Stockton Slack 11/06/2013 Period 5

Brevity is the Soul of Wit

Queen Hamlet and Ophelia could often be thought of as minor characters in the play of Hamlet, written by the one and only William Shakespeare, but there appearance can be deceiving. Gertrude and Ophelia can be interesting characters, they can be thought of in many ways, they could been seen as slow and idiotic, they could just be seen as innocent bystanders, or also they could be evil masterminds, just waiting and plotting their next move throughout the whole play, the Queen appears this way at first through her absence of depression, or her lack-luster of emotion, Ophelia is very cunning in her avoidance of attention and later in her over-exaggerated craziness. Gertrude shows her last bit of underexamined education in the way that she recognizes the coming of her untimely death. Both may seem to be weak and idiotic, dull witted or possibly ignorant, yet in the underlying tones of Hamlet, there is the possibility that they are quite the opposite and are not what you are to believe. Touching back on the Queen, near the beginning of the play, in the first act, the death of King Hamlet is announced and it could be expected that the Queen, who King Hamlet has loved all his life, would show some remorse or sadness at the time of his death and most usually for several months after the death of King Hamlet, mourning him and eventually being able to move on with this, as seen in (I.ii.69-74) the Queen says to her son, Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off thou knowst tis common; all that lives must die, she suggests that the death of King Hamlet has come from some natural cause, why would she have the need to suggest it if the thought had not arisen that there was the possibility of murder. Secondly, this is her Husband, who she has spent many days with, yet she feels that only a months worth of grieving is enough to satisfy her conscience, Hamlet still mourns while she

seems to almost have forgotten the occasion, passing it by as if it were almost anticipated and previously prepared for, she could have easily known about the plan to kill her husband, or just as easily came up with the plan herself. She may have appeared more innocent if she had spent more time unmarried, but she was quick to take up the helping hand of another man, it could be said she was looking for protection of her state, wanting to keep her possessions and position, could she not have had her son Hamlet do that for her. She should surely have thought about that beforehand, yet she still married Claudius. These examples show that the Queen is very witty and smart. Ophelia near the end of the play shows a huge dramatic change in her character and actions, she suddenly becomes insane. The other characters in the play mention that it is probably a result of the death of her father, but this could also be seen as part of a very meticulous plan to maintain her power and the supplies and luxuries that being her fathers daughter gave her. If she were not to appear grief stricken and possibly suicidal, then she could be forgotten and lose her once happy life. She also previously showed that she cares much for the luxuries of being of royal blood, when her father asked her to stop seeing Hamlet, she did so, without fighting or getting to angry, or showing that she hated her father. If she were to show her hatred for her father, then, while he was alive, he could have taken away the luxuries of being in his family, if she refused to obey him he could, to protect his honor, disown her. Throwing her out in the cold to try and provide for herself. She had to of thought about the situation before seeing as she has so much time to sit and think about anything, since that is the one thing that the men in this society cannot limit that the women have, their thoughts. She must have planned out a way to keep her wonderful life all together, even though it ended up in shambles. The last instance involving the Queen comes in the last scene, she is excited for Hamlet to be winning the duel and brings him the poisoned cup of drink, which she unknowingly drinks, which causes her eventual death, she tries to show her love for her son once again with Hamlet, offering him the drink

and trying to bring her family a little back together, not knowing about the tension between Claudius and Hamlet. She could possibly be planning in the long term, thinking that when Claudius dies, she will have to die alone out on the streets, because her son Hamlet who would take up the crown would not care for her. She drinks the poison and immediately she can tell something is wrong, there is a sudden mood change, she can tell that something has changed in the mind and mood of Claudius, had she been unobservant and witless then she may not have noticed this, she starts feeling ill and immediately she knows that she has been poisoned, she proclaims it to the world, Osiric tells everyone that something is wrong with the queen, even though they can all see her. She declares that she has been poisoned, but she does not actually know that it is poison. She can see that her end has come, and not by natural means, she could of simply thought she had suddenly become ill, but no, she knows now the situation and realizes what she has just done to herself. Throughout the book it is not quite obvious the fact that the Queen and Ophellia are both smarter than they appear, but if you are to search and truly ponder the idea you can see that through the Queens emotions, Ophellias dramatic changes and unfortunate changes in her character, as well as the Queens realization of the poisoning and anger and tension that is going on between Hamlet and Claudius, that they are really very smart and know more than what they show to know.