interpreting gertrude and hamlet

Question 1

impact of gertrude’s male relationships? -

Hester Glass

Answer 1

Her relationships with the male protagonists – Hamlet, his dead father, and Claudius – help drive the plot, and provide a motive for murder and revenge.

Question 2

Staging and Productions – ‘The Closet Scene’

1950 the theatre critic Kenneth Tynan

Answer 2

However, one staging decision that nearly all productions have in common is that the ‘closet scene’ (Act 3, Scene 4) takes place in a bedroom, and this becomes central to the interpretation of the mother/son dynamic in the play.

‘why there should be a bed centre stage in every production of this scene , it is never mentioned and never slept in

Tynan is clearly being ironic here – the bed does not signify a place for rest and sleep. And you may ask, is he correct in saying the bed ‘is never mentioned’? Towards the end of the scene Hamlet directs his mother to resist her husband’s sexual advances and not,

so, a ‘bed’ is mentioned, however there is nothing to suggest that this bed is in the room Hamlet and his mother occupy in the scene. In Act 3, Scene 2 Rosencrantz tells Hamlet that his mother,

‘let the bloat king tempt you again to bed’

Question 3

why is there a bed in the closet

john dover wilson

Answer 3

John Dover Wilson refers to the ‘closet scene’ as the ‘bedroom scene’ throughout his exploration of the play, and in 1934 John Gielgud explained, when discussing his stage production of Hamlet that,

The text seems to warrant a chair in this scene for the Queen to sit on, but I have always thought that there should be a bed as well. […] A real bed may encourage the audience to indulge in speculation as to the sleeping accommodations of the palace.

So, Gielgud included the bed when he staged Hamlet in New York and London, and from that time until today the bed has become a feature of most productions

Question 4

The Influence of Freud

Answer 4

To answer this question, it is helpful to consider the influence of Freud’s psychoanalytical theories, in The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) and a seminal study of the play by Freud’s colleague, Ernest Jones, ‘The Oedipus Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet’s Mystery’ (1910) which Jones later expanded and published in Hamlet and Oedipus (1949).

Question 5

Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams

Answer 5

Freud’s reading of Hamlet’s behaviour toward his mother, and Ophelia too, is understood in terms of ‘neurosis’, caused by his unconscious and unresolved desire for his mother. These ideas are developed in depth by Freud’s colleague Ernest Jones. In ‘The Oedipus Complex as an Explanation of Hamlet’s Mystery’, Jones further explores a psychoanalytical reading of the play. (The full essay is available online, in the public domain.)