Gertrude's Interior Nature

Gertrude’s restriction of her interior nature was most likely influenced by the male dominant ideas of the Renaissance. Whether Shakespeare did this purposely or not, Gertrude reflects the “frailty” that symbolized women during this time. Gertrude’s dialogue remained inferior to the male characters throughout the play, with her only moment of power being her suicide. Even though Shakespeare explored new and groundbreaking forms of writing, I can’t help but think he missed an opportunity to develop Gertrude’s interior nature. The complexities of human nature are not subject to gender, but as we see from the context of the Renaissance, the humanist movement did not break completely free of the religious belief that women are inferior to men,
and this restriction is reflected in the greatest writing of the period.