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Gertrude essay
Gertrude character analysis essay
Theme of insanity in literature
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The excerpt from the novel And The Birds Rained Down explains how Gertrude was sent into a psychiatric hospital at the age of sixteen by her father due to the reasoning of “insanity”. Throughout the story, it explains how her brothers son, Bruno, is trying to get her out of the hell that is considered the psychiatric hospital. Her actions and the way she approached things were too, normal, so to speak. Even though she was treated like trash by her own family, she still has life in her, and she continues to live. It seems as if even though she is in a place that is considered by many people a place to be feared, for the mentally ill, sick, crazy people, she still has a lively young spirit. She enjoyed living, she wanted to live, that was her
These questions prove that Gertrude is much more complex than the reader thinks initially. However, her character in the play is an enigma, shallow in depth. Gertrude seems to put on a facade of ignorance. She must protect her own interests.
Gertrude, like many others who have come to Johannseburg, or who were even born there, were brought to a world where corruption is the key to living. This is the only way to make a decent life and so they stoop to the lowest levels possible, cheating and prostitution. And just like the rest Gertrude can't be saved from what has become. Even though Kumalo tries to save her and the city of Johannesburg from what it has become it is known that once they have become what they have it's impossible to change them back.
Critics interpret Gertrude in a number of different ways; however, they tend to judge her by her silences or by wh...
Although she may have been partially responsible for Claudius’ monstrous act of fratricide and although her marriage to Claudius may have been indirectly responsible for making a “monster” of Hamlet, Gertrude is never seen in the play inducing anyone to do anything at all monstrous. . . . When one closely examines Gertrude’s actual speech and actions in an attempt to understand the character, one finds little that hints at hypocrisy, suppression, or uncontrolled passion and their implied complexity. . . . She speaks plainly, directly and chastely when she does speak [. . .]. (81-82)
In the play Gertrude depicts her take on death as a part of life in which one needs to move on from and almost forget them as they once were. To some the circle of life is more than death; it can be way for someone to release feelings through the mourning, except that is not what Gertrude believes. Gertrude tells Hamlet, “Good Hamlet, cast thy nighted color off, And let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark. Do not forever with thy vailèd lids. Seek for thy noble father in the dust” (1.2.70-72). Gertrude’s words are saying for Hamlet to stop wearing black clothes and just remember his noble father how he once was, which may seem harsh but it may also be the only way in which Gertrude knows how to handle it. Another way Gertrude may handle it is through forgiveness from Hamlet. The article Acts III and IV: Problems of Text and Staging states that Hamlet says, “O, throw away the worser part of it And live the purer with the other half. Good night. But go not to my unl...
Prior to the opening of the drama, Gertrude was having an incestuous affair with her husbands brother, Claudius. Claudius then killed his brother (King Hamlet), and shortly after married Gertrude. Prince Hamlet could not handle this and was disgusted by the entire situation. He then decided to put on an "Antic Disposition," meaning that he will pretend to be crazy in order to find out the details of what is going on. Gertrude observes that Hamlet is not his usual self, and she feels responsible because her remarriage is so soon after her old husbands death. This makes Gertrude feel absolutely terrible and could be a possible justification for suicide.
Gertrudes portrayal in Shakespeare's Hamlet evokes feelings of both disdain and empathy from the audience. The complexity that surrounds this somewhat minor character causes her to be hated by those who do not care to delve deeper. Through her remarriage to Claudius, and the mystery surrounding her former husband's death, the audience initially may take her for a cold hearted woman who is insensitive to her son. However, when analyzing her character throughout the course of the play, one will find her true affection for Hamlet. Although Hamlet portrays Gertrude as a cold hearted and lustful woman, her unwavering love for him reveals the true compassion she holds for her son.
In theory women during the Elizabethan Age had no power in their homes. In royal families the women are the breeders, they had the responsibility to keep the royal bloodline flowing by having male children to keep the male dominance. “A woman whose job is to represent the family, is doing the traditionally female job of being wife or mother.” (Billig) Gertrude’s role in the play had fairly little significance, besides that she was a mother and wife. She showed no reasons as to why she was in such a rush to remarry after her husband, King Hamlet’s death.
The apocalypse of the birds continues, even after three months, isolating Nat’s family knowing that he is the sole survivor of the nearby area. Nat and his family have enough food from nearby stores that have dead bodies of the public that thought of this attack as a mere change of weather. Time goes so slow for Nat’s family that they could feel the earth rotating fifteen degrees per hour.
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
While Hamlet is speaking to Gertrude she tells him “O Hamlet, speak no more!” (pg 175) and “These words like daggers enter in my ear” (pg 177). They both really stress just how powerful speech is. When Gertrude says these things to Hamlet it is like telling him not to be who he is because speech is like everything for Hamlet. Speech is the way Hamlet expresses himself and it also is a huge part of why people see him as crazy. These words are making Gertrude feel a little crazy just as it happened to Ophelia after the news of Polonius ' death and Hamlet supposedly “acting” crazy. No one knows for sure if Hamlet is actually insane but the way he phrases his sentences cause people to believe he is insane. At times when Hamlet is speaking about his belief that Claudius killed his father Gertrude may want to believe that he is crazy. She has convinced herself that Hamlet is crazy in order to make herself feel better. She may feel like a terrible person for marrying Claudius if this was true and so she does not want to believe it. Although Gertrude does not show much grief when she heard about Hamlet’s opinion on Claudius it may be because she is having a hard time accepting
In the course of this film we see Melanie develop as a person through confronting the things she fears. Melanie confronts many fears through the course of the film and grows as a person as the film progresses. She goes through a lot in the film and the story implies that she has found herself by the end of the film. The story is of course a thriller but behind the thriller is Melanie’s journey. Melanie’s journey is very quick. She was extremely immature and lost at the beginning of the film and is some what grown up by the end.
A mother’s duty is to keep her child safe from the arms of evil whenever she can, but how can this task be completed if she is blind to the engulfing evil around? A mother is there to protect her child and stand by them in times of need, however, this obligation may be impossible to fulfill when a child loses their sanity. As evil consumes their child and the danger is turned on them, many mothers would step back and step up against these terrible deeds, but Gertrude has proven not to be like most mothers. Instead of reaching out to stop Hamlet’s rampage, she uses a blanket of love and faith to mask his violence. As Hamlet spirals downwards, Gertrude’s loving faith is stabbed by his violence, but she soon recovers as justification
Throughout the novel, we gain a good understanding of what the character of Walter Morel is like, in certain parts, we can 100% empathise with Gertrude and understand her struggle and strife, yet there are moments in the text, when I for one, see Walter is the vulnerable, mis-understood character he really is. I believe he is the one, not Gertrude, who deserves the readers sympathy.
Now I remember why I was always so afraid of sleeping. I had corrupted myself and I knew that the demons with come, and I foresaw that today was the day I met my demise. The man, the man in the cloak, was God going to be there to save me once more? I do not know but all I know is that I have committed terrible sins, but the murder of James set it off! All of this pent-up tension had been in my mind for all these years, had finally lead to the teetering of my sanity, but no, I am not mad! The corruption did not dull my senses, it made them acute, accurate! I had not done it for it is been the black man who had saved me. What was to become of me this brilliant mind after today? Would it be turned mad what it be tarnished from the inside out,