Hamlet's interactions with the other characters in Shakespeare's play not only move the action forward but display the many aspects of his character and the reasoning behind his actions. In his initial scene with his mother, for example, Hamlet shows that he is aware that there is a degree of guilt on Gertrude's part, but he reacts with extreme caution and resorts to irony rather than to confrontation.
The relationship with his mother is set up as being somewhat off-center. In Gertrude's first words to Hamlet she asks him to give up his dark clothing and to "let [his] eye look like a friend on Denmark" (1,ii,69). Though she does not explicitly mention that she is asking him to give up the signs of his mourning, she continues by assuring him that death comes to everyone and that his father's passing is a natural event. There is, however, a trace of Gertrude's guilt showing through her anxiousness to have her son surrender his grief. She had, of course, given up mourning through her quick marriage to Claudius and by talking to Hamlet as though he was a child--telling him to change his clothes, be nice to his step-father, and that death is inevitable--she is trying to explain his symptoms of grief by some flaw in him rather than in the situation.
But Hamlet's answers are ironic. He says, "Ay, madam, it is common" in regard to death and, in response to her request to know "why seems it so particular with you," lectures her on the nature of genuine grief (1,ii,74; 1,ii,75). He forcefully describes the difference between outer shows of grief and sorrow that is deeply felt. What is within him, he says, is that "which passeth show," but his mother's "show" seems to indicate that she has had no trouble in ending her grief and Hamlet, afraid that he may be reading only an outward show of Gertrude's indifference, is unsure that he is right and is, therefore, completely unable to make up his mind what to do (1,i,85).
Having lea...