Alexis Schexnayder May 2nd, 2013
English 12

Hamlet Essay

In Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia resemble each other in the way that they let men control them. However, they have very different reasons. Ophelia is only trying to do what is right by finding an equilibrium between Hamlet and Polonius. Gertrude is dependent on men; when Hamlet's father dies, she is very quick to move on. Unlike Ophelia, Gertrude can be described as conniving, shadowy, and spiritually conflicted. Hamlet is confused as to whether he can trust his mother, Gertrude. He is unsure of her actions and even thinks she may have a part in his father's death. She seems to be genuinely concerned about Hamlet; she even goes as far as to drink the poisoned wine to prevent Hamlet's death. In contradiction, when she married Claudius, it was a betrayal to both Hamlet and his father. Hamlet claims his mother has betrayed him when he remarks, “A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, My father's brother, but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules.” Ophelia tries to do right by listening to he father because it is the law. Because she is not married, she must listen to him. Both her father and brother think that Hamlet would use her, and they force her to lie to him. When she does this, she seals her own fate, and it drives her into a state of madness. Laertes speaks of her madness when he proclaims, “By heaven, thy madness shall be paid by weight, Till our scale turn the beam. O rose of May! Dear maid, kind sister, sweet