Shortly after the suspicious death of her husband, Queen Gertrude marries her brother-in-law! Then, when Hamlet tries to explain that his father has been murdered, she still sides with her husband. She claims her son is crazy:
O Hamlet, speak no more: Thou turn'st mine eyes into my very soul; And there I see such black and grained spots As will not leave their tinct.O, speak to me no more; These words, like daggers, enter in mine ears; No more, sweet Hamlet!
Alas, he's mad!
Alas, how is't with you, That you do bend your eye on vacancy And with the incorporal air do hold discourse? Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep; And, as the sleeping soldiers in the alarm, Your bedded hair, like life in excrements, Starts up, and stands on end. O gentle son, Upon the heat and flame of thy distemper Sprinkle cool patience. Whereon do you look?
To whom do you speak this?
This the very coinage of your brain: This bodiless creation ecstasy Is very cunning in.
O Hamlet, thou hast cleft my heart in twain.
The above monologue is actually dialogue taken from Hamlet Act 3, Scene 4. I’ve edited out the lines of the melancholy Prince, and I think the result is a compelling monologue delivered by the queen.
Read more Mother Character Monologues.
