What role does Gertrude play in Hamlet?

Answer 1

She is a remarkably intelligent woman with a gift of terse observation. Her terseness makes her a great foil for Polonius. She also serves the function of preventing the poisoned wine from killing Hamlet. The closet scene is one of the most powerful in the play and brings out a number of important characteristics of Hamlet, as well as being the scene of the Polonius murder.

She doesnt have much of a personality, she shows women are "easily led" and marrys her husbands brother right after he dies

Answer 2

She is Hamlet's mother, obviously. But the deeper question is, why did Shakespeare consider it to be necessary to include her in the play? What function does she serve? The answer is complex and cannot be answered in less than a book really. But let's look at some of the functions the character performs.

1. As mediator between Hamlet and Claudius. Hamlet hates Claudius and will not obey him, but in 1,2 he says "I will in all things obey YOU, madam" The capitalization is not in the text but it is implied. Gertrude can get Hamlet to do things that he would bridle at were Claudius to demand them.

2. As focus for Hamlet's misogyny. Hamlet's "frailty, thy name is woman!" is directed at Gertrude, because of her perfidy in not playing Queen Victoria and having the temerity to love someone Hamlet hates. Hamlet's hatred for women spills out onto Ophelia in 3,1. Hamlet has to purge himself of these feelings in the closet scene before he can see the world rightly. And he does purge them, causing great pain (and some enlightenment) to Gertrude in the process.

3. As a sounding board for Claudius. Claudius does not get much by way of soliloquys or asides, about one each to show that he actually is guilty of murder, but he needs Gertrude, especially after Polonius dies, as one person in whom he can confide. Consider "Ah, Gertrude, sorrows come not single spies, but in battalions." This is a line he could not possibly deliver to anyone else.

4. As a complement to Ophelia. Ophelia's madness in Act IV brings Gertrude to the fore. There is a special bond between them, as is apparent when it is Gertrude who Ophelia asks for. "Where is the beauteous majesty of Denmark?" Gertrude is the one who delivers the news of Ophelia's death. She also has the tender lines, "Sweets to the sweet, farewell." and "I had thought thy bride bed to have decked, not thy grave." at Ophelia's funeral. Nobody else shows Ophelia much compassion. (Horatio, perhaps, in his detatched way.)

5. As a device to thwart Claudius's plans, by drinking the poisoned cup instead of Hamlet. Some productions suggest she did this on purpose, knowing the cup to be poisoned, in order to atone for her guilt she feels. See the line "so full of artless jealousy is guilt it spills itself in fearing to be spilt."

6. As Claudius's love interest. This is slightly different from her role as confidante. It does not really require her onstage presence but is a factor in many things Claudius says and does. See his explanation to Laertes "she is so conjunctive to my life and soul that, as the star moves not but in his sphere, I could not but by her." Again, in his soliloquy he names the motives for his crime: "my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen."

Answer 3

Queen Gertrude is Hamlets Mother and King Claudius's wife. Her Husband King Hamlet died and she married Claudius, her brother in-law. She dies at the end of the play by drinking a posioned glass of wine that was meant for Hamlet.