Wang 1 Hamlet Annotated Bibiography Shakespeare shows through the character arcs of Gertrude and Ophelia two vastly

different ways in which women gain power in Hamlet. Dane, Gabrielle. "Reading Ophelia's Madness." Exemplaria 10.2 (1998): 405-423. Literary Reference Center. Web. 7 Apr. 2013. Dane starts out by stating his challenge: to read Ophelia's madness as both mad and not mad and to tell her story without overanalyzing her ramblings while avoiding glorifying them. He then establishes that Ophelia was psychologically fragile from the start, since she had internalized the male characters' lack of belief in her intelligence, virtue, and autonomy in the absence of a mother figure. Laertes reminds her to be virtuous, while Polonius talks to her like a child and uses her to further his own power and social status. Hamlet sees her as nothing but a spectre of his psychic fears of his disloyal mother. These conflicting messages leave no room for her to think for herself. Dane argues that Ophelia becomes mad because she experiences a thunderous silence of these demands for the first time in her life when Laertes is in France, Hamlet is banished to England, and Polonius is dead. Madness is the only way for her to free herself from the restrictions placed on her and to express her anger and desire. Through madness, she may discover her heretofore smothered identity and sabotage authority, becoming a mad prophet. Dane goes on to derive meaning from Ophelia's songs, showing how her mad ravings elucidate the inanity of mindless orthodoxies, proclaim the hypocrisies of family, denounce false love, suggest the arbitrariness of political power. However, in speaking through ballads, legends, pieties, and other routine things, Ophelia gives the others an easy route to infantilize her and deny that her words have meaning. Thus Ophelia's is a tragic madness. Since her intentions falling on deaf ears, the only thing left for her to do is die. Dane concludes that

Wang 2 Ophelia's death was indeed a suicide, because it is the only act she can do completely autonomously. Loberg, Harmonie. "Queen Gertrude: Monarch, Mother, Murderer." Atenea 24.1 (2004): 59-71. Literary Reference Center. Web. 7 Apr. 2013. Loberg makes the argument that Gertrude is involved in Ophelia's death. She starts by hypothesizing that the reason why people are reluctant to belief Gertrude's involvement is because she is a woman, and therefore weaker and less aggressive, supposedly. Loberg contends this by reasoning that if women are considered intellectual equals to men, then they should be considered equals in other areas, such as aggression. Further evidence of the queen's guilt comes in the final scene, where she dies on-stage by the same means as all the other male murderers. Loberg takes down the theory that a servant gave Gertrude the details of Ophelia's death by pointing out that the convention was for servants to go to the king to deliver news. Loberg establishes that Gertrude married Claudius not because of lust, but because she needed to preserve her roles as wife, mother, and queen. She then argues that Gertrude kills Ophelia because Ophelia threatens these roles. When Claudius and Polonius use Ophelia to bait Hamlet, they dismiss Gertrude from their presence. It is then that Gertrude acknowledges Ophelia for the first time, in a passive-aggressive manner. Connotations of an illegitimate child in one of Ophelia's songs threatens to change Gertrude's relationship with her son and turn her into a grandmother. Ophelia also hints that Laertes will challenge Claudius for the throne, which would also challenge Gertrude's status as queen. Loberg then argues that the queen is a dynamic character, becoming more assertive and openly aggressive as the play progresses. She also points out Gertrude's faked mourning at Ophelia's funeral, considering how little significance she seemed to place on death earlier in the

Wang 3 play. Reasons why readers are reluctant to accept that Gertrude killed Ophelia, Loberg claims, are that female suicide is more romanticized than female murder, and that Gertrude is the only (presumably) guilty character to not admit to murder. The latter Loberg resolves by arguing that Gertrude, like society at large, has trouble recognizing violent behavior in herself, a woman. Montgomery, Abigail L. "Enter Queen Gertrude stage center: re-viewing Gertrude as full participant and active interpreter in Hamlet." South Atlantic Review 74.3 (2009): 99+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 7 Apr. 2013. Montgomery takes a reading of Hamlet that frames Gertrude as a strong-minded, intelligent, succinct, and sensible woman who gains power throughout the play leading up to her final and most deliberate choice. He cites the closet scene as an example, explaining how Gertrude starts out the scene under the power of men but acts more and more on her own as the scene progresses. Her concern with her morality seen in that scene parallels that of the male characters. Montgomery then argues that Gertrude is an essential and independent character in the triumvirate of Hamlet's parents: Gertrude, Claudius, and Old Hamlet. He also points out that she promises to keep up the ruse of Hamlet's madness, and keeps that promise. Another role that Gertrude takes on is that of interpreter; she repeatedly is the one who provides commentary on Hamlet or other vital information, such as news of Ophelia's death and criticism of Polonius' speech (as a side note, Montgomery seems to believe that Ophelia's death was a suicide). Gertrude's culminating moment of power comes when she defies Claudius' command to not drink the poisoned wine.

Rationale: I chose the first article for how extensively it explores Ophelia's psychological state,

Wang 4 and how it makes the unexpected argument that her madness is actually her way of gaining power. The second article and third article both covered how Gertrude developed and gained power throughout the play. One misgiving I have is that the first article makes the argument that Ophelia's death was a suicide, while the second argues that it was a murder. Though the criticism I am drawing from them does not encompass her death, the implications of this cannot be ignored. They can, however, be conveniently disregarded.