Gertrude Essay Examples
Shakespeare’s Hamlet, tells the story of the prince of Denmark, a headstrong and passionate young man, who is seeking revenge for the murder of his father. He achieves this but tragically loses his own life in the process. The audience of Shakespeare’s time would have been newly deemed Protestant, as Hamlet makes reference to a…
What separates a human from a beast? While a beast is governed by instincts, impulses, and irrationality, a man is a creature of thought. Unfortunately, as developed as a species as we are, humans do uncontrollably revert to primitive ways. Understanding ideas such as justice, power, and revenge may guide us in our actions and…
“Something have you heard of Hamlet’s transformation” It is not only Hamlet who is ‘transformed’: the concepts of transformation and decay are at the centre of the play both for Shakespeare’s audience and for modern theatregoers. Discuss. The opening scene of Hamlet is one filled with nervousness and emotional tension. Shakespeare shows this through the…
Although audiences of today have not experienced such a controversy among the royal family as in the 1600s, they would still understand how immoral the marriage between Claudius and Gertrude is and would recognise how it brings instability in the royal household and consequently the state. Although, some of those in a modern audience would…
Hamlet has been known as one of the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays. This is mainly because the protagonist has confused scholarly minds for centuries on end with his complex personality and muddled thoughts, which in turn leads onto his actions, or rather inaction. His incomprehensibility by many leads me only to conclude that he is…
Examine how Shakespeare presents the female characters in ‘Hamlet’ and what the response of a modern day audience might be to this aspect of the play. As ‘Hamlet’ was set in the Elizabethan period it is necessary to consider the portrayal of woman in the play as a comparison with women in a modern day…
Hamlet is perhaps one of the most complex characters in literary history simply because he can be interpreted and played in so many different ways. He is the intellectual, the politician, the philosopher and the heir to the throne. Educated at Wittenberg (where founder of the Protestant faith Martin Luther studied), he is philosophically a…
At the start of the play we see Hamlet returning to Denmark from university, as he has heard the news of his farther, Old-Hamlets death. He arrives home perhaps thinking that he shall now take the place as the king of Denmark, only to discover that while he was away Claudius, his uncle and Gertrude,…
“Farewell, Ophelia, and remember well What I have said to you. ” Line 88,Act 1 Sc 111. “Tis in my memory locked, And you yourself shall the keep the key of it. Line 90 Act 1 Sc 11. These were the last words Laertes and Ophelia exchanged before he left to France. It is when…
Shakespeare’s Hamlet belongs to a genre of plays known as Revenge -Tragedies popular in Elizabethan England, it shows how Hamlet’s life is transformed when his father is murdered, and in the first three acts the audience sees how his revenge develops towards the three most important people in his life: Gertrude, his mother; Claudius, his…
Where a twenty-first century audience would express sympathy for Hamlet’s loss and would understand his hesitation in taking vengeance, an Elizabethan audience would not sympathise towards him for avenging his father’s death, and would question why Hamlet is showing inaction. As Dori?? Ripley suggests, ‘The church advocated God’s vengeance, while the state demanded justice through…
It could be argued that Shakespeare constructs both Ophelia and Gertrude as weak, powerless and vulnerable in contrast to the powerful men around them. At the same time however, he is also reflecting women’s social position at the time through these characters, so his view is something that would be traditional for the audience. In…
The play ‘Hamlet’ was written in politically tempestuous times in London. Much importance surrounded the outward support of the monarch, Elizabeth. During her reign, religion caused divisions and factions of the Protestant church considered the theatre as sinful, amoral perhaps. In his plays, Shakespeare uses his understanding of humanity to entertain by addressing love, power,…
Hamlet was written approximately in 1600, during the Elizabethan era, the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Although the head of church and state was a woman, it was predominantly a patriarchal society. The monarch held a policy such as male-preference primogeniture which allows a female to succeed if she has no living brothers and no deceased…
At various times, Shakespeare has been seen by critics as presenting Hamlet as a sensitive poet, unable to endure the cruel pressures of the world, a man driven by sexual desire for his mother, and a representative to a corrupt political regime. Which would be your interpretation and why? The character of Hamlet can simply…
