Gertrude and Claudius: An innocent or evil marriage?
Following the death of Old Hamlet, who was king, the newly made widow Gertrude decided upon Old Hamlet’s own brother to wed. It was a hasty decision as well, which begs the question; why? Many people including I have pondered over the possibilities that could have led to such a quick marriage. One such theory that I’ve come up with is the possibility of a hidden affair between Gertrude and Claudius during the reign of the king Old Hamlet.
A regular romantic relationship takes time to grow, and this usually people do not marry after being in a relationship for under 2 months. However, this is what we see in the play Hamlet. What I believe is that Gertrude had been hiding her affair with Claudius for an extended amount of time before the death of Old Hamlet, which I’ll discuss later on. For now, though, the possibility of this hidden affair seems highly likely, considering we don’t see any foreboding evidence that it cannot be possible. Hamlet begs his mother not to let Claudius manipulate her even further with this excerpt,
“Not this, by no means, that I bid you do:
Let the bloat King tempt you again to bed;
Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse;
And let him, for a pair of reechy kisses,
Or paddling in your neck with his damn’d fingers,
Make you to ravel all this matter out,
That I essentially am not in madness,
But mad in craft. ‘Twere good you let him know;
For who that’s but a queen, fair, sober, wise,
Would from a paddock, from a bat, a gib
Such dear concernings hide? Who would do so?
No, in despite of sense and secrecy,
Unpeg the basket on the house’s top,
Let the birds fly, and like the famous ape,
To try conclusions, in the basket creep
And break your own neck down. “.
Guilty until proven innocent, as the saying goes. Collective data from multiple sources (including data conducted in a 2019 Pew Research Centre survey) shows that the common span of a relationship before marriage is 2–5 years, a major leap from the minimal 2 months that Gertrude thought was acceptable. Throughout these years, couples are able to bond to a point where they’re able to commit their lives to each other, and that in my opinion leads to marriage. This further supports my claims of an unfaithful Gertrude having a hidden affair with Claudius. Gertrude evidently was not shaken by the murder of her own husband, as shown by the fact that she was so quick to marry. She says to Hamlet,
“Do not forever with thy vailèd lids
Seek for thy noble father in the dust.
Thou knowst ’tis common: all that lives must die,
Passing through nature to eternity.”,
In an attempt to comfort her, despite the fact that she should also be grieving. This further provides evidence towards my point.
This brings me onto my second accusation, that Gertrude was actually in on the murder of Claudius. This is a shocking claim, of course, but after thinking about it, it seems quite plausible. Based on my theory of Gertrude cheating on Old Hamlet, it doesn’t seem too radical that she would want to get rid of him either. She can’t hide her affair forever, after all, and her hidden relationship was limited by the fact that she was already married anyway. Seeing as she knew of the plan to murder Old Hamlet, it’s clear how it was so easy for him to bypass security with complete knowledge of where Old Hamlet was located and what he was doing at the time. This also adds to the comment I made earlier about Gertrude not showing much distress or shock at the fact that her husband was killed. Hamlet also seems more disoriented by the fact that his mother’s husband was killed, and even says “A bloody deed- almost as bad, good mother,
As kill a king, and marry with his brother.”.
He regards his mother to be just as bad as Claudius himself, which shows the severity of the situation.
Some people may claim to know why Gertrude decided to marry Claudius with such haste, but I’ve also thought about the possible counter arguments that could debunk my theories. One of these counter arguments may be that she wanted to keep her spot on the throne. While looking at this on the surface, it seems to be enough to refute every claim that I’ve made so far. However, there is also the fact that she could’ve married absolutely anyone else. Not to mention the fact that despite how short it was, there was a period where Gertrude was unmarried and widowed. Why was she still considered Queen if she apparently should not have been regarded with that title while widowed? In conclusion, this specific counter argument is completely irrelevant when digging deeper as I’ve proven.
Another argument would be the fact that she had the desire to stabilize the nation, as without a King their land may be susceptible to attack. Another claim that seems good on the surface, yet another claim that is easily debunked. Would a kingdom’s army really be under the control of one man solely? Historically in wars, many people have made contributions towards the decisions made for a country, and surely it wouldn’t differ much concerning Old Hamlet’s army. There must be someone that would be able to take over command of their army. Furthermore, there is no evidence available that shows that Claudius is suitable to even control an entire army, let alone a nation. Any experienced army general should technically have more capability than Claudius in controlling armies, and such should be appointed with those kinds of responsibilities. A responsible widow that made rational decisions that were beneficial towards her country would take her time in appointing a new leader, rather than letting her own desires screw over her people, leading back to my claim of Claudius being her hidden lover. Hamlet himself exclaims, “Failty, thy name is woman!”. He’s evidently discontent with his mother’s decisions. The more I dig into this and think about it, the more concerning and obvious it becomes that this was a marriage that was waiting to happen for a long time.
Another evident reason that I’ve found is that Gertrude was not shown to be a woman of extremely careful and rational thinking. We don’t get any specific examples of her “proving herself” and her capabilities, which adds to the points I’ve made about her marrying Claudius for selfish and unfaithful reasons. Hamlet himself proclaims:
“Ay, lady, it was my word.
[Lifts up the arras and sees Polonius.]
Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell!
I took thee for thy better. Take thy fortune.
Thou find’st to be too busy is some danger.
Leave wringing of your hands. Peace! sit you down
And let me wring your heart; for so I shall
If it be made of penetrable stuff;
If damned custom have not braz’d it so
That it is proof and bulwark against sense.”,
explaining that he is disappointed in her decisions. Seeing that she was not an extremely bright or intelligent character, this opens up more possibilities for why she married Claudius. Was he the only one that Gertrude could make King in these dire times? Did she just have no clue of what to do? I think otherwise, as even the least bright people know not to marry out of cluelessness and distress. Most people would even step down from such a high position of authority if they were thoroughly distressed enough. Obviously, there were other motives for this hasty marriage, which I delved into earlier.
In conclusion, I definitely believe that Gertrude married Claudius for her own selfish reasons. Reasons being her unfaithfulness to Old Hamlet and her hidden lust for Claudius. After all this, there always a possibility of everyone overthinking this key but small plot point. Maybe Shakespeare implemented this just for the sake of the plot, and never intended it to be analysed so thoroughly. This doesn’t mean that his plays won’t be analysed extensively, and they definitely will for years to come.
