Hamlet vs. Momma

     Queen Gertrude and Hamlet each responded to King Hamlet's death in very different ways. The queen tried to ignore her husband's death by trying to replace him. Only one month after the king's death, Queen Gertrude chose to marry her late husband's brother, Claudius, who took the position as King of Denmark. Despite her attempt to keep the balance of things in this way, this action only fueled the anger in her son Hamlet. Unlike his mother, he was deeply bothered by the loss of his father. While she had simply forgotten him, he just couldn't let go. Hamlet could not understand why she had acted this way as he describes the strong love she once had felt for her husband. But now that was gone. This show of weakness infuriated him. In addition to this, Hamlet was visited by the ghost of his father who tells him that his brother had murdered him. After learning that his father was murdered by his own brother, the very same man his mother had married, the hatred for Claudius increases and a strong desire for revenge grows in him. The burden becomes too much for Hamlet to carry, but he tries to suppress his emotions by telling himself, "Let me not think on't"(11). Later in the story when Queen Gertrude calls him to her room to speak with him, he decides that he can't hold in how he feels any longer. He tells her that she married a wicked man and called her senseless and blind. Hurt by this she begs him to stop and tries to refuse to believe any of it to be true. Although Hamlet was a very cunning character, he let the tragedies in his life destroy him. Despite the fact that Queen Gertrude and Hamlet each had their own ways of handling their problems, in the end they both fell.