Ophelia And Gertrude. Two Different Women Who Seem To Be Trapped In The Same

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Term Paper Title	Ophelia And Gertrude. Two Different Women Who Seem To Be Trapped In The Same
# of Words	1924
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	7.7

     Ophelia and Gertrude. Two different women who seem to be trapped in the same
circumstances in relation to Hamlet.
     Gertrude, Hamlet's mother and the Queen of Denmark. She is married to the present
King, Claudius, who is suspected by Hamlet to have killed his father,  King Hamlet, who also
happens to be Claudius's brother. Gerturde has somehow ended up in the plot of King Hamlet's
death and in the eyes of her son, seems to be a monster and an aide to an adulterating deed.
     Ophelia, the daughter of Polonius who is the King's trusted councilor and is later killed
in the play and he forbids his daughter to see Hamlet because of the possibility that he beseech
her name and her virginity. She truly loves Hamlet and is devastated when he shuns her and
pretends to be mad.
     Hamlet's treatment towards these two women shapes and brings life to their characters
and eventually bring s an end to their characters as well.

     Gertrude is a kind and loving mother. The kind that guards after her son through thick
and through thin and loves unconditionally. Hamlet had suspected her of aiding in the killing of
King Hamlet. That will be discussed later.
     Her character is the one character in the play that I believe does not develop but rather
stays identical to the scene in which she is introduced(Act I, scene II). She is shown to be a
quiet, "stand by your man" type individual who is easily influenced.
     This is my belief because in the second scene of the play, Hamlet is shown to be
crushed by his mother's hasty remarriage. If marriage within the family was common in the days
of Shakespeare, then this is understandable, but, in any other case, this would be considered
an act of betrayal that was obviously brought on by some outside pressure, probably from
Claudius.
     There is, however, a slight change in her personality that is not quite noticeable. At the
end of the play, the King and Laertes(Polonius's son) have plotted to kill Hamlet for reasons that
are irrelevant to my point. One part of the plot was to have Hamlet drink out of a poisoned cup. It
so happens that, in some confusion, the Queen ends up with the cup in her hand. Even after the
King's warnings not to drink from the cup(she is unaware of the plot), she does. She does in
complete defiance of her husband's wishes. I have interpreted this in this way because of the
line the Queen speaks before she drinks from the cup. "I will, my lord, I pray you pardon me."1
     This shows that in the case that she might have live...

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