SARAH: Both the ghost and Hamlet refer to the relationship between Claudius and Gertrude as incestuous, but in this one instance, the ghost adds the adjective "adulterate." Were Claudius and Gertrude committing adultery while the King was still alive? That would be the literal meaning of adulterate.

RALPH: But we should be careful here, Sarah. Shakespeare is famous for using words in different senses, often stretching the meaning from its standard definition. Just look at how inventive he was with the phrase "eternal blazon". It's possible that the ghost simply means that Claudius is a person who's corrupt, not literally an adulterer.

SARAH: But why use such a loaded term in that case, Ralph? Here's another possibility — though the marriage of Gertrude to Claudius after the king's death is not technically adulterous, it would certainly feel like adultery to the ghost, and that's what he's expressing.

RALPH: Sarah, this shows how important a single word can be in this play. How the viewer interprets the word "adulterate" dramatically affects how we understand the character of Gertrude.

SARAH: I see your point, Ralph. If the ghost is using the term adulterate literally, he's claiming that Claudius and Gertrude were having an affair before the death of the King — which even suggests that Gertrude may have known about, or even helped plan, the murder of her husband.

RALPH: But, of course, we can't be sure that's what the ghost intends here — after all, if Gertrude had been either been complicit in the murder, or even if she had committed adultery, it's hard to see why the ghost would still have fond feelings for her, as he seems to have in this monologue.

SARAH: You're right, Ralph — one of the play's famous ambiguities is precisely Gertrude's level of complicity with Claudius. Interpretations of Gertrude range from a politically savvy queen who is completely innocent of crime, to a darker, more villainous woman who helped plot her own husband's murder.

RALPH: In the end, it's up to you to decide — who is Gertrude, what's she like? Was she an adulterer or not? What evidence does the play give us about her, and how do we interpret that evidence?