My Argument

Unlike all of the other characters in Shakespears "hamlet" who develop and grow through the course of the play, Gertrude continues to act selfishly and puts her own needs before the needs of others, even if it meant that she betrays Hamlet in the process. Whether or not it be her questionable marriage to Claudius, forcing Hamlet to accept him as a father, and her betrayal of Hamlet to the king after Hamlet sees the ghost of his father are all acts of selfishness and betrayal.

After Hamlet sees the ghost when he visits with Gertrude and she cant see the ghost, she concludes that Hamlet has gone insane. Hamlet put his trust into his mother hoping thats she would understand his vision of his father but instead she was too scared for her own life because of what he did to Polonius, Gertrude asks hamlet what she should do and agrees with him :

"be thou assured, if words be made of breath,/ and breath of life, i have no life to breath/ what though hast said to me" (III,iv,198-201)

Shortly after she confesses what Hamlet does to the king everything she promised Hamlet she would not :

"Mad as the sea and wind when both contended/ which is the mightier. In lawless fit,/ Behind the arras hearing something stir,/ Whips out his rapier, cries, "a rat, a rat"/ And his brainish apprehension kills/ the unseen good old man," (IV,i,7-12)

She knows the feelings of hate Hamlet shares towards his uncle are strong and yet she doesn't seem to be moved by his actions. So as Adam had mentioned earlier about the types of betrayal in novels there are many cases of all 3 committed by Gertrude.

- She tricks Hamlet into thinking she was on his side
- As a literary device it changes the plot of the story a lot as the king now knows Hamlets onto him and Hamlet is able to kill to get what he wants
- She goes against the norm by betraying her own son by calling him crazy even though she knew that the consequences were not going to be good for Hamlet, by doing this she shows that she has almost no love for Hamlet. As professor Osho said "with out trust love is not possible" since she obviously does not love him she doesn't trust him and by doing so she betrays him.