 Let's examine the character of Queen Gertrude in Hamlet. Queen Gertrude is the widow of King Hamlet who recently died and she quickly remarries King Claudius and this is Hamlet's uncle. Now her remarriage to King Claudius becomes a great source of tension between her relationship with Hamlet, her son, okay? So Hamlet really suffers a lot of angst as a result of this. He becomes very disillusioned with women and how women are like because he sees his mother as very unfaithful to the memory of his father. However, Queen Gertrude, especially if we see things from her perspective as an Elizabethan woman, so woman during Shakespeare's time, she really didn't have that many options. She didn't really have that many ways in order to maintain her independence and more importantly her power, okay? So remember that women during this time really had very few rights. In fact, they were classified as the property of their fathers and then once they got married, they were seen as the property of their husbands. Now if Queen Gertrude had decided to remain a widow and not do anything, for example, not remarry King Claudius, she would have been in a very precarious position. In other words, she would have been in a fairly dangerous position for a woman of her stature and status because she could easily have been usurped by Claudius who, you know, he was already king. Therefore, he could have taken another woman as wife and then that would have completely removed any form of power that she had and potentially also affected Hamlet's future, that's her son. But equally, if Hamlet had ascended to the throne, he himself could also usurp her and really without any of that royalty and that royal title, she would have very, very little to fall back on, okay? So Gertrude did make a very strategic decision in marrying Claudius, her husband is already dead, therefore she needs to protect her own power to some extent. However, her son Hamlet does not see this in her position at all and he seems to actually be more angry at her, even more so than Claudius, even after he discovers that it's Claudius that ended up killing his father, okay? So Hamlet especially takes umbrage to his mom's decision and he really, really makes her feel very punished as a result of this. However, we can see that Gertrude still remains very caring of her son even at the end and of course we learn that she ends up dying in her only act of disobedience to her new husband, Claudius. So she drinks from the goblet which Claudius had poisoned with the intention of killing Hamlet, however she drank it and disobeyed him when he asked her not to drink it, okay? So Gertrude is an interesting character that you definitely need to be aware of and also to be familiar with if you're studying Hamlet. So as you can see behind me, I have selected the most relevant quotations you can consider for her characters as well as the word love analysis you can do. So let's look at the first quotation. Now here, this is early on in the play. We can see that Gertrude, even if her husband has recently died, she has been very quick to marry King Claudius, okay? And for her and King Claudius, they find it a little bit perplexing that Hamlet is still really sad. This is before he discovers that Claudius did kill his father, okay? So Hamlet is really melancholic, it's quite sad and Gertrude basically tells Hamlet, oh please stop being so moody, stop being so sad, stop wearing black all the time, okay? So here we can see also as the audience, we can kind of sense why Hamlet might be a bit angry at his mum because she's so quick to move on. She tells him, good Hamlet, cast thy knighted colour off and this is an imperative sentence. Remember an imperative sentence is a sentence that issues a command. She's basically telling Hamlet, Hamlet please, all of this morning please just stop wearing all black, come celebrate with us, okay? I've just gotten married to a new guy, he happens to be your uncle, King Claudius, okay? So of course here we can see that she is a little bit selfish in terms of her actions, she's also a little bit selfish in terms of how quick she is to move on and basically try her best to forget the memory of her old husband King Hamlet in order to just embrace this new life with King Claudius, okay? And we as the audience at this stage in the play, we do find this a little bit bizarre, we find it a bit strange that she's so quick to embrace being newly married and to completely forget King Hamlet, okay? So we can kind of empathize with why Hamlet would be really annoyed at her. Now the word love analysis you want to focus on here is the alliteration of sea and cast and colour and also the adjective knighted. Here basically Gertrude is saying, oh Hamlet is so unbecoming of you to be so sad. The next quotation again, this is related to how Gertrude is critical of how much Hamlet is mourning his father is, she tells him, do not forever with thy bailed lids, seek for thy noble father in the dust. In other words, you know, when you're looking down, looking so sad, that's what she means with bailed lids, he's looking down all the time. She's saying, oh, you're looking down all the time, you're basically just, to me, you look like you're looking for your dad in the ground, you can't find him, he's gone now, okay? And again here, we can see that Gertrude isn't being very compassionate towards his son, she's not trying to understand his grief, okay? But also she's so quick to move on, which again will strike us as a little bit odd for as the audience. Now the word love analysis you want to focus on here where we can see that Gertrude is trying, she's trying to be a good mother to Hamlet, she's trying to care for him, but also she's trying to make him move on is firstly, the hyperbole forever, okay? So she's saying, oh, are you going to mourn forever? You can't forever look for your dad. And also the repetition of thy, okay? So here she's looking at Hamlet feeling really bad that he is mourning so much, but she's kind of saying, Hamlet, you kind of need to move on. And also the verb seek, okay? So here she's basically saying, look Hamlet, nothing you can do can bring your dad back. But we can see here, there is some element of selfishness in her actions because she's basically trying to block out memory of her husband, so that she herself can probably not feel very guilty for moving on so quickly. The next quotation tied to the character of Queen Gertrude is again, when she's telling her son, she's trying to console him and comfort him and she's telling him, all lives must die passing through nature to eternity. Again, she's basically consoling him and saying, look Hamlet, I know your dad has died. I don't know, you're really sad, but death is a normal part of life. That's what she's telling him, okay? And here you want to focus on the oxymoron of lives and die, okay? Opposite words. And what we can see here is Gertrude is just trying to be a very caring mother, but she's also being strategic, okay? So she's basically thinking, okay, I can't really indulge myself too much in my emotions. I can't keep on thinking about my previous husband. I'm married now. And she's basically telling Hamlet, Hamlet, you need to move on too, okay? So here we can see that Gertrude is very strategic, okay? She's not, you know, a very straightforward person to understand. She's far more complex. And of course, she's also understanding the importance of maintaining a political title. And part of that is she has to move on. The next quotation tied to Queen Gertrude is when she is trying to explain to Claudius why her son is so unhappy. And she understands that they kind of married too quickly, okay? So not only did Hamlet suffer the death of his father, but now he has to witness his mom marrying his own uncle, okay? And she states, his father's death and our overhasty marriage, okay? So she's telling Claudius, look Claudius, I know Hamlet is really upset, but you know, his dad has died and we have kind of married really quickly, okay? So here we can see that Gertrude, even if she was telling Hamlet, Hamlet, please move on, move on. She knows that she moved on really quickly, okay? It was overhasty. In other words, the marriage happened very rapidly, okay? And here we can see she actually empathizes with Hamlet. Now the one level analysis you want to focus on is firstly, the pronoun hour. So this is when she's talking to Claudius, it can see she's really being a submissive wife to him. But also, the adjective overhasty to describe their marriage. Here we can see that Gertrude understands that she, that her marriage between Claudius and New King was a political move on her part. And she acknowledges that the marriage moved very quickly, okay? So again, here we can see that Gertrude was involved in power politics and she did marry Claudius strategically in order to maintain her title. The next quotation relating to the Queen Gertrude is, this is when her relationship with Hamlet becomes it's most strained, okay? It's at its depths. And this is when Hamlet storms into her room, confronts her and this is unbeknownst to Hamlet. Polonius is hiding, okay, within the same room. And Hamlet is almost frantic with anger. So frantic that he scares his mother and Gertrude asks, what will thou do? That will not murder me, okay? So she asks these two questions. It's not a rhetorical question. These are actual questions because she's asking Hamlet, Hamlet, you're acting crazy. Are you going to kill me? Are you going to kill me? Okay. And here we can see that she, even if she loves her son, she is struggling against the very patriarchal ideas that he has where he's trying to control her. He's trying to control her sexuality and he's trying to control who she sleeps with in her bedroom, which is King Claudius, okay? So here we can see and we feel terrified for Gertrude because we also are wondering what Hamlet is going to do. Now the word level analysis you want to focus on is firstly the, the iteration of doubting what world, okay? So here we can see that Queen Gertrude really feels like her safety is in danger, but also the verb murder, okay? And this verb obviously foreshadows the fact that Hamlet does kill Polonius when Polonius calls out for help from behind the harass, the curtain, okay? The next quotation tied to the character of Gertrude is when Hamlet is now being really vulgar in talking to her and he's basically saying, oh, these, you know, seamen stained sheets that you sleep on with Claudius, he's being incredibly vulgar, right? He's talking about her sex life. And she's just, she's saying, oh, I can't hear this. This is terrible. This is terrible. And she tells, she asks him, what have I done that thou darest wag thy tongue in so noise, in noise so rude against me? Okay? So she's asking, oh, how can you speak in such a terrible tone to me in such noise so rude against me? Now here we can see that Gertrude just cannot believe how Hamlet is speaking to her. She's, she's just shocked, right? And the word level analysis you want to focus on is firstly the eliteration of tea in that thou, okay, and thy tongue. Again, what this is illustrating is Hamlet, his behavior is so horrible towards his mother. And this is because it's powered by almost as edipous complex he has to control his mother's sexuality, which is really odd for us as an audience, okay? Also, you want to focus on the intensified so, which again shows how Gertrude feels like her son is so disrespectful towards her. The next quotation again, which highlights their strange relationship still taking place in her bedroom when he's basically talking about her sex life and so on with Claudius is, she says, oh, please stop talking, stop talking. These words like daggers and ten mining ears, okay? So she's, she really can't hear this. She can't believe he's talking like this to her. And she is highlighting how she has very little power and autonomy over her own sexuality. We can see here that Gertrude, she can't quite believe her son is so intent to control her sexuality, to control who she's sleeping with, to control her actions as queen, because technically she's married to her husband, Claudius, and it's up to her what she decides to do with him. However, Hamlet here is illustrating the tight control that a lot of family members had over a woman's sexuality, including their own mother, okay? Now the word love analysis you want to focus on is the simile like daggers. Here we can see that Hamlet is being very abusive towards his mother. The final quotation, this is the act of disobedience that she inflicts upon Claudius, but of course then ends up drinking the poison and then dying is when we can see here, she's fed up with being told what to do. And Claudius tells her when they're watching the duel between Hamlet and Learty's queen, don't drink from that goblet, okay? And Queen Gertrude takes the goblet and says, oh my lord, pray you pardon me. And here we can see that in many ways, perhaps we can argue that she is tired of being told what to do, she's tired of being controlled, she's tired of having to defend the men around her who don't really care for her own well being and she disobeys his commands. But of course this act of disobedience ends up costing her her life. The word love analysis you want to focus on here is firstly the repetition of the first person pronoun I and also the alliteration of P in pray and pardon, okay? So here we can see that Gertrude in some ways kind of becomes fed up of being told what to do and she rebels, okay? So that's really it when it comes to key quotations relating to the queen of Gertrude in Hamlet. Thank you so much for listening.