0
mrs swanson
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
How does Gertrude not know how king Hamlet died?
She's not a doctor. Claudius claimed that Hamlet Sr. died of a snakebite, and she had no reason to believe otherwise. The key line is her response to Hamlet's "Almost as bad, dear mother, as to kill a king and marry with his brother." Hamlet is accusing her of the murder, but her response "To kill a king?" shows that to Gertrude the real shocker in Hamlet's statement is that his father was murdered at all. She had no idea.
What crimes or sins does hamlet commit Gertrude of committing?
Hamlet thinks all kinds of bad things about his mother. He thinks she is disrespectful of her husband ("A beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer"), an adultress (the ghost says so), guilty of incest (the ghost says that too), and complicit in his father's murder. ("almost as bad, dear mother, as to kill a king and marry with his brother.")
How guilty is Hamlet's mother?
She feels very guilty and she tells Hamlet so. Hamlet asked her to not reveal that he is not really crazy. She then protects Hamlet for the murder of Polonius by telling the king that Hamlet has gone mad. However, it is clear that Gertrude is not as guilty as you might think. She was not aware of the fact that Claudius had killed her first husband for her until Hamlet says "Almost as bad, dear mother, as to kill a king and marry with his brother." "To kill a king?" she asks. She had no idea. Nevertheless she was the motive, or part of the motive for the crime, and this makes her feel guilty.
What does hamlet tell his mother that causes her to say he has cut her heart in two?
What he says immediately before she utters this line is "Forgive me this my virtue for in the fatness of these pursy times virtue itself of vice must pardon beg." but surely Hamlet's smug belief in his own virtue or his cynical view of the world cannot have cleft her heart in twain. However, Hamlet has just completed an extended rant, interrupted by the appearance of the ghost, in which he is urging his mother to break off marital relations with her husband the king. Has he persuaded her that being a good wife to Claudius is a bad thing by comparing Claudius's picture to that of Hamlet's father? Surely not. What does Hamlet tell Gertrude that she didn't know before? "Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother." says Hamlet, and Gertrude immediately seizes upon the new information. "As kill a king?" she says. It takes a while for this to sink in and for the truth of the accusation to dawn on her, and all the while Hamlet is ranting away. She wants him to stop so she can think about this, and to evaluate her position: she has unwittingly married her husband's murderer. This is what has cleft her heart in twain
Why does Hamlet call claudius dear mother?
Act 4, Scene 3. Hamlet is being banished from Denmark and sent to England after killing Polonius. King: So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Hamlet: I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England! Farewell, dear mother. King: They loving father, Hamlet. Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother. Come, for England!
How does Gertrude not know how king Hamlet died?
She's not a doctor. Claudius claimed that Hamlet Sr. died of a snakebite, and she had no reason to believe otherwise. The key line is her response to Hamlet's "Almost as bad, dear mother, as to kill a king and marry with his brother." Hamlet is accusing her of the murder, but her response "To kill a king?" shows that to Gertrude the real shocker in Hamlet's statement is that his father was murdered at all. She had no idea.
What crimes or sins does hamlet commit Gertrude of committing?
Hamlet thinks all kinds of bad things about his mother. He thinks she is disrespectful of her husband ("A beast that wants discourse of reason would have mourned longer"), an adultress (the ghost says so), guilty of incest (the ghost says that too), and complicit in his father's murder. ("almost as bad, dear mother, as to kill a king and marry with his brother.")
How guilty is Hamlet's mother?
She feels very guilty and she tells Hamlet so. Hamlet asked her to not reveal that he is not really crazy. She then protects Hamlet for the murder of Polonius by telling the king that Hamlet has gone mad. However, it is clear that Gertrude is not as guilty as you might think. She was not aware of the fact that Claudius had killed her first husband for her until Hamlet says "Almost as bad, dear mother, as to kill a king and marry with his brother." "To kill a king?" she asks. She had no idea. Nevertheless she was the motive, or part of the motive for the crime, and this makes her feel guilty.
What does hamlet tell his mother that causes her to say he has cut her heart in two?
What he says immediately before she utters this line is "Forgive me this my virtue for in the fatness of these pursy times virtue itself of vice must pardon beg." but surely Hamlet's smug belief in his own virtue or his cynical view of the world cannot have cleft her heart in twain. However, Hamlet has just completed an extended rant, interrupted by the appearance of the ghost, in which he is urging his mother to break off marital relations with her husband the king. Has he persuaded her that being a good wife to Claudius is a bad thing by comparing Claudius's picture to that of Hamlet's father? Surely not. What does Hamlet tell Gertrude that she didn't know before? "Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother." says Hamlet, and Gertrude immediately seizes upon the new information. "As kill a king?" she says. It takes a while for this to sink in and for the truth of the accusation to dawn on her, and all the while Hamlet is ranting away. She wants him to stop so she can think about this, and to evaluate her position: she has unwittingly married her husband's murderer. This is what has cleft her heart in twain
Is claudious a good or bad character in Hamlet?
I think Claudius was a bad character because he killed King Hamlet, Prince Hamlet's father.
Why does Hamlet call claudius dear mother?
Act 4, Scene 3. Hamlet is being banished from Denmark and sent to England after killing Polonius. King: So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes. Hamlet: I see a cherub that sees them. But come, for England! Farewell, dear mother. King: They loving father, Hamlet. Hamlet: My mother. Father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother. Come, for England!
Why does Hamlet show Gertrude the two portraits?
He's asking her to compare his father and Claudius. In Hamlet's mind, his father was a paragon and his uncle a satyr. There is actually no reason to imagine that Hamlet is accurate in his assessment of the two brothers; in this play, we are constantly being drawn into Hamlet's own fantasy world and his warped perception of the people around him. Hamlet wants Gertrude to enter into his fantasy perception of Claudius and her relationship with him. But one of his remarks seems to have hit home: "Almost as bad, dear mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother." "As kill a king?" she asks, incredulous. And it seems as if she has never before contemplated the possibility that her first husband may have been murdered and her second husband did it. She is trying to get her head around this when Hamlet is going on about how wrong it is for her to have a sex life.
Who interrupts Hamlet as he confronts his mother in her room?
Mostly it's not so much of a discussion as Hamlet berating her. She thinks that she is going to give him heck for disturbing Claudius, but it soon becomes apparent that the shoe is on the other foot. He goes off into a long rant in which he abuses Claudius to her, and blames her for having anything to do with him. But she does not get angry with him, probably because she is digesting his remark "Almost as bad, dear mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother." At first she demands to know what he is talking about, but from his abuse of Claudius, she figures it out, and makes the connection with the Mousetrap play. She begins to suspect that Hamlet may be right about Claudius murdering Hamlet Senior. Then the ghost of his father appears to Hamlet, and Hamlet's rant is interrupted. Thereafter it is more like a discussion than a dressing down. The following topics are discussed: 1. Whether Hamlet is crazy. 2. Whether Gertrude should suspend conjugal relations with Claudius. 3. Hamlet's imminent trip to England. 4. What Hamlet is going to do with the corpse of Polonius.
Who is Claudius and why does Hamlet dislike him so much?
Claudius was the brother of old King Hamlet (father of Prince Hamlet the hero of the play). When King Hamlet died, Claudius became king and married his widow Gertrude (Prince Hamlet's mother). Hamlet felt that it was too soon after his father's death for them to marry and also there used the idea that your husband or wife siblings were your siblings so to marry them was a kind of incest. So Hamlet wasn't very keen on his uncle to begin with - then he saw his father's ghost and found that Claudius had murdered his father. Read the play or at least see the film - the one with Mel Gibson isn't bad. Or read the prose version in Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare. It is worth studying properly.
When does gertrude marry claudius?
She appears to be completely loyal to him up to the point where Hamlet says (in the closet scene) "Almost as bad, dear mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother." Hamlet is accusing his mother of the murder of his father, but Gertrude is astonished and horrified by the suggestion. As the conversation goes on, she realizes that Claudius has murdered Hamlet Sr. for her.As a result of this insight, she is more cautious with Claudius from this point on. When Claudius asks what has happened, she feeds him the line that Hamlet has taught her--that Hamlet was crazy when he killed Polonius. That's not strictly the truth and she knows it, but her loyalty is shifting from Claudius to Hamlet. Some commentators have said that Claudius' line "Oh, Gertrude, Gertrude, when sorrows come they come not single spies but in battalions" refers among other things to his knowledge that Gertrude is more distant than she was.In some productions, Gertrude drinks the poisoned drink knowing it to be poisoned, thus protecting Hamlet, foiling Claudius' plan and redeeming herself from her part in her husband's murder in one stroke.
Who said the line There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so?
The line "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" is spoken by Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet." It is part of a soliloquy in which Hamlet reflects on how one's perspective and perception shape their reality.
What is Shakespeare suggesting about women through Hamlet's disposition towards his mother overall?
Hamlet's varying disposition toward his mother tells us a lot about Hamlet but not a lot about women. Yes, he says "Frailty, thy name is woman!" but that's just Hamlet being steamed off by his mother's remarriage. We shouldn't conclude as a result that Shakespeare thought that women were frail. On the contrary. If you want to get an idea of what Shakespeare thought about women, you are better advised to look at what they do, rather than what the men around them think of them. Othello may have been persuaded that Desdemona is immoral and incapable of monogamy, but we know that on the contrary she is incredibly faithful to him, even when he mistreats her. Ford may have been jealous of Mrs. Ford, but she and Mrs. Page are both levelheaded and morally true, although mischievous. If you look at Gertrude through Hamlet's eyes you may see a monster, but if you look at what she does, she is not a bad person. She genuinely cares for Claudius (as he does for her), and married him in good faith, not knowing what he did to get her. She also genuinely cares for Hamlet, and is interested in his well-being. She does not betray him to Claudius (although Claudius has figured out what is going on) and although it is not clear, she may also have agreed to Hamlet's suggestion to stop having sex with Claudius. (Some have said that this is why he says, "Oh, Gertrude, Gertrude, when sorrows come, they come not single spies but in battalions"--the first sorrow is that their love life has tapered off). A further example of her kind and loving nature is her treatment of Ophelia. At the same time she feels guilt (that spills itself in fearing to be spilt), although it is not clear why. That will tell you much more about what Shakespeare might think about women than everything that Hamlet says.
