Examples Of Gertrude's Ambition In Hamlet

Pilot ID: 19206

Basia Gelner

Dr.Clarke

Block 7

5/1/23

In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet, the overbearing desire that Hamlet takes on, to avenge the murder of his father, causes Hamlet to act irrational and lead him to a life of tragedy. Throughout the play, Hamlet displays acts of selfishness and neglect, as his intense desire to avenge his father’s death prevents him from seeing other perspectives along with the consequences of his actions. Hamlet’s immense fixation to kill Claudius and bring his father’s spirit to peace, leads him to view his once loved ones, as obstacles in the way of his life mission. As his obsession grows into insanity, the result of his actions ultimately leads to the tragic repercussions for himself and those around him.

Hamlet’s obsession causes his relationships to flourish as he neglects his mother Gertrude, and his lover, Ophelia. Hamlet’s relationship with his mother shows to be developing more distant as she remarries almost immediately after King Hamlet’s death and becomes afraid of Hamlet. The frustration Hamlet feels towards his mothers remarriage sets the shift of negative feelings towards his mother. However, Hamlet’s relationship with his mother is destroyed by his obsession with his fathers death. When Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, attempts to talk to Hamlet about his father, he lashes out at his mother because all he can think about is avenging his father. Hamlet acts extremely rude to his mother as he also believes she had something to do with it, given she married his murderer. In Act 3 Scene 4, Gertrude and Polonius, his love life’s father, are awaiting Hamlet’s arrival in order for Polonius to eavesdrop and determine what has been causing Hamlet to act the way he is. As Hamlet is conversing with his mother, things go south as Gertrude’s plan to lash out at her son ends up in Hamlet acting crazy and Gertrude ends up crying for help and Polonius does the same behind the curtain. When Hamlet hears Polonius he stabs the curtain and kills Polonius, on the assumption that it was Claudius. However, the most significant part of him automatically going to kill as an automated response, is his

Towards the beginning of the play, Hamlet seemed to have really loved Ophelia but as this obsession escalated he became more and more distant and meticulous. Hamlet's obsession turned him cruel towards the women he loved the most as he tells her “get thee to a nunnery,” basically saying that she doesn’t deserve to have kids or get married and ultimately insulting her for her womanhood. Hamlet’s neglect and cruel actions he shows towards Ophelia, devastated her and left her feeling stuck. Ophelia ends up throwing herself into the river and killing herself because of Hamlet’s actions of killing her father and treating Ophelia so