultuous world. By unraveling the enigma of Hamlet’s character, we are reminded of Shakespeare’s unparalleled genius and the enduring resonance of his literary oeuvre.

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Critic’s Notebook

Two Shakespearean Triumphs in Paris, or a Plague on Both Their Houses?

New productions of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” follow a French tradition of adapting familiar works. The results are innovative, and sometimes cryptic.

An actor in a long white garment points his finger at the forehead of another actor dressed in red and black.

By Laura Cappelle

The critic Laura Cappelle saw the shows in Paris.

Two Paris playhouses, both alike in dignity, putting on rival new Shakespeare productions.

Thus expectations were high for a springtime face-off — with contemporary stagings of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” — between the Comédie-Française, France’s top permanent company, and the Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe, the Left Bank’s most venerable theater.

The results certainly felt French. The country has long been a haven for concept-driven theater-makers, and the two directors involved, Silvia Costa and Christiane Jatahy, have no qualms about cutting and splicing the Bard’s plays in experimental, sometimes cryptic ways.

At the Comédie-Française, Costa’s “Macbeth” edits the two dozen named characters down to only eight actors and leans heavily into religious symbolism. In “Hamlet,” Jatahy goes so far as to keep Ophelia alive. Far from going mad, Ophelia climbs down from the stage and exits through the auditorium after declaring: “I died all these years. This year, I won’t die.”

Jatahy, a Brazilian director who has a significant following in France, has performed this sort of bait-and-switch with classics before. Her adaptations of Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” (“What If They Went to Moscow?”) and Strindberg’s “Miss Julie” (“Julia”) reworked the plays’ story lines and characters from a feminist perspective, lending greater weight to female roles.

At the Odéon, Jatahy also cast a woman, the outstanding Clotilde Hesme, as Hamlet, explaining in a playbill interview that her goal was to refocus the story on three female characters: Hamlet, Ophelia and Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude. And while a female Hamlet is hardly news — the French star Sarah Bernhardt performed the role back in 1886 — Jatahy’s premise looks promising for the first few scenes.

Slouching on a couch, Hesme cuts a grave figure as she rewinds a video: the message Hamlet receives from her murdered father, here projected on a large scrim. After the ghost blames his brother, Claudius, the scene transitions seamlessly into a wedding — that of Claudius and the widowed Gertrude, who seals her new life with a karaoke rendition of Frankie Valli’s “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You.”

Servane Ducorps plays Gertrude with a chirpy energy that contrasts nicely with Hesme’s coolness. Yet as Jatahy’s “Hamlet” progresses, their interactions rarely ring true, in no small part because the characters have all been transplanted into a humdrum contemporary interior. There, Gertrude and Claudius (a quasi-affable Matthieu Sampeur) try to play happy blended family. They sing sweet nothings to each other over the kitchen table, while Hamlet sulks in the corner.

It’s “Hamlet” as a 21st-century parent-child drama, with the odd interjection from Ophelia and her father, Polonius, who speak Portuguese — an attempt to signal their foreignness that instead makes them look like visitors from another play. Similarly, while Isabel Abreu brings an earnest intensity to the role of Ophelia, her relationship with Hesme’s Hamlet never settles into familiarity.

Her lucky escape is equally contrived. In the playbill, Jatahy says that in choosing not to die, Ophelia “refuses to be a toy in the face of patriarchal violence.” Although Abreu delivers the inserted text bravely, it is such a jarring volte-face for her character.

According to the Odéon’s publicity material, 85 percent of the text in this version is from Shakespeare’s original “Hamlet.” Yet it rarely feels as if Jatahy trusts the Bard. Instead, she wills the characters to escape his world, in an act of feminist defiance without a clear target.

Across the Seine, Costa also follows her singular vision for “Macbeth” — her second production for the Comédie-Française after an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s “A Girl’s Story” — to the bitter end.

Her staging of the Scottish play opens with an arresting tableau. Lady Macbeth sits hunched over, her face hidden under a disheveled mane. As she rips out clumps of her hair, a portrait of Macbeth, her husband, starts spinning on a wall behind her — until an invisible knife seems to cut into the painting.

It’s an ominous way to position Lady Macbeth, as a shadow addition to the three witches who prophesy that Macbeth will be king. When the trio appears shortly afterward to deliver their message, a giant ring materializes above the empty stage. In true “Lord of the Rings” fashion, it then descends upon Macbeth (Noam Morgensztern), metaphorically anointing him even as recorded whispers of “murder” fill the Comédie-Française’s auditorium.

So far, so impressive. But Costa, an Italian native who has collaborated with the provocative director Romeo Castellucci and shares his taste for visual symbolism, is so focused on the imagery that “Macbeth” loses dramatic steam.

Compressing all of the named characters into just eight roles is a dubious choice given the resources of the Comédie-Française’s permanent ensemble, and it leads to a sense of monotony. The three witches (Suliane Brahim, Jennifer Decker and Birane Ba) occasionally — and confusingly — double as random soldiers and messengers, and when the Macbeths go on their murderous spree, there is no one around to react to the destabilization of the kingdom.

Perplexingly, heavy-handed Roman Catholic allegories also seep into this “Macbeth” midway through, paralyzing the action. The second half of the production takes place in front of a bulky backdrop showing a winged altarpiece that is entirely blacked out. The banquet scene, in which Macbeth is haunted by his victims’ ghosts, is confined to a small confessional.

In that scene, King Duncan, whose death paves the way for Macbeth’s ascension, hovers like God surrounded by angels and martyrs. Macduff, who eventually restores order by killing Macbeth, is costumed to look every inch like Jesus, down to a wound in his side that he reveals theatrically by opening his white robe.

There are Christian themes in “Macbeth,” but Costa takes them so far that the characters disappear behind them. One of the last scenes shows Jesus-Macduff overcoming Macbeth simply by pointing a finger to his forehead, as if performing a miracle.

As a result, the production also undercuts Julie Sicard’s eerily shameless performance as Lady Macbeth. There is no doubt throughout that she has the upper hand: In fact, one scene even makes that point a little too forcefully, when she pretends to breastfeed a childlike Macbeth and hands him a pacifier.

The moment is effective in telegraphing a message, yet so dramatically improbable that the characters start to feel like pawns in the director’s game. “Macbeth,” like “Hamlet” at the Odéon, is too multilayered to be subsumed into a single grand idea. In Paris, at least, it wasn’t to be.

An earlier version of this article misidentified Ophelia’s father. He is Polonius, not Claudius.

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Arts and Culture Across Europe

New productions of “Macbeth” and “Hamlet” in Paris follow a French tradition of adapting familiar works . The results are innovative, and sometimes cryptic.

The internet latched on to 16-year-old Felicia Dawkins’ performance as The Unknown at a shambolic Willy Wonka-inspired event . Now she’s heading to a bigger and scarier stage in London.

When activists urged Tate Britain in London to take an offensive artwork off its walls, the institution commissioned Keith Piper to create a response instead. The result recently went on display.

The new National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam has been in the works for almost 20 years. It is the first institution to tell the full story of the persecution of Dutch Jews during World War II.

At a retrospective of John Singer Sargent’s portraits in London, where the American expatriate fled after creating a scandal in Paris, clothes offer both armor and self-expression .

The street artist Frank “Frankey” de Ruwe has been delighting Amsterdam with his whimsical, witty pieces .

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Hamlet's angst stems from his inability to see Gertrude as anything but a mother. What Hamlet fails to realize is that Gertrude has political responsibilities beyond Hamlet. OPHELIA and GERTRUDE. There's no doubt that the women in Hamlet get the short end of the stick. Both Ophelia and Gertrude die as a result of political machinations ...
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Family dynamics in the 1600s often seem to have problems between parents and their children. Contrary to that, Hamlet and his mother Gertrude, the Queen, despite countless arguments, their relationship is positive. The relationship between a mother and son is the true definition of love, a bond that is often taken for granted and underappreciated.
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Carolyn Heilbrun's essay, "The Character of Hamlet's Mother" explains Gertrude's character in the play. Heilbrum states two points in her essay, cheating behind her late husband and do something with her late husband's murder. Heilbrum believes that Gertrude is a good person and she shows that there is clear evidence in the play.
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