Shakespeare's Hamlet - Claudius Essay

Moreover, in Act 3, Scene 3 Claudius confesses his big secret and seems to accept that there will be consequences; however he isn’t actually sorry for what he has done.

  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.

Shakespeare's Presentation Of Claudius In Hamlet 'Hamlet' opens with the death of Old King Hamlet, Father of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. The new king, Claudius, brother of the previous king has married Gertrude, the dead man's widow and has taken the throne. Shakespeare presents Claudius as the plays 'damned smiley villain' although he does allow him some redeeming features; leading an audience to view him as a complex and contradictory figure within the play. After Old King Hamlet dies Claudius is crowned king of Denmark and talks to the people as though he has sympathy and is saddened by his brother's death 'and that it is us befitted to bear out hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

It is in Act one scene two that we are first introduced to the character of Claudius. The impression made by him is that of a powerful and controlled man who is respected by most. His mannerisms of speech are graceful and are nothing less than the words of a king, 'to bear our heats with grief, and our whole kingdom.' Claudius is presented to us by

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

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.

An act as appalling as this would never cross the mind of a person with a healthy sense of sanity. Although he committed this dreadful crime, Claudius was good at keeping secrets; nobody ever knew of his sins. “Claudius is socially adept, and his charm is genuine. He can exhibit deep distress over his ‘dear brother’s death’ and admiration for his wife, ‘Th’imperial jointress to this warlike state.’ He knows the value of a great funeral, but quickly turns mourning into celebration and moves on ‘With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage’ to whatever lies ahead” (Claudius). This narcissistic king only cared to bring attention to himself when his kingdom chose to mourn the death of Hamlet. Claudius mourns his brother’s death in public but he only pretends to grieve so that his crime will not seem conspicuous. “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death the memory be green, and that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief , and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe, yet so far hath discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him together with remembrance of ourselves” (Shakespeare 10,11). Claudius explains that although it is necessary to mourn, life still goes on. He points out the importance of realizing the health and prosperity of himself as the new king, only to take the attention off of the abhorrent tragedy he caused to the kingdom for the sake of gaining power and a

Claudius is devout to his country. He cares for the people of Denmark. His only desire is to maintain complete control and will avoid any confrontation that could possible jeopardize his status as king. He uses diplomacy to diffuse any issues rather than violence. For example he sent a letter to the uncle of Fortinbras requesting that he stop the army of Young Fortinbras that plans to attack Denmark. Claudius would much rather celebrate gaily about his succession to the throne: “The king doth wake tonight and take his rouse.” (1.4.9)

Claudius first appears in the play in Act I, Scene 2 as he addresses his court about the death of his brother

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

     Claudius’ lies are effective enough to persistently deceive to play’s antagonist, Hamlet. Despite Hamlet’s disgust with Claudius for marrying Gertrude, and his view of Claudius as “a king of shreds and patches” (III.iv.104), Hamlet suspicion of Claudius as a murderer is preliminarily nonexistent. The appearance of a spirit claiming to be Hamlet’s dead father first alerts Hamlet to the actions of “that incestuous, that adulterate beast, /With witchcraft of his with, with traitorous gifts” (I.v.42-3). And yet still, Hamlet remains hesitant to believe that Claudius was the murderer, searching for complementary evidence. The play that Hamlet enacts -- designed to “catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.562) --succeeds in revealing Claudius’ guilt, but does not provoke instant action on Hamlet’s part. So effective is Claudius’ manipulation of the royal circle that he manages to almost permanently stay the revelation of his guilt, and if it weren’t for supernatural intervention against an injustice, he may never have been exposed.

In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Claudius’s soliloquy in Act 3, Scene 3, demonstrates that he is a very ambitious, selfish and sorrow individual with a sense of guilt. Claudius is very ambitious to where his lust for power often drives his actions. His desire for power will often lead to horrible consequences. For instance, it was revealed in Claudius’s soliloquy that he did in fact murder King Hamlet, his own brother. There are no limits to what Claudius will surpass in order to achieve what he wants since killing his own brother was not crossing over the line and he saw King Hamlet as nothing but a barrier standing in his way of gaining power. For example, Claudius expresses that “My guilt is stronger than my intentions. And like a person with two opposite things to do at once, I stand paralyzed and neglect them both”, meaning that

I enjoyed this moral critique, and, assuming Shakespeare intended for his audience to make the connection, gives me a better understanding of the playwright's own morality. Looking at the play through this moralistic perspective, Claudius’s actions would be defined as immoral: he violates a general moral principle by killing his brother and then again by taking what belonged to the King and made it his without permission. The murdered king does reappear, however, as a a ghost.

Shakespeare’s depiction of the relationship between Hamlet and Claudius aids him in implying that his statement refers to Claudius’ impact on Denmark, rather than a more literal account of a garden. The first instance the two share a scene, it is clear that Hamlet does not appreciate what Claudius undoubtedly believes to be words of wisdom. Hamlet’s father died less than two months prior to the beginning of the story, yet Claudius insists, “But to persever in obstinate condolement is a course of impious stubbornness; ‘tis unmanly grief. It shows a will most incorrect to heaven…” (Shakespeare 1.2.92-95). Here, Claudius displays a lack of sympathy for Hamlet’s grief, which both fuels Hamlet’s dislike of him and initiates his lack of trust, for Hamlet undeniably views Claudius’ absence of grief as an alarming oddity. Hamlet later laments about how quickly his uncle wed his mother: “Within a month, ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears had left the flushing in her gallèd eyes, she married” (Shakespeare 1.2.153-156). This untimely union again highlights Claudius’ lack of sorrow, for less than a month after his brother’s death, he chose to marry Gertrude. Hamlet’s anger is a result of his mother’s ill-timed remarriage, but it is a product of Claudius’ insensitive involvement in it as well. Furthermore, although Hamlet does not directly come to this conclusion,

This can be seen in the way that Claudius was not the despicable, vulnerable king that Crawford demonstrates in his writings. He was not the tyrannical monarch many perceive him to be throughout the play. “…Claudius is not wholly evil—far from it,” G. Wilson Knight claims. “We see the government of Denmark working smoothly. Claudius shows every sign of being an excellent diplomat and king” (Knight 266). Claudius was entirely capable of settling his conflict with Norway, in contrast to Crawford’s insight, as he simply elected to be peaceful rather than brash as the elder Hamlet had been. This doesn’t make