Here you can read an extract from our study guide:
Gertrude is a difficult case when it comes to determining how the theme of victim or perpetrator relates to her, because it never becomes clear if she was in on the murder plot against her late husband. We do know, however, that she knows nothing of the two assassination attempts Claudius plans against her son - neither the one in England or the duel between Hamlet and Laertes.
However, Getrude does allow her son to be spied on by his former schoolmates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as well as by Polonius, and she allows herself to be used as a decoy in the staged conversation with Hamlet.
Gertrude loves her son and seems to have no idea of how much she is harming her son with her scheming behavior. In fact, she wants to help bring him back to the path of happiness. Gertrude’s continuing maternal love for her son is also the reason why Claudius does not involve her in his murderous plot against Hamlet. He knows that Gertrude would never consciously harm her son: "The queen his mother Lives almost by his looks" (4.7.13-14).
Ironically, Getrude ignorance of Claudius' plans against Hamlet become her undoing: As she toasts Hamlet's good fortune, she drinks the poison Claudius has prepared for him. The extent to which Gertrude deserves her death, depends on whether or not she was implicated in the murder of her first husband. Perhaps the ghost's insistence that Gertrude should not be blamed os proof that she knew nothing of Claudius' murder on her late husband.
