Mother’s Day Shakespeare
Friday, May 9th by scott malia
A recent news brief included a complete hodgepodge of listings from Mother’s Day stuff a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The article did so without any hint of irony, yet I was struck by the idea of celebrating Mother’s Day by seeing a play that is often interpreted in a highly Freudian manner. So, in an effort to make a really sweet holiday seem as icky as possible, I’m going to ask what the deal really is with Gertrude. Is the mommy obsession in Hamlet something that comes from the text or from certain high profile interpretations that have colored our reading of the play.
The evidence used for Hamlet’s potential Oedipal complex stems from his apparent obsession with Gertrude’s sex life with Claudius. Throwing out phrases like “nasty sty” and “inseamed bed” have certainly bolstered that interpretation. Still, the make-or-break scene in the play is when Gertrude summons him to her chambers and he accidentally murders Polonius. The debate over this issue and this scene is complicated and contentious, with scholars going the rounds over whether or not there might have been a bed onstage when it was staged in Elizabethan England. That bed, whether it is real or imaginary, is the elephant in the room (and attempts to prove its existence are clearly related to the “Shakespeare would have wanted it that way” defense).
I’m not saying you can’t stage Hamlet with an Oedipal approach (although Mel Gibson’s assault of Glenn Close’s Gertrude in the 1990 film version is a teensy bit lacking in the subtlety department). I do, however, wonder if the play will be forever in the shadow of that interpretation. Will Gertrude and Hamlet ever be just a mother and son?
May 9th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
When I read the play, as I do each year with one of my English classes, I am always puzzled with the Freudian interpretation of their relationship. Hamlet’s use of those phrases you mentioned do not strike me as being Oedipal in nature, but rather are the sincere disgust of a son who knows his father was murdered by his mother’s bedfellow - He is truly horrified and sickened by this, but is unable to tell her all he knows yet.
“Just a mother and son”? Yes, I think they are, although possibly one of the most tragic mother-son combinations ever written about.
May 10th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Don’t blame Gibson … it goes back to Olivier.
Part of the problem of ‘updating’ - and the limitation of any ‘focused’ interpretation.
Peter Brook makes a very clear statement on this in ‘Forgetting Shakespeare’ - forget everything you’ve learnt about the play, start with the words and work out why these remarkable people are saying these words at this time.