Part 32: A Surprised and Sentimental Gertrude (Interlude B)
Productions that portray Gertrude as unsuspicious and surprised to find in 5.2 that the cup from which she drank had been poisoned are not convincing to me: They ignore too many textual details. But many find it compelling.[1]
We might well ask: Why do some people prefer an unsuspicious Gertrude who is surprised at the poison?
- Do they prefer to view her as an unwitting victim of Claudius?
- As being punished for alleged adultery and an "incestuous" marriage?
- As lacking intelligence or wisdom enough to be suspicious?
- As lacking agency, so they don't want her to be A) secretly acting as her son's wine-tester, testing for poison, B) setting a mousetrap deliberately for Claudius by choosing to drink, and in the process, C) taking any subtly heroic and selfless risks that might alter the outcome of the play?
In this reading, Gertrude understands what probably caused the change in her son’s demeanor: “His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage.” (2.2.60). But in her wishful thinking, she may prefer to believe Polonius’ suggestion that Hamlet is mad for loss of Ophelia’s love (162).
Gertrude saw the playlet, “The Mousetrap” (3.2), during which Hamlet explains that a fictional murderer pours poison in a king’s ear and later woos his victim’s widow.
In her closet (3.4), she angrily says Hamlet has “much offended” Claudius. Her son suggested by analogy that Claudius poisoned King Hamlet to marry her. But her cognitive dissonance (attachments to both her son and Claudius) are perhaps too great for her to fully accept Hamlet’s claims.
The ghost appears to Hamlet, but Gertrude cannot see it. More reason to doubt her son.
In this reading, Gertrude may keep Hamlet’s secrets from Claudius not because she believes her son’s claims, but because she is protecting (and censoring) a son she thinks is mad.
If Gertrude feels guilty before seeing Ophelia in 4.5, it may be that, in marrying Claudius, she set in motion events that led to her son’s and Ophelia’s madness, and Polonius’ death.[2]
When Gertrude reports Ophelia as having fallen in the brook (4.7) because “an envious sliver broke” (198), in this reading, the “envious sliver” of the tree with its “pendant boughs” (197) are mere poetic details [3].
Gertrude gets more confirmation that Hamlet may be mad when he argues with Laertes at Ophelia’s grave (5.1). Yet when Hamlet apologizes before the duel and gets the first hit to win Claudius’ bet (5.2), she is proud of him, believing he and Claudius may be reconciled.
Excited, pleased, happy, and strangely unsuspicious, she toasts her son’s good fortune, disregarding Claudius (“Do not drink”), and is soon surprised that she is poisoned.
I am not convinced that Gertrude is unsuspicious and surprised: I’ll explore this in Interlude D.
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NOTES: All references to Hamlet are to the Folger Shakespeare Library online version: https://shakespeare.folger.edu/shakespeares-works/hamlet/entire-play/
[1] We might well ask: Why do some people prefer an unsuspicious Gertrude who is surprised at the poison?
- Do they prefer to view her as an unwitting victim of Claudius?
- As being punished for alleged adultery and an "incestuous" marriage?
- As lacking intelligence or wisdom enough to be suspicious?
- As lacking agency, so they don't want her to be A) secretly acting as her son's wine-tester, testing for poison, B) setting a mousetrap deliberately for Claudius by choosing to drink, and in the process, C) taking any subtly heroic and selfless risks that might alter the outcome of the play?
These productions tend to be based more on the Second Quarto and/or First Folio than on the First Quarto. For examples, see the Branagh directed Hamlet with Julie Christie as Gertrude, or Glenn Close as Gertrude in the 1990 Mel Gibson film, dir. Zeffirelli. For a production based more on the First Quarto, showing more collaboration between Horatio and Gertrude - and therefore a more knowledgeable and less naive (but more suicidal) Gertrude, see the 2018 BBC film with Lia Williams as Gertrude and Andrew Scott as Hamlet, dir. Icke.
[2] In other words, in this reading, perhaps if she feels guilty on seeing Ophelia, it is not because she realizes she married a murderer and should have suspected it, and not because she is in an adulterous marriage (she may have married Claudius so quickly after her husband’s death only to keep Denmark safe from Norway’s attacks). Rather, she may feel guilty only because in marrying Claudius instead of preferring her son to be the new king, she set in motion events that led not only to her son’s madness, but also to the death of Polonius and the madness of Ophelia. But none of this changes her feelings of loyalty, affection, and desire toward Claudius, and deep affection for her son. I am indebted to Kerrie Roberts for this insight.
[3] In other words, “envious sliver” is not veiled commentary on the murder of King Hamlet by an envious Claudius, setting in motion events that would lead to (and indirectly cause) Ophelia’s death. But in the fourth interpretation that I will later explore, Gertrude may imply by metaphor that Claudius was the “envious sliver” on the royal family tree that broke and continues to have many destructive effects.
IMAGE:
(Detail) Hamlet and his Mother; The Closet Scene, 1846, Richard Dadd (1817–1886). Yale Center for British Art. Public domain via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Richard_Dadd_-_Hamlet_and_his_Mother;_The_Closet_Scene_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
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INDEX OF OPHELIA POSTS:
My 2023 series on Ophelia, and earlier Ophelia posts:
https://pauladrianfried.blogspot.com/2023/10/index-of-ophelia-posts-2023-series-and.html
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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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