Gertrude and such

I would have to simply describe Hamlet as bizarre. I don’t know if he is insane, or just really smart, or maybe so sane that he appears insane. First of all, he has just killed a man and appears to be oddly indifferent to the fact. However, the man who murdered his dad is still alive… So, as the class originally predicted, the little allusion to Pyrrhus was correct. Hamlet had the incentive, he had the weapon, and he had the chance- but his sword stuck in the air. Maybe the visit from his father will persuade him to do it. It is interesting to wonder whether Hamlet is a coward, or if he actually is just being cautious and thoughtful. If he is a coward, why was he so okay with accidentally killing Polonius? And If he is thoughtful, than how much more thinking does he really need? But the person who really puzzles me is Gertrude. I sort of suspect that she knows about the murder and is possibly even associated with it. I would at least like to think this. If Gertrude is not associated with the murder, than she is giving women a horrible name. Yes, of course murder and adultery are terrible, but it’s an embarrassment to women if she is so easily captivated by a man’s charm. To think that she is so vulnerable and dull to almost immediately move on to her brother in law… Gertrude is either a dim-witted, easy lady, or she is incredibly cunning and evil. I’m not sure. Although, Hamlet needed to inherit his smarts from somebody, so maybe it is partially Gertrude. But also, in this past scene, it seems like Hamlet actually goes in and out of madness. He is completely barbaric for a while and then he calmly explains to his mother that he is perfectly sane. But I mean, he did kill a man for no actual reason. That seems a bit spontaneous and mad. It is as if he goes from a tame and calm mind to all of a sudden a jumbled up mind of crazy thoughts. Like, why is he so calm and poised when he is about to kill Claudius? Why is he thinking when anger should be masking all rationality? It seems to me that the person he truly truly hates is his mother. When he was talking to her, the anger that should have existed when he saw Claudius repenting was instead brought up around her. She fuels his anger. Obviously he hates his uncle but he is absolutely disgusted by his mother. And if there is a bit of Oedipus complex up in here, than he probably really really hates her. His uncle drives him to be a smart-ass and incredibly thoughtful; his mother makes him completely livid. He becomes so angry that he turns absolutely mad. I think that as long as his mother is around, he is going to become more and more insane.