hamlet marginalized
To marginalize Shakespeare's greatest tragic hero is no mean feat, but John Updike has balls the size of Hamlet's Oedipus complex. In Gertrude and Claudius, a brilliant retelling of the Hamlet tale, Updike reduces the moody prince to a sophomoric bit player, shining the spotlight instead on his mother, the Queen.
Seen through Shakespeare, Gertrude is a vague and unpalatable character: at best, a morally unstable woman with questionable motives; at worst, an hysterical ditz. But Updike releases her from 500 years of bad PR, and reveals an intelligent, strong-willed woman, who fights to make the best of her poor relationships with a boorish husband and a self-centered son.
Updike's ability to get inside the feminine mind is pretty astounding, and his depiction is at once objective and sympathetic, and always riveting.
carla echevarria
in verbal stimuli
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