Delaney Sereika. Ms. Stensaas. Ap Literature. 2 February

  In the first three acts of the play Hamlet, King Claudius go through a subtle, but defined change in character.  Claudius role in the play begins as the newly corrinated king of Denmark.  The former king, King Hamlet, was poisoned by his brother, Claudius, while he was asleep.  Claudius, however, made it known to everyone that the king died of a snakebite in the garden, and thus no one knew of the murder that had just taken place making his murder the perfect crime.  The only problem that Claudius must deal with now is his conscience.

As the play progresses and the characters develop, the question of ‘who’s there’ in the sense of who is this person really, are they kind or cruel, innocent of guilty? The most obvious choice for the question of character is in Claudius. Is he the kind king he makes himself out to be or a murderous manipulator. The initial question of his character is during the wedding of Gertrude and he, where he states, “With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,” (I. II. 12). He essentially is pronouncing King Hamlet’s funeral as joyous and his own wedding as mournful. The question that now presents itself to the audience is whether this is a simple mix-up on Claudius’s part or a verbal projection of his inner thoughts and feelings towards both occasions. The uncertainty of Claudius’s stance on the matters is later enlightened upon and pursued by Hamlet after his conversation between him and the ghost of King Hamlet. The old king recalls the true story of his death – demise by poison at the hand of Claudius in an effort to claim the throne. “The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/Now wears his crown.” (I. V. 38-39). The validity of this statement is put into inquiry by Hamlet, leading to his use of a court play by a traveling actor’s troop as a platform to perform a reenactment of the King Hamlet’s death in order to see the reaction of Claudius. “The play’s

     Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of Hamlets childhood buddies who when asked by the king, try to find out what is troubling their friend. The two of them go to Hamlet pretending to be his friends, when in all actuality they are only there because the king asked them to find the truth. Hamlet realizes their purpose for their visit is to find the real reason for his sadness as of late. As the play continues the twins are asked again by the king to go to Hamlet and try again to find the real reason for Hamlets behavior. Hamlet insults them at every chance knowing they are lying to him about their purpose of the visit. "Tis as easy as lying; govern these

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are foils to Hamlet. The two are introduced as friends to Hamlet. But also they are like messengers for the king. Hamlet learns of their

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, various characters manipulate others in order to gain power and fulfill their personal desires. The character who portrays the most immense manipulation is King Claudius, the brother of the late King Hamlet. Thus far, Claudius advertises himself as a sensible, honorable man who lives to serve the greater good, yet his manipulation exposes his dubious intentions, leaving him with an unfortunate fate.

In the end, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are naively loyal to Hamlet, and this becomes their downfall. They know that Hamlet has killed Polonius, and yet, they take no precautions as they accompany Hamlet to England. Their trust in both Claudius and Hamlet gets them killed. Hamlet’s reveals his mistrust of his schoolmates in a conversation with his mother, and refers to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as, "...my two-school fellows, whom I will trust as adders fanged..." 

Shakespeare presents Claudius as a conflicted character with varying ideals regarding his nephew, Hamlet. His actions within this passage suggest that he may actually possess some level of care for Hamlet at the beginning, but near the end, we see that Claudius holds deep disdain for Hamlet, for he wants to kill him. Claudius is both highly intelligent yet infinitely devious. He is the personification of deception, and in a way, it is clear that Claudius views himself as a sort of devil’s advocate, always keeping half of his cards in view and the other half purposely out of sight. It is this level of betrayal that Shakespeare utilizes to construct the primary plot of the story, for we see that virtually all other occurrences throughout the play are built upon this deception and two-faced trickery. Through the use of personal soliloquies and side notes among the characters, Shakespeare is able to reveal the true motives of his characters, the internal conviction that gives each character their own personalized flair. In the case of Claudius, most of his motives are easily spotted by Hamlet, and it is this play upon the motives of differing characters that Shakespeare utilizes to build his plot.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were two characters in the play who were justly punished. These two were supposed to be friends of Hamlet. They turned on him with one simple request from the King. I feel no remorse for them after Hamlet's little scheme. I find it ironic and reflective of their ending when the Ambassador comes and says, ."..Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead. Where should we have our thanks?" (5,2,411-12) This is somewhat humorous because

When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tell Hamlet that his mother wishes to speak with him, he asks out of the blue if Guildenstern can play the recorder. He replies saying that he can't, and Hamlet reveals that he knows that they manipulate him to get the answers Claudius wants by speaking in a metaphor. "You would pluck out the heart of my mystery. You would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass. And there is music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak" (Shakespeare, 3.2.338-341)? Hamlet realizes that these two that he used to call friends have turned against him and that all they care about now is getting Claudius the information he wants. They are only trying to appear to be Hamlet's friends in order to keep close to

Claudius like Henry takes charge of the country as he is a man of action, an essential quality for a King to have. Although Claudius is a bad person and has murdered the previous King, he shows promising qualities which make him successful in a time of despair. While this is the case Hamlet does not have the qualities to be successful as he is consumed in his father’s death and wants to leave Denmark and return to study. Instead it is Claudius who fixes political issues

Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are drawn into Hamlets life because king Claudius wants to figure out if his nephew has actually gone crazy for love or if he is even crazy at all. They are first introduced when they arrive and greet Hamlet in the courtyard and they try to deceive Hamlet by making him think that they are just there to visit and old friend from school, but Hamlet catches on to them quickly and notices that the reasons for their visit are not the ones that they told him and that's why he decides not to tell them that he is planning to act crazy to reveal if his uncle actually killed his dad, old king Hamlet Them showing up allowed for Hamlet to figure out that his uncle was truly at fault for his own brothers death and that allowed Hamlet to continue his plot to take revenge, so if you think about it if king Claudius hadn’t brought both of Hamlets friends than Hamlet wouldn’t have advanced on his plan as fast as he

At first some may think that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern seem to function as one character since Shakespeare makes it seem as if they depend on one another. When it came to talking about Hamlet to Claudius and Gertrude the two men would nine times out of ten finish each other’s sentences. Everyone pretty much knows their main role was to spy on Hamlet when asked to by the king and queen since they feel he’d tell his “closet friends” what’s wrong. For example when Rosencrantz says “…by the sovereign power you have of us, Put your dead pleasures more into command Than to entreaty”, he’s

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of Hamlets childhood friends who, when asked by the king, try to find out what is troubling the young prince. Both help to contribute to the theme by showing their appearance of being Hamlets friends. The pair go to Hamlet pretending to be his friends when in truth they are only there because the king sent them to find the truth. There is some irony within the twins, they are asked by the king to find out the truth by hiding within a lie, by pretending to be his friend. Hamlet knows that the purpose for their visit is to dig into his soul to find the real reason for his actions as

The irony about Claudius sending for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet, is that rather than being his “friends” and refusing to go through with it, they follow the orders of the King due to his concerns; believing Hamlet is mad. When in fact, by acting mad, Hamlet is only leading everyone to believe so, then in which he can lead them to a trap.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern lives changed after Hamlet entered their life. As friends, they really wanted to figure out Hamlet’s madness problems. For this reason, they started playing the only question game to solve Hamlet’s mystery. This gave them a reason to serve the king and help Hamlet. The readers will think the only reason the protagonists agreed to spy on Hamlet because they were friends. And not because of money or rewards since they are not greedy people. “(Hamlet goes. Triumph dawns on them, they smile)” (Stoppard 32). In short, both got a little scared whenever Hamlet showed up because they were discussing and summarizing his personal life. At the same time, didn’t want Hamlet to know what they were up to but wanted