Your question, which is an important one, is the
difference between two women—queens—in terms of their power. One is Elizabeth I of
England, and the second is the character of Gertrude in Shakespeare's
Hamlet.
When Elizabeth I came to the
throne, she was twenty-five. She reigned alone, without a husband, for forty-five years.
She was extremely intelligent and had inherited her father's shrewd and, sometimes
harsh, side. She loved her country and served it well, but she would not compromise the
integrity of England for anyone: not someone she was very fond of, as with the Earl of
Essex—who was executed for treason, or her cousin, Mary, Queen of Scots, also executed
for treason.
Elizabeth I commanded respect not only from
her people and her political "staff," but also from foreign powers. She stood up to the
rulers of the other major powers of the time: France and Spain, and held her own. She
was able to steer a conservative path between the Catholics and Protestants of the time,
and refurbished England's treasury. Under her reign, the English defeated the Spanish
Armada, believed to be the strongest naval fleet in the world at that time. She also
ushered in the English (or Elizabethan) Renaissance which brought about a renewed
interest (rebirth) in the arts. Elizabeth ruled on her own as Queen, and though she had
advisors, she ruled as she saw fit. She was an extremely powerful
monarch.
Gertrude, on the other hand, is a much weaker
woman. She is Queen by virtue, first, of her marriage to her dead husband, Old Hamlet.
Upon his death, and seeming much too quickly, she marries her brother-in-law less than
two months later, according to Hamlet.
Gertrude's hasty
marriage is unseemly with regard to how quickly she married; and Elizabethans also
considered that to marry a dead spouse's brother or sister was considered incestuous, so
Gertrude is seen in a bad light for this reason as well. Hamlet is very disappointed
with his mother.
In his "Oh, that this too, too solid flesh
would melt" soliloquy in Act One, scene two, Hamlet speaks of how quickly his mother has
remarried.
HAMLET:
A
little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she
follow'd my poor father's body…
O God! a beast that wants
discourse of reason
Would have mourn'd longer…
(150-154)
Later, Hamlet shares with Horatio that
the wedding so closely followed the funeral, that leftovers from the first could have
been served at the second. (This is hyperbole.)
HAMLET:
Thrift,
thrift, Horatio! The meats baked for the funeral
Were also
put on the marriage tables.
(I.ii.185-186)
Gertrude seems
to have married Claudius because she was weak—perhaps not a weak
woman, per se, but one who wielded no power in her
male-dominated society. There is nothing that indicates that Gertrude was drawn to
Claudius before Old Hamlet's death. In fact, Hamlet reports that she worshipped the
ground his father walked on. Claudius might have persuaded Gertrude
to marry: this would have solidified his place upon the throne. (Hamlet has no concerns
that he is not king.) Married to Claudius, she is cared for, and
so, too, is Hamlet. Gertrude very much loves her son and worries
for him; in this way, she is a good woman. She acts the part of the happy newlywed with
Claudius—but is there a choice?
Gertrude as a woman who is
queen in name only. And by the play's end, she is not only crushed by the news of
Claudius' crime, but can do nothing—she cannot save herself or her
son.
These are very different
women.
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