Marriage & Maternal Approval: Jacob - Hamlet Echoes - part 3

Themes of marriage and maternal approval have some interesting connections when comparing the biblical Jacob tales with Shakespeare’s Hamlet: [1]

Jacob’s mother plays a key role in favoring him for the birthright (Genesis 25:19-27), but also helping him deceive his father (Genesis 27:1-40).

It is extremely important that Jacob receives encouragement and permission from his mother - who had coddled him, favored him - to go and seek a bride (Genesis 27:41-45) when his brother Esau is angry after learning that Jacob has deceived his father and received the birthright/blessing that Esau had expected.

This permission and encouragement from Rebekah helps open a gap between mother and son that Freud and others would say is healthy.

Queen Gertrude acts in similar motherly ways toward Ophelia as well as toward her son Hamlet.

Ophelia’s mother is absent (like Hamlet's father; she is a feminine mirror image of Hamlet);
like the ghost and Claudius, Polonius is a dysfunctional father figure.

But like Jacob, favored by his mother to receive the blessing and birthright in spite of father Isaac’s preference for Esau, Ophelia was favored by Queen Gertrude (like a “mother of Denmark”) to help Hamlet overcome his madness:

QUEEN:
And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish
That your good beauties be the happy cause
Of Hamlet’s wildness. So shall I hope your virtues
Will bring him to his wonted way again,
To both your honors.
(3.1.142-6) [2]

Gertrude’s encouragement helps Ophelia consider persisting in her feelings for Hamlet, and this motherly affirmation opens a healthy gap between daughter and father.
- But Hamlet’s “mad” behavior, his fear of hell, sex, and marital unfaithfulness, his misogyny, and his accidental killing of her father, all contribute to her madness.

Later, at Ophelia’s grave, Gertrude expresses her sadness that Ophelia had not been Hamlet’s bride:

QUEEN:
Sweets to the sweet, farewell! [She scatters flowers.]
I hoped thou shouldst have been my Hamlet’s wife;
I thought thy bride-bed to have decked, sweet maid,
And not have strewed thy grave.
(5.1.254-7)

For Hamlet, it is only *after* Gertrude indicates some willingness to repent of her sins (in the closet scene, 3.4), and after she later openly speaks of her disappointed hopes that Ophelia would be Hamlet’s bride, that Hamlet declares his love for Ophelia:

HAMLET:
I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers
Could not with all their quantity of love
Make up my sum.
(5.2.285-7)

Just as Jacob is willing to seek a bride after encouragement from his mother, Hamlet is more willing to plainly declare his love for Ophelia after his mother declares her disappointed hopes. Hamlet ends his misogynous outburts toward Ophelia and Gertrude after his mother indicated willingness to repent of her sins in 3.4.

In both the Jacob tales and in Hamlet, Rebekah and Gertrude play key roles by their encouragement and even their repentance, for those who view them as mother figures.

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NOTE [1] - POSTS IN THIS SERIES:

Part 1: Laertes' "double blessing": Echoes of Jacob, Esau, & Rachel in Hamlet - August 2, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/08/laertes-double-blessing-jacob-essau-and.html

Part 2: “Hoist with his own petard”: Jacob - Hamlet Echoes - September 6, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/09/hoist-with-his-own-petard-jacob-hamlet.html

Part 3: Marriage & Maternal Approval: Jacob - Hamlet Echoes - September 13, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/09/marriage-maternal-approval-jacob-hamlet.html

Part 4: Series conclusion: Hamlet & Jacob - September 20, 2022
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2022/09/series-conclusion-hamlet-jacob.html

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NOTE [2] - All Hamlet quotes from the Folger online edition:
https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/

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IMAGES:
Francesco de Rosa (Pacecco de Rosa), “Meeting of Jacob and Rachel”
L-R: Shepherd with beard and flute; Jacob in gold and red; Laban, his father-in-law to be; Rachel, the younger sister; and Leah, the older sister.
ca. 1630-50, oil on canvas. Pinacoteca della Città Metropolitana di Bari. Photo by Sailko. Creative Commons. Image via Wikimedia commons:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_de_rosa_detto_pacecco,_incontro_di_rachele_e_giacobbe,_1630-50_ca.,_01.jpg


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Disclaimer: If and when I quote or paraphrase bible passages or mention religion in many of my blog posts, I do not intend to promote any religion over another, nor am I attempting to promote religious belief in general; only to explore how the Bible and religion influenced Shakespeare, his plays, and his age.
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Thanks for reading!
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