The Character of Gertrude in Shakespeare's Hamlet
It is tempting to condemn Gertrude as evil, but it is probably more sensible to consider her as weak and inconstant. Hamlet's heartfelt line "Frailty, thy name is woman" sums up his view of her actions early in the play. Like many of Shakespeare's women characters, she is "sketched in" rather than drawn in detail. We know that she has a deep affection for her son, which is commented on by Claudius in Act 4 "The Queen, his mother, lives almost by his looks." and we may assume that she has not gone to Claudius's bed unwillingly, although there is a lack of evidence that she returns the King's obsession with her.
She is protected by the ghost, too, who commands Hamlet not to punish her and intervenes in the closet scene when Hamlet's attack on Gertrude is at its height. The ghost's instructions to his son are specific:
"But howsomever thou pursuest this act
Taint not thy mind, nor let thy soul contrive
Against thy mother aught.." (I. v. 84-6)
Hamlet, too reminds the audience twice how Gertrude behaved in th...
...a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's ... No damn cat, no damn cradle.”(Vonnegut, 105) In Cat’s Cradle Vonnegut critiques the many institutions and dogmas that we hold close to our heart. Vonnegut proposes the idea that the human life lacks purpose and any attempt to acquiring knowledge is futile because as he wrote in the story there’s “No damn cat, no damn cradle”(Vonnegut, 105) meaning there is no truth. In Vonnegut’s satire, Cat’s Cradle he closely examines the conventions of religious dogmas and the search for the truth through science. Vonnegut’s core satire in the book is the Bokononism , religion accepted by the citizens of San Lorenzo regardless of it’s self-acknowledged lies. Today science is seen as the key to progress but Vonnegut dismisses that notion and displays it’s dangerous repercussions.
Through the portrayal of Felix Hoenniker, Vonnegut satirizes that innocence does not necessarily equal harmlessness. In chapter 7, Newton Hoenniker writes about his father to Jonah, “After the thing went off, after it was a sure thing that America could wipe out a city with just one bomb, a scientist turned to Father and said, ‘Science has now known sin.’ And do you know what Father said? He said, ‘What is sin?’ (13). Felix’s ignorance toward the moral responsibility that accompanied his nuclear weapons research become blatant. Furthermore, Felix’s lack of judiciousness emblematizes his shallowness. Integrating such a concept promptly fills Vonnegut’s intentions of illustrating the destructive nature of innocence. The author elicits that impeccability found in Felix Hoenniker can be deleterious. In order to understand how these circumstances lead to a worldwide disaster by the end of Cat’s Cradle, it is of paramount importance that one conceives Felix as the epitome of a scientist who researches for knowledge with little or no concern for the application of that knowledge. In chapter 33, ...
When medical care providers are forced to make decisions and these decisions “violate one of the four principles of medical ethics” so that they can adhere to another of these principles this is considered an ethical dilemma (“Medical Ethics & the Rationing of Health Care: Introduction”, n.d., p. 1). Bioethicists refer to the healthcare ethics four principles in their merits evaluation and medical procedure difficulties as transplants. Organ and or transplant allocation policies has a mixture of legal, ethical, scientific and many others, however the focus here will be to show how the four ethical principles, autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence and justice, applies to transplant allocation (Childress, 2001, p. 5).
Hamlet takes control of the conversation from the very beginning of the scene although it is Gertrude who was meant to be rebuking him and doing much of the talking. Hamlet succeeds in shaming her until the point when she begs him to stop. Hamlet having the upper hand in the conversation, asks his mother to change her ways, which she agrees to and asks for his advice, showing that she has submitted herself to her son. Hamlet does not really show much respect for his mother while reproving her and forcing her to sit down but he does love her. Some critics believe that his love shows sexual connotation and that is a reason why he gets so upset at her remarriage. There is a point in this scene when Gertrude thinks her life is in danger of Hamlet and gets frightened, which shows us that she considers him to be mad and harmful. After this scene she becomes aware that Hamlet isn't mad and starts trusting him as opposed to Claudius. This is exactly how Shakespeare has presented women throughout the play: they are easy to convince, very meek and become submissive to the men (as we can see Ophelia and her response to her father and brother). They are depicted as weak and inferior in comparison to the male figures, who control their lives. After the closet scene Gertrude keeps faith to her son and lies to her husband Claudius for Hamlet saying he killed Polonius in his madness:
The American cheetah, who once roamed the North American plains, is thought to have become extinct around 10,000 years ago (Blue Line, N.D.). In the 1970’s the fossils were found in a cave in Wyoming and scientists originally hypothesized that the species was from the cougar lineage. It was proven to be a cheetah because of its lighter body and nasal cavities. Scientists also believed that they had gone extinct due to climate change or loss of its prey. This land mammal may have been quite fast but could not reach the 65-mile-per-hour range of the South African cheetah. This predator is more closely related to modern pumas and cougars than to the African cheetah. Genetic studies reveal that the American cheetahs closest relatives are the mountain
Caplan, A. (2004). Cutting in line for organ transplants: Texas man's efforts to get liver undermine system. MSNBC.com website. Retrieved February 27, 2011, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5810779/.
I think one thing that Vonnegut is trying to show us is that man too easily accepts things as valid without questioning. Refering to this, Newt, another character, says, "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's…No damn cat, and no damn cradle" (114).
Nadiminti, H. (2005) Organ Transplantation: A dream of the past, a reality of the present, an ethical Challenge for the future. Retrieved February 12, 2014 from http://virtualmentor.ama-assn.org/2005/09/fred1-0509.html
To begin, Gertrude is presented in differing manners throughout Hamlet the play versus Hamlet (2000) the film. In Shakespeare’s play, she originally is cast as a woman who has power due to her husband, but sits as a trophy wife. Craving power, safety, and comfort, she depends on men for her position and control. Seeming to have poor judgment, she never expresses self-reflection throughout the play and just seems to be a bit oblivious to everything, ultimately resulting in her death as an unaware victim of a game she ensnared herself
The relationship between Hamlet and Gertrude is strained at first. From the beginning of the play to act III, Hamlet is bitter with his mother. He feels this way because it has been less than four months since the death of his biological father, yet she is already remarried to Claudius. He feels his father is being betrayed from her lack of mourning. She tells her son to "cast thy nighted color off" (I.ii.68) and "all that lives must die" (I.ii.72). Clearly, she isn't grieving over her late husband's death and instead puts forth an optimistic attitude to her new husband and life. Gertrude's concern with Hamlet's odd behaviour after his encounter with Ophelia in act II scene i also shows the strain in their relationship. For example, she agrees with Claudius' words that "of Hamlet's transformation" (II.ii.5) and suggests Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy and find out the underlying cause of her son's problems. In addition to that, she consents Polonius to hide behind the tapestry in act III scene iv without Hamlet knowing. These two decisions suggest their inability to communicate. Instead, spying is required for Gertrude to find out about her son's inner mentality. The mother and ...
Why are the cheetahs going extinct? The cheetahs now live in Africa and Southwest Asia. They have lost about 91% of their habitat in the nature. (Park) The cheetahs need a lot of space to live in. These animal are the fastest mammals on Earth so they need more land to hunt and run in. Humans give more pressure to the animals by illegal trading, eating the food that the cheetahs eat, and taking the cheetahs’ habitat. (Park) There are lot more humans now than there were when the cheetahs were not considered endangered so the cheetahs are losing most of their habitat. Humans who live in Africa and southwest Asia are living in place the space which is pushing back the cheetahs, leaving them a little space to live in. Humans are also eating other
For these reasons along with many more, I feel like the cheetah should be protected at all costs. There are many reasons why the cheetah is known as an amazing animal, and there are also many ways these animals can be protected. With enough people interested and willing to help, I hope that one day we will have the cheetah population back and better than
In the play “Hamlet,” Gertrude and Ophelia share similarities and they are also contrasting characters. Gertrude, the mother of Hamlet, is a loving, honorable, protective mother. Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest, is young, foolish, and underestimated. One of the main stances, to which they both contrast, is their love for Hamlet.
At times it seems that Gertrude does not know or pretends not to know why Hamlet is so angry with her and with Claudius ('What have I done, that thou dar'st wag thy tongue/ In noise so rude against me?'). At other times she seems to know exactly what is troubling him ('His father's death and our o'er-hasty marriage', II.2.57). But Hamlet, too, does not come clean directly. He does not confront her with the murder, but rather sets out 'to wring her heart' (III.4.35), and plays upon her emotions rather than on her reason. Instead, he shows her two pictures, and compares at great length his father with his uncle (55 ff.). In this long speech, the son touches on many matters so delicate that critics can be forgiven for detecting more than a whiff oedipal sentiment in Hamlet himself. He plays on his mother's sense of shame, even bringing her eroticism or lack of it into play, and culminating in a vision of his mother making love in a bed stained with semen - not a pretty sight:
Zoos introduces captive-bred projects to take care of some animals for years and reintroduce them back to the wild. However, captive animals usually lose their survival skills in wild after under an absolute protection for a long time, especially those who are used to learning from their parents. They no longer able to escape from predators or track preys. Reintroduction often needs to be abandoned permanently.