Term Papers on Hamlet And Gertrude: Love Or Hate

Term Paper Title	Hamlet And Gertrude: Love Or Hate
# of Words	892
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.57

Hamlet and Gertrude: Love or Hate

     Imagine it, while away at college you receive word that your beloved father
who had seemed in good health only a short while ago has died leaving your
mother and yourself. This situation would be enough to bring great depression to
even the strongest of souls but for Hamlet, the fictional prince of Denmark in
Shakespeare's play of the same name, this is not his imagination but cruel
reality.  Not only has his father passed but, as if to mock the very memory of
the former king, Gertrude, Hamlet's mother and queen, has married again within
two months. This shock is further compounded by the fact the her new husband is
none other than her former brother-in-law, Claudius.
     Unable to return to the university due to his over whelming despair,
Hamlet is trapped by his loving parents and not allowed to leave Denmark until
certified well. It is at this time he receives word from his friend Horatio that
the spirit of his father has returned and walks the night. During the
Elizabethan period of English literature, man and nature were thought to be
linked as part of a "great chain of being". To Hamlet, the fact that his father
had returned showed that this chain had been disrupted by some evil in the world
of man. That he had returned as a ghost could mean only one thing, his death was
not an accident. The ghost beseeches Hamlet to avenge him but warns him, "taint
not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught . . . leave her
to heaven".
     This statement by the ghost was left open enough for Hamlet to develop
many questions about his mother's actual involvement in his father's death. At
first, Hamlet's rage is confined to his uncle Claudius but quickly and violently
shifts towards his mother, dwelling upon the horrible thought that she might
have been involved. "Oh most pernicious women!" He screams, "O villain, villain,
smiling, damned villain!" Hamlet speaks as though he has temporarily forgotten
his promise to his father and has become insane with anger. The insanity through
anger is a reoccurring motif throughout the play. After Hamlet has simmered down
to the point where he is again lucid, he vows to his friend Horatio that he will
take revenge upon Claudius, and he will do so by acting insane until the time is
right.
     It's clear by what the ghost has said that Claudius is guilty of murder,
but what  about Gertrude? She clearly disgusts Hamlet due to her hasty marriage.
Throughout the play he makes satirical remarks and is generally cold towards her
but does not make any direct accusations. This changes in act 3, scene ii after
the performing of  the "mouse trap". Hamlet uses the travel...

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