Hamlet essay

Submitted By Saltemom
Words: 454
Pages: 2

Taffi Lang
Dr. Julie Sloan Brannon
English 203
9 October 2014
Gertrude from Hamlet Gertrude was Hamlet's mother. She was Queen of Denmark. Gertrude seemed to be a person who cared more about herself than her family. In this essay, we discuss the three characters of Gertrude. The first character is from the play by William Shakespeare, the second is the character as portrayed in the movie which starred Mel Gibson as Hamlet and the third is the character Gertrude as portrayed in the movie which starred Ethan Hawke. The character as portrayed in the play of William Shakespeare appears to be a woman of selfishness and inability to show her guilt (Crowther). When she is to confront Hamlet to find out why he is "insane", she acts as if there is no reason for him to be upset with her at all (Act 3, Scene 4). The Gertrude from the Mel Gibson movie, I believe is the truest to the play version. After reading the play, and then watching that version, I can almost see the character in the play to be Glenn Close. Her words, appearance and demeanor is everything I saw when reading the play version. I could see from this portrayal that she may have indeed known of the plan of her brother-in-law to kill his brother and take what was not his. Did she willingly participate for the lust of another man or did she simply get blinded by the words of her brother-in-law because of his ability to make one believe that he is the right place?

The portrayal of Gertrude in the Ethan Hawke version of the movie was less than appealing. The language she used with modern day attire did not make you feel that it is truly something written by William