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THE CLUE to Gertrude's character in Hamlet is the promptness with which she remarries. She has strength of character only to the degree that she attaches to a powerful male. One must watch her speeches in terms of those that are uttered in the presence of Claudius, and those where she is disconnected from that power source. The contrast is with Lady Macbeth, whose morale does not depend on attaching itself to a male with strong animal spirits for all that we recognise Macbeth, prior to his self-consciousness becoming acute, might have had them. Lady M has animal spirits inherently, and they include the manner in which her conscience expresses itself, reflexively, out of the ...