Who She Is
Gertrude is the queen of Denmark, mother of Hamlet, widow of the dead king and wife of Claudius, his brother. She is the figure the play says least about and, for that reason, is most debated: how much she knows of the crime remains open. The Ghost asks Hamlet to spare her, and she moves through the play between husband and son, until she drinks, at the end, the cup the king prepared for him.
Trajectory
In scene 2 of Act I, she appears at court beside Claudius and insists with Hamlet that he stay at Elsinore. In scene 5 of Act I, the Ghost, while asking for revenge, asks also that she be spared: Claudius, says the Ghost, seduced her, but the son must not touch her.
In scene 2 of Act II, she calls Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with Claudius to probe the prince. In scene 1 of Act III, she hears from the two that they did not discover the cause of his state. Polonius suggests that the queen confront him after the play, and in scene 2 of Act III the same friends bring her summons, which Hamlet receives mockingly.
In scene 4 of Act III, in her chamber, Hamlet confronts her until she cries for help, and on hearing Polonius stir behind the tapestry he thrusts through the curtain. Afterwards he reproaches her before the portraits of the two husbands, and the Ghost reappears, visible only to the son.
You go not till I set you up a glass / Where you may see the inmost part of you.(III.4)
In scene 1 of Act IV, distraught, she tells Claudius that Hamlet killed Polonius by striking the arras, and says that her son weeps for what he did. In scene 5 of Act IV, at the request of a gentleman, she receives Ophelia gone mad, before Horatio. In scene 7 of Act IV, she is the one who enters and tells that Ophelia drowned in a stream, after falling from a branch. In scene 2 of Act V, she drinks the poisoned wine in the duel.
Relationships
- Hamlet: the son who accuses her and whom she defends before the king.
- Claudius: the husband and brother-in-law, with whom she shares the throne and to whom she tells, in scene 1 of Act IV, the death of Polonius.
- The Ghost: the first husband, who asks that she be spared and is not seen by her.
- Polonius: the counselor who dies behind the tapestry of her chamber, while she was with Hamlet.
- Ophelia: the young woman she receives mad and whose death she reports.
- Laertes: Ophelia’s brother, to whom she announces the drowning.