William Shakespeare is one of the most influential figures in the development of modern literature. Many of his works have spanned over centuries and have laid down the foundation to how literature is interpreted by today’s audience. His works are considered to be true masterpieces because of his ability to bring characters to life through the use of various literary devices. William Shakespeare has written and directed many notable plays. One of his famous works includes the play Hamlet. This play displays a classic father and son conflict between the two main characters, Hamlet and Claudius. Tragedy and revenge fuel the conflict in this play and give the audience an initial impression that both Hamlet and Claudius are different in nature …show more content…
He also shares the ability to hatch elaborate plans by utilizing his cunning in order to obtain his goal, which is to kill Hamlet. He devises a plan to kill Hamlet by poisoning him. He plans it in such a way that if the first method doesn’t work, the second one will work. His primary method is to poison Hamlet through Laertes sword which is laced in poison and if that doesn’t work, he intends to poison Hamlet with poisoned wine. This can be seen when Claudius says, “….I’ll have him prepared him, A chalice for the nonce, whereon but sipping, if he by chance escape your venomed stuck, Our purpose may hold there” (Shakespeare.4.7.line 176-179). This shows his ability to think ahead and plan Hamlets murder in such a way where his death is certain and there’s no room for …show more content…
He still tells Polonius to spy on Hamlet and this results in his death. This greatly impacts Ophelia’s mental state and makes her go mad and ultimately commit suicide. Claudius knows he’s to blame because he in a sense sent Polonius to his death. Upon receiving the news of Ophelia’s death, Claudius says, “How much I had to do to calm his rage! Now I fear that this will start it up again.” (Shakespeare.4.7.211-212). He does this all to obtain his goal which is to retain his power and stop Hamlet by learning about his intentions. He does not feel guilty for contributing to Ophelia’s suicide rather feels angered that Laertes is going to angry and this will delay in him obtaining his goal. This shows how far Hamlet and Claudius will go in order to obtain their goal even though it’ll lead to the death of some
First they think that Hamlet is lovesick over Polonius' daughter, Ophelia, but after the king spies on Hamlet and Ophelia in conversation, he comes to the conclusion that Hamlet is mad, a threat to his rule, and must be sent to England to be executed. This is a sign of the king's uneasiness over the mettle of Hamlet's anger which is directed towards him. The last thing that Claudius wants is for Hamlet to be unhappy with him, in fear that Hamlet will overthrow him, discover the murder, or possibly kill him. The king becomes increasingly nervous as time passes, making him a bit paranoid over Hamlet.
Hamlet and Claudius both have very different ways and methods in the way they manipulate their family and friends. Claudius and Hamlet both manipulate to get what they each want. Claudius tends to work on people and get their support and gain trust. Then, the individuals will go out of their way to please Claudius and help in any way. Claudius even goes as far as to get Hamlet's childhood friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on their dear friend Hamlet. Not only does he work on Hamlet's friends, Claudius killed his own brother to marry his wife, Gertrude, so he could claim the throne. As Shakespeare writes, "A brother's murder, Pray
This is because he has everything now that Old King Hamlet once had but is now dead, the thrown and the Queen. There are positive aspects of Claudius such as he is a good public speaker and has smooth negotiations with other people. He is very much a diplomat and he thinks of himself a very powerful man 'To Norway, uncle of young Fortinbras, who, impotent and bed-rid.' From the start of Act 2 we see Claudius as being clever when associating with two of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to find out the cause of Hamlet's disturbed behaviour. He is courteous to them and full of flattery for himself.
Shakespeare's drama Hamlet has become a central piece of literature of Western culture. It is the story of a prince named Hamlet, who lost his father. Soon after that he has to confront multiple obstacles and devises a series of situations to defend the new king's royalty. Furthermore, he had to prove that King Claudius, who was the prince's uncle, had killed Hamlet's father. This story has remained among the most popular and the most controversial plays around the world. It generates controversy for all the doubts that this play leaves with the readers. One of the most questioning situations in the play is the delay of Hamlet in avenging Claudius' for his father's death. As a reader this
Beyond Claudius’ need for admiration, he also tends to disregard the feelings of people around him. This is shown in a similar way as his need for admiration, being that he kills his brother to gain power. Such a selfish action will obviously impact those around King Hamlet, but Claudius disregard that and simply does it for his own gain. He doesn’t think about how Hamlet’s death will affect Gertrude, young Hamlet, Polonius, or anyone else close to him. In the aftermath of this, instead of helping Hamlet through the hard time following his fathers sudden death, he tells Hamlet he’s not a man for mourning for such a long time. Staying on the topic of the death of a father, Claudius uses Polonius’ death to get Laertes to want to avenge his
36-38). King Claudius appears to be an honest, noble king, but in reality he is King Hamlet's murderer and a manipulative ruler. Near the end of the play, Claudius manipulates Laertes into a duel with Hamlet, so that he can murder Hamlet without suspicion when he says, "But you content to lend your patience to us,/And we shall jointly labor with your soul/To give it due content.". (4.7. ) This shows that Claudius is openly offering a chance for Laertes to seek revenge upon Hamlet for killing Polonius. Later on, Claudius also lays out the plan to murder Hamlet, when he says
He knew that his Uncle Claudius was guilty to the murder of his brother. While trying to get revenge for his father, he killed Polonius by stabbing him through the curtain. He thought Polonius was Claudius behind the curtain. After killing Polonius, Hamlet doesn’t react in the way a normal person would. Hamlet hides Polonius under the stairs. This act of madness leads to the death of Ophelia. Ophelia drowns herself from being stressed out and overwhelmed by the death of her father. The killing of Polonius makes Laertes want revenge on Hamlet for his father. Hamlet’s act of madness contributes to a lot of deaths throughout the
Throughout history, literature has been able to captivate and enchant audiences of all backgrounds. Words have an undeniable ability to sway a crowd’s emotions and truly affect them. William Shakespeare, one of the most revered writers of all time, had such skills. His plays are timeless pieces of art considered the foundations of the English literature. Shakespeare’s most dramatic and infamous tragedy, Hamlet, has earned its place as a cornerstone. In the play, Shakespeare poetically writes speeches that show the true colours of the characters, whether good or devious. The main antagonist, Claudius, shows his treachery to the Elizabethan audience, through his speech to his wife Gertrude. Claudius’ conversation with Gertrude in Act 4,
Hamlet is considered to be Shakespeare's most famous play. The play is about Prince Hamlet and his struggles with the new marriage of his mother, Gertrude, and his uncle and now stepfather, King Claudius about only two months after his father’s death. Hamlet has an encounter with his father, Old King Hamlet, in ghost form. His father accuses Claudius of killing him and tells Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet is infuriated by this news and then begins his thoughts on what to do to get revenge. Hamlet and Claudius are contrasting characters. They do share similarities, however, their profound differences are what divides them.Hamlet was portrayed as troubled, inactive, and impulsive at times. Hamlet is troubled by many things, but the main source of his problems come from the the death of his father. “Oh, that this too, too sullied flesh would melt, thaw, and resolve itself into a dew, or that the everlasting had not fixed his canon 'gainst self-slaughter” (Act 1, Scene 2). In this scene, Hamlet is contemplating suicide, which is caused by the death of his father and the new marriage of Gertrude and King Claudius. This scene shows the extent of how troubled Hamlet is. Even though Hamlet’s father asked him to avenge his death, Hamlet is very slow to act on this throughout the play. “Now might I do it pat. Now he is a-praying. And now I’ll do ’t. And so he goes to heaven. And so am I revenged.—That would be scanned. A villain kills my father, and, for that, I, his sole son, do this same villain send to heaven” (Act 3, Scene 3). This scene shows King Claudius praying, while Hamlet is behind him drawing his sword but decides not to kill
This, in turn, exploits Hamlet’s similar flaw of ego and furthers the conflict, but what’s more, it illustrates Claudius’ sheer audacity and lack of repentance. He continues to try to cover up the sin and appease Hamlet into complacency rather than confess and ask for forgiveness. In a mark of pure arrogance, Claudius tells Hamlet to “throw to earth / This unprevailing woe and think of us / As of a father”, conceitedly requesting that Hamlet merely forget the murder and replace his father with the murderer himself (I, ii, 110-112). Similarly, instead of directly confronting Hamlet about his mental condition, the king more or less hires Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the prince, again cementing his smug mindset. The king does not believe he can be caught or, rather, that Hamlet is competent enough to figure out his plan and foil him. Claudius, too, thinks only of himself after Hamlet’s inadvertent killing of Polonius, pondering “how shall this bloody deed be answered? / It will be laid to us” instead of considering the ramifications of the murder with respect to Hamlet (4.1.17-18). The other two paper-thin traps the king hatches only reinforce his failure to see beyond the apparent; his attempt to deport Hamlet to England and have him killed reeks of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a
He shows in the soliloquy that he has done wrong and he feels now after that the guilt that he is witnessing is stronger than the reason for killing his brother. He feels terrible about the death of his brother but he must continue with his plan to obtain the power instead of allowing Hamlet to have it. He manipulates Laertes, who Claudius has turned against Hamlet, to help in Hamlets murder. He coaxes Laertes to have a duel with Hamlet so that Hamlet will be killed, Laertes asks “to cut his throat i’th’ the church” (4.7.123).
Hatred and betrayal lead to nothing but pain and death. Shakespeare references Emperor Nero, and how his mother's betrayal led to Nero sinking her ship, and when that didn’t kill her, sending out an group of legionnaires to kill her. This is similar to Hamlet and his position in the play. Although he doesn't have the same bloodthirst as Nero, he shares the idea of betrayal. Both Nero and Hamlet share the idea that their mother betrayed their father, both of them have a stepfather whose name is Claudius, and both can be acknowledged as killers. This revenge of theirs will forever change how they are portrayed.
In Act IV of Shakespeare's play titled Hamlet, King Claudius is shown to be extremely manipulative as he deceives numerous different characters throughout the play. Firstly, Claudius manipulates Gertrude by tricking her into thinking that he actually cares about Hamlet and his well-being. In the beginning of act IV, Claudius states, “His liberty is full of threats to all—To you yourself, to us, to everyone. Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered? It will be laid to us, whose providence. Should have kept short, restrained and out of haunt, This mad young man. But so much was our love, We would not understand what was most fit, But, like the owner of a foul disease, To keep it from divulging, let it feed. Even on the pith of life. Where is he gone?” (IV. i. 12-21). Claudius proclaims that he will be held responsible for Hamlet’s actions. Despite the obviousness and the pathetically over-exaggerated speech, Gertrude falls for this and agrees to send Hamlet away to England for Hamlet’s own “protection”. Claudius does this because he wants Hamlet to be “accidentally” killed by the prince of England so that Hamlet is no longer a threat to Claudius. However, Gertrude obviously has no idea about any of this. This shows that Gertrude is pretty clueless when it comes to situations like this whereas Claudius is actually quite intelligent as he is able to trick Gertrude easily. Additionally, he manipulates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by making them spy on Hamlet and lure him
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is one of the most produced plays of all time. Written during the height of Shakespeare’s fame—1600—Hamlet has been read, produced, and researched by more individuals now than during Shakespeare’s own lifetime. It is has very few stage directions, because Shakespeare served as the director, even though no such official position existed at the time. Throughout its over 400 years of production history, Hamlet has seen several changes. Several textual cuts have been made, in addition to the liberties taken through each production. In recent years, Hamlet has seen character changes, plot changes, gender role reversals, alternate endings, time period shifts, and thematic alternations, to
Unlike Hamlet though, Claudius thinks about his actions because he wants to make sure he makes a decision that will be the best for him. He knows if he just kills Hamlet the people of the kingdom will turn on him because of the love they all share for Hamlet. He sends in Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to find out what is wrong with Hamlet so that Claudius can decide what to do from there. His decision to send Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on and talk to Hamlet is illustrated when he says, “So by your companies/To draw him on pleasures, and to gather/So much as from occasion you may glean/[Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus]/That opened lies within our remedy” (II.II.14-18). Claudius and Hamlet are both extremely sly and cunning and posses similarities with their ability to act, but this could merely be because of the education they both have which has brought them common sense and the ability to think before acting. One major difference of their ability to act is when Hamlet acts on impulse and kills Claudius’ advisor Polonius. Hamlet unlike Claudius has so much anger built up inside of him because of his father’s death and it kept building and building until he finally let it out when talking to his mother about Claudius. He heard a noise from behind a curtain which was Polonius’, and without thinking Hamlet stabs him releasing some of his pent up aggression. Hamlet shows the anger he has within when he says, “A bloody deed-almost as