Hamlet's Mom

During my initial reading of the play, I assumed Hamlet's mother was an old lustful woman, who in her haste and naivete married the first eligible bachelor around. She appeared to me, as Professor Bradley thought of her as, "very dull and very shallow." She didn't seem to play a major role in the play. However, after reading all about Jones' interpretation according to psychoanalytic theory, and Heilbrun's take on Hamlet's mother, it appears she took on a bigger role. Heilbrun contends that Gertrude was an intelligent woman that asked pointed questions and weighed her words carefully. One of those quotes she uses is from when Claudius and Polonius are using Ophelia to get to Hamlet, Gertrude says to Ohephlia, "And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish/ That your good beauties be the happy cause/ Of Hamlet's wildness" (III.i.38-42). Heilbrun assumes that with this statement to Ophelia, Gertrude seems intelligent. However I see no correlation between this kind gesture and Gertrude's intelligence. Gertrude may not appear to be shallow, but there is no wise words coming out of the mouth of Gertrude. Thus being said, I'll keep my opinion that Gertrude was an old lustful woman, but I'll add in that she was a kind (in some sense), old and lustful woman.