There’s something about this line that FEELS good. It feels like a good send off for Claudius after his multiple murderings. There’s a level of venom and force that saying this sentence allows.
I wonder, though, if there’s a hint of misogyny in it. Like, certainly, there’s the literal following here – in that Claudius’ death follows Gertrude’s. There’s also the drinking from this goblet after her.
But could there also be a sense of following, the way others follow the king? And if so, is there a layer of shaming happening? Is following a woman just not done? (I mean it WAS done in this period. A man had in fact JUST followed a woman in succession.)
Or maybe there’s no misogyny in it at all and it just feels viscerally good to send Claudius after the woman he’s just killed.
The Hamlet Project 