In 'Hamlet', what is the name of the queen of Denmark?

In “Hamlet,” the queen of Denmark is Gertrude. She is Hamlet’s mother and the widow of the former King Hamlet, but she becomes queen again by marrying Claudius, her late husband’s brother.

Gertrude’s remarriage is one of the play’s first major sources of tension. Hamlet is disturbed that she appears to have mourned briefly before marrying Claudius, whom the Ghost later identifies as the murderer of King Hamlet. The speed and political importance of the marriage deepen Hamlet’s disgust with the Danish court.

Gertrude is not simply a background royal figure. She sits at the center of Hamlet’s family conflict, and her conversations with her son reveal both his anger and her limited understanding of the crime surrounding them. During the play-within-the-play, Hamlet tries to force her to confront the moral implications of her marriage.

Readers sometimes confuse Gertrude with Ophelia, Hamlet’s love interest, or with Lady Macbeth and Desdemona, other famous Shakespearean women. Gertrude is also loosely connected to earlier versions of the Hamlet legend, including the medieval Scandinavian figure Gerutha.