Gertrude: guilty of what?

Gertrude isn’t guilty of anything in particular; she’s merely oblivious. Obviously, the fact that she married Claudius very soon after the late king’s death was not the smartest move if she had truly taken Hamlet’s thoughts and feelings into consideration. However, guilty is not the right word to use when speaking about the queen. Hamlet accuses her of being oblivious to the man that Claudius truly is; Hamlet is wondering what Gertrude was thinking when she married a man as awful as Claudius. He accuses her of having “eyes without feeling, feeling without sight, ears without hands or eyes, smelling sans all, or but a sickly part of one true sense . . .” (1542). Additionally, he charges her with “such an act that blurs the grace and blush of modesty, calls virtue hypocrite, takes off the rose from the fair forehead of an innocent love and sets a blister there, makes marriage vows as false as dicers’ oaths” (1541). With this, Hamlet does indeed throw daggers into his words when speaking to Gertrude about what she should feel guilt about: betraying the late king. But, in my opinion, Gertrude didn’t so much betray Hamlet’s father as Hamlet is accusing her of.

My attitude toward Gertrude differs from Hamlet’s because I have sympathy for her. I think she means well and isn’t able to fully understand Hamlet’s words when he accuses her of being blind to the whole situation of marrying the late king’s murderer. If she didn’t know that Claudius had murdered the late king, what exactly is she supposed to be guilty of, besides marrying soon after the death? But even so, that reason doesn’t need to be one that concerns that much guilt or guilt at all. Of course, with Hamlet’s suspicions when he says, “almost as bad, good Mother, as kill a king, and marry with his brother,” he seems to say that Gertrude was part of the plan to murder the late king (1540). If that were true, that would change a lot of things. For one, I wouldn’t have sympathy for her at all. But, as Gertrude’s character seems like a nice person who just wants peace and understanding, I doubt she took part in the plan. It’s just the fact that Hamlet’s being passive-aggressive in Act III with his mother because she didn’t know that Claudius is the murderer. My sympathy for Gertrude grows as the play continues because she’s essentially stuck with Claudius as a husband and Hamlet as a son: two people who are on opposing sides. Her loyalties lie with them both, and Claudius and Hamlet are pulling her in two different directions, both with their own cunning styles of work. (451)