Hamlet critics- Gertrude

Question 1

What does William Hazlitt say about Gertrude and what century?(1)

Answer 1

-19th Century

1.” the Queen [Gertrude], who was so criminal in some respects, not without sensibility and affection in other relations of life.”

Question 2

What does H.D.F Kitto say about Gertrude and what century?(1)

Answer 2

-20th Century

1.”Claudius, Gertrude and Polonius… [are each] …an embodiment of the general evil..

Question 3

What does A.C Bradley say about Gertrude and what century?(1)

Answer 3

-20th Century

-1.” Very dull and Very shallow

Question 4

What does Rebecca Smith say about Gertrude and what century? (4)

Answer 4

-20th Century

-1.”the nurturing, loving, careful mother and wife - malleable, submissive, totally dependent, and solicitous of others at the expense of herself”

2.”Gertrude believes that quiet women best please men, and pleasing men is Gertrude’s main interest”

3.”Gertrude is caught between two mighty opposites” ( Hamlet and Claudius)

4.Gertrude is a “soft, obedient, dependent, unimaginative woman”

Question 5

What does Harmonie Loberg say about Gertrude and what century?(2)

Answer 5

-21st Century

1.”Gertrude does not marry Claudius because of an insatiable, sexual appetite; rather, the need to secure her role as monarch”

2.Gertrude killed Ophelia

Question 6

What does Russell say about Gertrude and what century? (1)

Answer 6

-20th Century

1.”By the end of the closet scene, ‘though Gertrude is still nominally the wife of Claudius, she is no longer physically or sexually in dyadic union with him. She has…consented to rejoin Hamlet”

Question 7

What does Mabillard say about Gertrude and what century? (1)

Answer 7

-21st Century

1.Gertrude is also a very sexual being, and it is her sexuality that turns Hamlet so violently against her