Paul Adrian Fried / HAMLET'S BIBLE

[In an earlier post , I mentioned four contrasting interpretations of Gertrude, the third being a suicidal Gertrude as portrayed by Lia Williams in a 2018 BBC production with Andrew Scott as Hamlet, dir. Icke. This post considers that third reading of Gertrude.] Some consider Gertrude drinking the poison cup in Hamlet 5.2 as an act of suicide. But for it to be suicide, Gertrude at least needs to suspect that the cup has been poisoned: If she is ignorant of poison and unsuspicious, it cannot be suicide; a reaction of surprise would then make sense. If she merely suspects and is testing the cup for poison intended for her son, an act of risk and selflessness, it is not strictly suicide.[1] For suicide as sole intention, she must not merely suspect, but know for certain that the cup has been, poisoned. The texts of the play do not support certainty for Gertrude that the cup has been poisoned: Claudius and Laertes conspired about the poison apart from her; she had no way of knowing. But a...

There are as many interpretations of Gertrude as there are readers, spectators, and actors. My next four posts will explore just four readings of Gertrude, especially regarding motivations for drinking from what she may or may not know is the poison cup intended for her son. Whether Ophelia and Hamlet influence Gertrude or not can only be determined by scrutinizing what really happens with Gertrude. A brief summary of just four of many possibilities (I prefer # 4): 1. Gertrude as Protestant allegory for a corrupt Catholic Church. Gertrude drinks because she is a slave to her animal passions as mother, as incestuous adulterer, and as slave to drink. For an example of this reading, see Linda Kay Hoff, Hamlet's Choice: A Reformation Allegory. 2. A surprised Gertrude as queen of wishful thinking [1]: Gertrude sees “The Mousetrap” (with its mention of poison) and hears Hamlet accuse Claudius of murder, but thinks Hamlet is mad; she doesn’t tell Claudius of Hamlet’s accusations to protec...

Before completing my series on Ophelia, some elements about Gertrude require scrutiny. The controversy and mystery of Ophleia overlaps with Gertrude in a variety of ways: - Gertrude learns of her son’s love letters to Ophelia, encourages Ophelia’s love to heal her son’s madness, reports Ophelia’s death by drowning, and says at Ophelia’s grave that she wished Ophelia had been her son’s bride. Characters are said to be static (unchanging) or dynamic (changing) in light of developments in the plot and interactions with other characters. Without having to speculate at all whether she has any sort of Christian afterlife in heaven, hell, or purgatory, we might say that Ophelia has something of an afterlife through her example to, and influence on, the Queen. But this requires a clear understanding of a series of events and the evidence in the texts. In upcoming posts, I will explore some of these and other overlaps between Ophelia and Gertrude; the “envious sliver” of the willow that break...