Love Cuts a Million Ways: Exploring the Subtle but Brutal Betrayals of Queen Gertrude Anonymous College

The act of betrayal is often explored in literature. William Shakespeare’s Hamlet explores the act of betrayal between not only Queen Gertrude and the late King Hamlet, but also their son Prince Hamlet. Gertrude’s hasty remarriage to Claudius after the king’s death is viewed as the ultimate act of betrayal and disrespect in Prince Hamlet’s perspective. Instead of mourning the king’s death as Hamlet does, Gertrude celebrates her new union to her brother-in-law, which angers Hamlet and causes tension and distrust between Hamlet, Gertrude, and Claudius. Through Gertrude’s actions, there is probable cause to believe that she was involved in the murder plot of the late King Hamlet. The character of Gertrude is a reminder that looks can be deceiving; in a world where power is coveted, sometimes people are willing to hurt the people they love most in order to achieve their own goals.

The queen’s first act of treachery is her marriage to Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and, now, the new King of Denmark. In the beginning, Hamlet sees Queen Gertrude’s swift remarriage, to his late father’s brother no less, as irreverence towards her husband’s death and memory. He expresses the belief that she remarried too quickly and did not even give herself...