Gertrude

Her relationship with Hamlet (her son) is unusual.

She loves him, but he hates her because she has quickly married Claudius. Hamlet feels she should have more respect for her dead husband and should have mourned for him longer.

She married Claudius because she loved him and didn’t want to be alone.

The role of women at this time was to be subservient and it would have been a lonely place for her if she wasn’t Queen.

It is speculated as to whether she was involved in the murder of her previous husband, although nothing is proved, Hamlet feels it could be the case.

It is Gertrude’s behaviour that destroys Hamlet’s faith in the fidelity of women, which he later takes out on Ophelia.

She accidentally drinks the poisoned wine in Act 5, ironically killed by her new husband’s treachery.

There are views that there is a strange, incestuous relationship between Hamlet and his mother. There is a closeness about some of their meetings which may suggest this.