Gertrude’s as Shakespeare Essay

Where a twenty-first century audience would express sympathy for small towns loss and would understand his hesitation in taking vengeance, an Elizabethan audience would not sympathise towards him for avenging his get under ones skins death, and would question wherefore small town is immortalizeing inaction. As Dori Ripley offers, The church advocated Gods vengeance, objet dart the state demanded justice through Gods chosen substitute(s) (Ripley, 1), meaning it would be Hamlets duty to avenge his experiences death in the eyes of the Elizabethan Church, for Gods cause.Therefore, this would certainly contribute to Hamlets turmoil, with the added pressure to exact Gods vengeance on the wicked (Ripley, 2), and become King of Denmark. However, in the eighteenth century, Thomas Hanmer drew attention to Hamlets delay in avenging his fathers death, suggesting that Had Hamlet gone naturally to work there would cede been an end of our act upon, meaning Shakespeares bleed would not pay off been as dramatic for his think audience of his era.Ernest Jones suggests that Hamlet refrains from killing Claudius earlier in the play because he had already committed the routine Hamlet himself subconsciously wished to carry out The long repressed desire to take his fathers place in his m early(a)s affection is revealed in unconscious activity by the sight of someone usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do (Jones, 99). This is evident in the play when Hamlet has the opportunity to kill Claudius, however he decides to wait for when he is in thincestuous pleasure of his bed so he is guaranteed to suffer the same pain Hamlets father did when he was in purgatory.Eliminating his competition in the most torturous way suggests Hamlets evil towards Claudius for marrying his mother. As an extension of this Hamlet is somewhat hostile to his mother throughout the play, shown through the language Shakespeare uses when Hamlet is alone with her. His anger tow ards his mothers sexuality is expressed, thus O shame, where is thy blush? Rebellious hell, If meter canst mutine in a matrons bones, To flaming youth let virtue be as arise (3. 4. 82-4) Hamlet demands to know how young people can be expected to control their passions if mothers cannot control theirs.In the same scene, Hamlet pleads with Gertrude not to sleep with Claudius that night and to, Refrain tonight, And that shall lend a kind of ease To the next abstinence (3. 4. 166-8) After that until she no longer wishes to sleep with Claudius. Whether this is right must be considered in psychoanalytic terms because abstinence stores up emotions that leads to a later horny explosion. In the context of the play as a whole, this is symbolic because throughout Hamlet stores up his confusion, anxiety and turmoil until he explodes in the final scene, ending in death and destruction of the dynasty.Recent developments in Hamlet criticism suggest Hamlets attitude towards his mother can be ex plained in terms of Freudian psycho compendium, in particular the Oedipus Complex where unconscious ideas and feelings centre round the wish to possess the parent of the opposite sex, and fall out that of the same sex (Rycroft, 118), according to Charles Rycroft in A Critical Dictionary of Psychoanalysis. Although this is a redbrick theory which did not exist during the Shakespearean period, Shakespeare unconsciously reflects this possible interpretation of character in the play.Hamlet seeking to avenge his father by eliminating Claudius, his mothers husband, could be one of his motivations and subsequent causes of his emotional turmoil. His confusion is, therefore, redirected onto Ophelia who experiences Hamlets anguish. Rycroft also suggests that this is symbolised in Hamlet as persons who are fixated at the oedipal take that are mother-fixated or father-fixated reveal this by choosing sexual partners with obvious resemblances to their parents (Rycroft 119).However, Ophelias qu alities are not representative of Gertrudes as Shakespeare suggests Gertrude tends to sexually dominate men in the play whereas Ophelia is obedient to them, suggesting she is vulnerable. Therefore, whether Rycrofts analysis is related to the play must be considered because it does not directly link to Hamlets situation, choosing to have a relationship with Ophelia because she resembles his mother he has sexual desires for. In Gertrude marrying Claudius, Hamlets jealousy is provoked, which in conclusion contributes to his rage when alone with his mother, You are queen, your husbands brothers wife.Here, Shakespeare shows Hamlets confusion within his complex situation, that his mother has become queen by incestuously marrying her husbands brother. Combined with Hamlets oedipal fantasy and his mothers new marriage, therefore, he is bound to show rage and confusion towards his mother and hostility towards her new partner. In conclusion, Hamlet is a character whose look is in turmoil, w hich is subliminally presented through Shakespeares use of soliloquies.This turmoil could exist due to Hamlets demeanor experiences, whether they were his fathers death or his mothers hasty marriage to his uncle, who murdered his father. These occurrences may have caused Hamlets confusion between mothers and lovers, his contemplation of suicide and his hostility towards others, resulting in misfortune at the end of the play. An Elizabethan audience would not sympathise with Hamlets hostility towards other and his delay in taking vengeance and so could argue that his mind is in turmoil, the reason why he is inactive.