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Article: Gertrude's elusive libido and Shakespeare's unreliable narrators.(William Shakespeare)(Critical essay)
- Article from:
- Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
- Article date:
- March 22, 2008
- Author:
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I would like to begin by examining the striking differences that appear in the three statements we are given in Hamlet about Gertrude's sexuality--differences that I believe, in the words of what used to be the standard opening gambit of articles in our field, deserve more critical attention than they have yet received. In the first statement, which is located in the center of his first soliloquy, Hamlet presents a vivid picture of his parents' marital relationship as he recalls it. He says that his father was
So excellent a king, that was to this
Hyperion to a satyr, so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too ...