Hamlet - "Cast A Character" Assignment

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one of the most mysterious and layered characters in the entire play is that of Hamlet’s mother, Queen Gertrude. The Queen is gradually exposed over the course of the play to be a more and more evil character, as her incestuous and deceptive nature gradually begins to shine forth. I would plan to direct the play in movie form, in order to account for certain “special effects” such as flashbacks and multiple, changing points of view in order to portray her as the dark and brooding character that I interpreted her to be.

As I explored my memory for actresses that would best fit the role of Gertrude in my rendition of Hamlet, a single actress stood out among all others. I knew that in order to be the perfect match for the role, an actress would need to be able to satisfy a lot of different roles and display many different sides to the same person. For example, Queen Gertrude is portrayed in various parts of Hamlet as vulnerable, weak-willed, feminine, and seductive. She also is portrayed as strong, defiant, and is even portrayed at times to have a cunning and evil side. For this reason, I would need to hire an actress who’s face could easily assume all of these different roles perfectly. I would need someone with strong facial features, whose countenance could simultaneously appear to be both beautiful and feminine, as well as strong and cunning. I immediately resolved that Cate Blanchett would perfectly fill this role, as her face perfectly assumes many of these roles throughout the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

For a costume, I would portray Queen Gertrude to have exceedingly regal and exquisite attire. The extremely flashy attire worn by the Queen would mirror her innate drive and addiction to power. These clothes, in addition to being ornate and beautiful, would also be quite revealing in my rendition of Hamlet. This would also attest to the Queen’s incestuous and sexually-charged character who runs to the “loving arms” of her murdered husband’s brother. A perfect example of such attire can be seen here, worn by Cate Blanchett herself on the set of the movie Elizabeth: The Golden Age. The dress she is wearing is regal, elegant, flashy, and also slightly revealing in comparison to the standard of attire of that age. As for the colors of her attire, I believe it would be the most interesting if the Queen were to wear clothing that was primarily red, brown, or black. This would be to symbolize through the use of color her darker passions, and her ability to cloud and muddy the truth. The color red, especially, may easily represent lust, passion, anger, and spilled blood- all things that would easily be associated with the Queen.

When delivering her lines, I would direct Cate Blanchett to not only administer the lines exactly as they are written in the play, but to have a sly, sensual, even seductive tone with them whenever possible. This would hint at the obvious and pronounced physical relationship between her and King Claudius, and the evil, incestuous nature of said relationship. When speaking to King Claudius, in particular, I would have her employ the use of this tempting and suggestive tone frequently in order to portray her as a sexually-charged and controlling woman. This tone’s secondary effect would cause the audience to more greatly sympathize with Hamlet, especially in Act 3, Scene 4 when he finally confronts the Queen about her incestuous and despicable behavior. If, up until this point in the play, Queen Gertrude had been consistently portrayed as a strong, controlling, and powerful woman, the audience would clearly interpret her cries of “O, speak to me no more! / These words like daggers enter in my ears.” (Act3:4, lines 94-95) as feigning weakness and helplessness. This would not be registered as a façade however in the ears of Polonious, who remains hidden behind a curtain. To an outside observer such as himself, this violent interaction between Hamlet and Queen Gertrude would appear as if Hamlet is properly insane, and verbally attacking the “helpless” Queen. To the audience, however, this would set up situational irony because observers, having extensive knowledge of the Queen’s personality and behavior up until this point, would know that this is a façade in order to facilitate sympathy. This would build on the Queen’s reputation for being a liar, a cheat, and a powerful antagonist of the play. The Queen’s strong and cunning personality would again come into play later on during this same scene when Hamlet begins to interact with the spirit of his murdered father. When the queen claims to not see the spirit, speaking the lines “[I see] nothing at all, yet all that is I see,” (Act3:4, line 133) we are expected to believe that she is deceiving Hamlet.

The second major scene in the play where Queen Gertrude’s dark side is displayed is when she bluntly throws upon Laertes the news of his sister’s death. Here, the stern face of Cate Blanchett would be ideal in showing the lack of sympathy obviously present in the written play. During this scene in particular, I would cast Queen Gertrude as wearing a primarily black dress, with red accents. I would identify this part in the play as being the pinnacle of the Queen’s evil action, and this would be reflected in her attire. The red accents on the black dress- perhaps long, flowing designs or ribbons of fabric down her sides or arms – would serve to symbolize blood flowing over her. This is because in this scene I would like to accentuate the theory that the Queen murdered Ophelia. This is based mostly on the fact that the Queen recounts such a detailed account of Ophelia’s drowning to Laertes, that it would mean that she either observed the drowning take place and neglected to help Ophelia, or the Queen murdered Ophelia herself and then passed the death off as an accidental suicide. As the queen spoke the lines, “When down her weedy trophies and herself / fell in the weeping brook… Till that her garments, heavy with their drink, / Pull’d the poor wretch from her melodious lay / To muddy death,” (Act5:1, lines 174 – 183) the movie would flash back to a dramatic scene where the queen herself is shown forcibly holding Ophelia underwater until she drowned, with a murderous glare in her eye. The juxtaposition between what the queen is describing in her speech to Laertes and what is being recounted in her flashback would further develop her character as an evil, deceptive, and power-hungry woman.

In my rendition of Hamelt, these qualities bestowed upon Queen Gertrude would not only develop her own character greatly, but they would help to develop the characters of those around her. Her deceptive nature would lend credibility to Hamlet’s visions of his deceased father, and her suggestive character would further back up Hamlet’s accusations of her being incestuous. Through her evil nature, she would inadvertently help gain the audience’s sympathy for Hamlet. She would also perfectly match the evil and dark nature of her husband, King Claudius, because in my version she would be blatantly exposed as a murderer. By doing this she and King Claudius would be further shown to be kindred spirits, joined by their evil inclinations, as the King also had murdered someone in the past.