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King Claudius Selfish

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King Claudius serves as the primary antagonist in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In the play, Claudius is the recently-crowned King of Denmark after murdering his brother King Hamlet and taking the throne. Shortly after King Hamlet’s funeral, Claudius went on to married his brother’s widow. Throughout the play, Claudius’s only concerns are himself and maintaining power. Claudius will stop at nothing to preserve his authority whether it be spying or murdering allies and family members. Claudius is shown to have slight remorse for poisoning his brother, however, not enough to come clean or even wish he had not done so. He is a complicated character, but has definite – despite unusual – rules and ethics he lives by. King Claudius is brilliant …show more content…

The King addresses his court saying that the kingdom should, more or less, forget about his dead predecessor and calls specifically for his nephew Hamlet to end his “unmanly grief” (1.2.94). The way Claudius speaks in the beginning of the play cements his status as the villain; however, later in the text, his words are what exposes the true Claudius as a person weighed down by guilt and self-pity. In his first aside to the audience, Claudius finally shows his own guilt and admits the “heavy burthen” he must carry for slaying his own brother (3.1.53). However, Claudius is still the antagonist of the story for reasons explained later. Claudius has a lengthy soliloquy addressed to himself and to God where he explains that he is truly sorry for what he had to do to be king. In spite of this, Claudius does not wish his was not King of Denmark, he just wishes there was another way and, if he had the chance to do it again, he would most certainly repeat his actions. Furthermore, he cannot repent for his actions because, as he phrased it, “…I am still possess’d of those effects for which I did the murther: My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen” (3.3.53-55). Claudius’s words reflect his wickedness. He is the villain because he is deceitful and will not repent his sins and because of this, as he very well knows, Claudius will burn in

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