She is about to drink, but the cup she picks up is the one which Claudius has poisoned.
Gertrude is quite shocked by Hamlet's confrontation. Not only did he kill Polonius in the room, but Hamlet also goes into a rage of criticism against his mother and sees the ghost, which Gertrude does not see.
Hamlet: Farewell, dear mother. Claudius: Thy loving father, Hamlet Hamlet: My mother--father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother. In some productions, he kisses Claudius on the lips at this point, just like freaking Bugs Bunny. Now that's contempt.
In Act 4, Scene 1 when Claudius asks Gertrude "How does Hamlet?" she tells him that he is as "Mad as the sea and wind", not telling him what Hamlet has admitted to her in the previous scene that he is actually "mad in craft" as opposed to actually mad, thereby protecting his plan. On top of that while she tells Claudius that Hamlet killed Polonious accidentally in the last scene, she does not tell him that Hamlet was openly disappointed that he had not killed Claudius. She also says that Hamlet "weeps for what is done" when in fact after murdering Polonious Hamlet said "Thou wretched, intruding fool, farewell. I took the for thy better."
So think thou wilt no second husband wed - So you think you will not marry a second husband But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead? - But that thought dies when your first husband dies?
Hamlet's killing of Claudius using Laertes' poisoned sword is an act of vengeance, but not the one envisaged by the ghost. Laertes has just revealed that the sword which has wounded both Hamlet and himself is poisoned. He then goes on, "Thy mother's poisoned. I can no more. The King, the King's to blame." Faced with this accusation that Claudius is responsible for three deaths--Laertes, Gertrude, and Hamlet, Hamlet immediately goes after him with the sword. ("The point envenomed too? Then venom, to thy work.") Claudius is poisoned but not yet dead (he says, "I am but hurt"), so Hamlet forces him to drink the rest of the poisoned cup ("Drink off this potion. Is thy union here? Follow my mother.") Laertes feels that this is justifiable: he says, "He is justly served." Somehow, this act, done in the heat of the moment, sits better with us than the cold-blooded murder urged on him by the ghost. It sits better with Hamlet too. And for all his admiring talk about his father, when he gets down to killing Claudius, he is not thinking about revenging his father at all--his thoughts are for his mother.
She is about to drink, but the cup she picks up is the one which Claudius has poisoned.
Hamlet. the ghost instructs hamlet to leave his mother alone, but hamlet confronts her anyway apexxxxx
The only thing that Claudius does that could be seen to be covering up the murder he commits is his attempt to send Hamlet to England to be executed. Before the play started, however, Claudius covered up the fact that Hamlet Sr. had been poisoned by claiming that he had died of a snakebite. As the ghost says to Hamlet, "The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown."
Gertrude is quite shocked by Hamlet's confrontation. Not only did he kill Polonius in the room, but Hamlet also goes into a rage of criticism against his mother and sees the ghost, which Gertrude does not see.
Polonius said it to his son Laertes as a piece of advice before he left to Paris
Hamlet: Farewell, dear mother. Claudius: Thy loving father, Hamlet Hamlet: My mother--father and mother is man and wife, man and wife is one flesh, and so, my mother. In some productions, he kisses Claudius on the lips at this point, just like freaking Bugs Bunny. Now that's contempt.
The ghost tells Hamlet to lay off his mother and get on with the revenge against Claudius. This echoes his command in Act 1 "nor let thy soul contrive against thy mother aught." Some productions imply that the ghost is not real in this appearance, but only a figment of Hamlet's overwrought mind, as everybody could see the ghost at the beginning of the play.
In Act 4, Scene 1 when Claudius asks Gertrude "How does Hamlet?" she tells him that he is as "Mad as the sea and wind", not telling him what Hamlet has admitted to her in the previous scene that he is actually "mad in craft" as opposed to actually mad, thereby protecting his plan. On top of that while she tells Claudius that Hamlet killed Polonious accidentally in the last scene, she does not tell him that Hamlet was openly disappointed that he had not killed Claudius. She also says that Hamlet "weeps for what is done" when in fact after murdering Polonious Hamlet said "Thou wretched, intruding fool, farewell. I took the for thy better."
The line "Frailty, thy name is woman!" is from William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet".
So think thou wilt no second husband wed - So you think you will not marry a second husband But die thy thoughts when thy first lord is dead? - But that thought dies when your first husband dies?
Frailty, thy name is womanMeaningAlluding to the alleged inherent weakness of character of women. OriginFrom Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1602: Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,As if increase of appetite had grownBy what it fed on: and yet, within a month -Let me not think on't - Frailty, thy name is woman! -A little month, or ere those shoes were oldWith which she follow'd my poor father's body...Hamlet is angry that his mother, Gertrude, has married his uncle Claudius within a month of his father's death. The speech generalizes the attribution of weakness of character from one particular woman to womankind.