Hamlet, a tragedy by William Shakespeare, has many twists and truns. One of the many mysteries of this play is whether Gertrude, the queen and mother of Hamlet, is guilty of taking part in the murder of her late husband, Hamlet's father. Throughout the play there are many clues indicating wheter or not she is guilty. Although, at times, some of these clues give the impression that Gertrude is guilty, I believe that she is actually innocent.
If in fact, Gertrude was guilty in helping commit the murder of her late husband, I believe that her reaction to the murder being re-enacted in front of her during the play that Hamlet had prepared for her Claudius, would have been much more frantic and scared. Claudius, who was in fact guilty, acted as if he was mad when he saw the murder being perfromed. Also, once Claudius began to react to what was happening on stage, Gertrude merely says, "How fares my lord?" (Act 3, Scene 2, ligne 263), indication that she is not sure what is wrong with him of why he is action that way. If she had been a part of the murder she would have realised right away.
After the play is stopped, and Hamlet goes up to see his mother at her request, they get into a heated discution. At one point Hamlet takes the picture of his father that he had around his neck and the picture of Claudius that is around Gertrude's neck and begins to compare the two brothers. He says how much greater his father was than Claudius is. He asks his mother how she could have married Claudius and befins to insult her by calling her incestuous and other such things. She replies to this by saying, "Oh Hamlet, speak no more; Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul, and ther I see such black and grained spots as will not leave their tinct." (Act 3, Scene 4, ligne 90-93). This indicates that she had no intention of marrying Claudius but did it simply out of pure necesity. If she didn't have any intention of marrying Claudius before Hamlet's father died then she obviously couldn't have taken part in planning the murder.
