This first and foremost female which is portrayed to the audience is Gertrude, who is Hamlet’s mother, but at the same time, the newlywed Queen of Denmark. The very first words of Gertrude mark perhaps the most destructive blow to Hamlet, “Good Hamlet, cast thy knighted color off, and let thine eye look like a friend on Denmark … Thou know’st ‘this common, all that lives much die.(1.2.68)” In this scene, she has not …showed first 75 words of 593 total…

…showed last 75 words of 593 total…of suicide as a way to end the suffering of her life in this world. Although her death seemed like an accident, it is clear from the words of the gravedigger (or as a ‘gatekeeper’ to the afterlife) that in fact, she had taken her own life, “If I drown myself wittingly, it argues an act, and an act hath three branches – it is to act, to do, to perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly. (5.1.10)”