there’s something particularly painful about the indirectness of the abuse, the way it shows in signs but no one says gertrude’s husband is hitting her, and gertrude reads the same signs in claudius. and the use of ‘cruel words lodged in her breast to prick and sting her,’ augh.

at the same time, leaving the words ‘i love you’ unspoken, letting them linger between the lines, makes them feel more tender and private, something shared just between the two of them, even if we’re reading about it. but of course she can’t speak those words too loudly because they come at a cost. and the metaphor of claudius folding up like a map gertrude can never trace is so beautiful and expressive.