Overview
Essay from the year 2022 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1.5, University of Leipzig, language: English, abstract: How has Queen Gertrude (Shakespeare's Hamlet) been portrayed in screen adaptation? Does her image differ from the original text? To answer these questions, I will analyze a selection of screen adaptions, where Gertrude is portrayed differently in almost each adaptation. Gertrude is seen as an incestuous woman who is not faithful to her dead husband and can not control her sexuality. She is a weak woman victimized by males and never has a chance to protect herself from patriarchal authority. After her husband's death, King Hamlet, Gertrude falls in love with his brother, which is something Hamlet can not accept. Through her love for Claudius, she is no longer the perfect ideal of a woman for hamlet. Hamlet becomes angry and disappointed at his mother's fall; he transfers this new image to all the other women, including Ophelia, whom he drives mad, and then to her death.
