Hamlet is such a universally adored story, that a number of writers have attempted to retell the tale from the perspective of other characters. Whereas Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1966) milks those minor characters for an existentialist dark comedy, John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius (2000) explores the psychology of Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. Updike does not depict Gertrude as a vulnerable woman who bends willingly to power. In Updike’s version, her marriage to Claudius is one of love, and the murder of Horwendill, Hamlet’s father, is a result of him discovering Claudius and Gertrude at a cottage far from the castle at Elsinore. This unique novel by one of America’s most acclaimed writers draws on the influence of the same books Shakespeare himself would have studied regarding Prince Hamlet: the Saxo Grammaticus and Histoires Danicae. In doing so, Updike provides Gertrude’s perspective. She is no longer the distant mother drained of passion in Shakespeare’s telling. Now she is a moving, three-dimensional character: a bold woman navigating the complex power dynamics of the Danish court. She seeks both power and love, and the novel seems to suggest that the tragic circumstances of the play Hamlet stem from Danish society’s unwillingness to allow her both. Updike, by providing Gertrude’s perspective, allows us to see her as a woman bound by her love for Claudius, as well as the social ethics of the Danish court. Even this powerful queen is subject to sexual oppression as a woman.

Maybe it seems surprising to see such a feminist perspective from Updike, a writer criticized by some for his portrayal of women in novels like Rabbit Run. But Updike’s interest in understanding the perspectives of mistreated women runs throughout his career. In the end, Hamlet ends up becoming a villain of sorts. By avenging his father, he is fighting on the side of the patriarchy that imprisons his mother. Gertrude’s crime, in Hamlet’s eyes, is betraying the patriarchal system that he spends all of the original play defending. However, I do question one of Updike’s choices: in his version, Gertrude is unaware that Claudius killed Horwendill. Perhaps this lets the character off too easily. A more provocative approach might be to show Gertrude as a co-conspirator to Claudius’ crime and ask readers to identify with her anyway. Because she’s not a party to this crime, we don’t feel her pain or see her wrestle with difficult moral questions. There’s still room for exploring a more complex version of Gertrude.

Shakespeare fans would be smart to pick up Updike’s novel for a compelling update on this unique story. Gertrude and Claudius is not one of the novelist’s best-known books, but it’s an inspiring read for any aspiring writer looking for a new way to update the classics.