The Character of Claudius in Shakespeare's Hamlet Essay

Another interesting thing that happens at this part of the play is that the Player King unintentionally refers to Hamlet’s inaction:

Through acts 1 and 2, the audience sees virtually no personality in King Claudius.  Only in act 3, scene 1, are we shown that maybe the King has something on his mind when he responds to a conversation between Polonius and Ophelia.  Polonius tells his daughter that it is okay to pretend and the King responds in an aside saying, "How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!" (49).  I feel as though Shakespeare is working up the audience's suspicion of the King for when he is confronted by the performance of the players.

In Act III, scene III, Shakespeare illustrates Claudius's inner turmoil with an internal monologue. In Claudius's soliloquy, he states that he had murdered his brother,the absolute confirmation that such an act has occurred. Through Claudius soliloquy, Shakespeare reveals Claudius's inner character and further characterizes his disposition, though the remorse he feels is not for his slain brother but for the consequences he faces because of it. Shakespeare is able to depict Claudius’s internal conflict and how it reflects his character.

Claudius is ultimately revealed as the antagonist of Hamlet because he removed the good from his life, becoming the prime opposition of Hamlet. He is then faced with the king’s direction to avenge his father’s death by doing anything it takes to reveal the crimes of Claudius. Although not the chief antagonist, another opposition to Hamlet is his mother, whose crime is also revealed by the deceased king Hamlet. The king tells Hamlet how his wife betrayed him when he comments, “whose love was of that dignity that it went hand in hand even with the vow I made to her in marriage, and to decline upon a wretch whose natural gifts were poor to those of mine” (I.vi.786-791). Queen Gertrude has also crushed Hamlet’s belief of his mother’s faithfulness by forgetting her vows and looking to Claudius’ gifts and love when she should be remembering king Hamlet. Both Claudius and Gertrude threw Hamlet’s integral foundations out the window, leaving Hamlet infuriated and ready to do what it takes to avenge his father’s death and accuse his opposing family of their crime against him.

This is the description of the character, King Claudius. Although known for his negative traits, King Claudius in my opinion was led to these bad traits and was and could have been good. Some of his known personalities are being selfish, hungry for power, and doing whatever it takes to protect that power. He was very determined throughout the play to keep his throne while trying to uproot and banish Prince Hamlet. We can see, as he murdered his brother, that he would literally do anything to be in power. He was also very selfish in the sense that he married his sister-in-law two days after the death of his brother. Despite all of this, I believe Claudius could have been a great king because of his willpower, had he not murdered to get there.

Claudius is a difficult character to like in the text, but he demonstrates many strengths that a king ought to have. That being said, his weaknesses may overshadow the strengths he maintains. Claudius illustrates that

The audience views Claudius attempting to pray. He wants forgiveness from the heavens for the murder he commits, but he knows he does not deserve it when he still possesses the things he kills for. It is this murder that sets the play in motion; his displaced love turns him into a villain. Not once does

     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.

It is important to notice the shift of character role of Claudius because his intentions towards Hamlet play out. It as if he was waiting to come out the shadows at any moment. Claudius’s role in the play shows the reader the importance of his character. The readers cannot help but admit how they admire how he was able to pull out such an evil plan even though it did not end

Claudius was Hamlet's uncle. Then, Hamlet's mother remarries to Claudius after the death of King Hamlet, so Claudius becomes Hamlet's stepfather, which makes a strange relationship between them. This relationship causes Hamlet to hate his mother and stepfather. Hamlet sees Claudius as a villain who causes the death of King Hamlet and takes the woman of King. The relationship between Hamlet and Claudius is fully filled with hatred.

When we first see Claudius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, we safely assume he is a good leader. He calms the public down from the death of King Hamlet, and appears to be perfectly apt at being a suitable king. We soon discover, however, that this is a hoax—he has killed his own brother to be king. At this point, the audience would immediately cast him as a villain. We would then be able to see from Hamlet’s point of view and antagonize him.

As Polonius leaves the stage in act 3, scene 3, of William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the King of Denmark is left alone with the audience staring in silence. Up to this point, he was a villain in their eyes for murdering his older brother and committing incest with his sister-in law. But he pulls out a vein in this scene and tells the audience that “My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent” (4.3.40). However emotion-provoking this scene in the play may be, the audience should not pity Claudius. He claims his guilt overpowers his intentions, but a closer look into act 4, scene 5 of the play reveals that he is still trying to secure the fruits he obtained from murdering his older brother and is thus lying here to the audience.

Claudius is the antagonist in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. His character contrasts with every other character in the story because his mission is to obtain power, while the others have motives like revenge and justice. Like most people, Claudius has an outward personality that anyone can see just by looking at him, and an inward personality that is the real him. These two images of Claudius are contrasting like sun and shadow images.

When Claudius is first introduced to the reader he comes off as an extremely intelligent, noble character. He addresses the kingdom and the court with a stirring speech in regards to the death of his brother and how the court is going to be taken under his leadership. Claudius comes off as very likable person to the public after this but is a different man behind the façade. In

Hamlet’s characterization of Claudius isn’t fair and is biased as a result of his grief and the image he holds up in his mind of his dead father. He seems to be caught up in the differences between Claudius and Old Hamlet; he doesn’t see that for all his damning of Claudius, he is much more like the new King in personality and character than he ever was like his dead father who he elevated to status of god on earth. In Hamlet’s failing to see Claudius as anything but an underhanded, murderous tyrant, Shakespeare gives the audience an opportunity to see all sides of the new King through other characters and lets the audience make up their mind as to whether Hamlet is right or wrong. In a way, Shakespeare ends up showing the stark humanity