The Significance of the Players in Hamlet Essay

          By the beginning of Act III, Hamlet is almost ready to kill Claudius, but he still needs more proof that Claudius killed his father, and he also wants to put off the murder because he is a bit of a coward.  Claudius is beginning to lose his composure.  Hamlet decides to set a trap for him in the form of a play.  The subject of the play is the murder of a king by his brother who, in turn, marries the king's wife.  The plot of the play is strikingly similar to the circumstances of King Hamlet's murder, which strikes a disharmonious chord in the conscience of Claudius.  In the middle of the play during the murder scene, Claudius gets up and begs for the play to stop so that he can get some air.  Hamlet is very angered by this because it confirms that Claudius did kill his father.  Later that night, Claudius prays to god to forgive him for his

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

murder in a rash mood. It is not seen by Gertrude. It tries to urge

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

In the play by William Shakespeare, the ghost of King Hamlet approaches his mourning and depressed son, Hamlet, who is still affected by his death. The ghost explains to Hamlet how he died and demands that Hamlet avenge his death. Note how the ghost approaches Hamlet when he’s the weakest and still mourning to persuade and manipulate him into taking revenge for him. In Act one Scene 5 the ghost states, “If thou didst ever thy dear father love-/ Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.” The way King Hamlet words his request is more as a challenge; in which Hamlet’s love for his dead father can only be proven by carrying out whatever his father wishes. The ghost influences most Hamlet’s behavior, which not only affects the plot, but also the relationships with other characters. The ghost influences the relationship between Hamlet and his mother, Gertrude. He becomes angry at Gertrude because of her fast marriage with his uncle Claudius. Through the use of innuendos, antic disposition, and metamorphic plays, Hamlet makes it his duty to get King Claudius back for killing his father. Hamlet agreed to avenge his father without second thought. As the play advances, Hamlet begins to doubt the apparition. In act 3 Hamlet begins to have second thoughts and states, “The spirit that I have seen/ May be a devil…” This shows Hamlet’s inner conflict between listening to his father and avenging his death or following his ethics. To be sure that Claudius

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.

Hamlet is a suspenseful play that introduces the topic of tragedy. Throughout the play, Hamlet displays anger, uncertainty, and obsession with death. Although Hamlet is unaware of it, these emotions cause the mishaps that occur throughout the play. These emotions combined with his unawareness are the leading basis for the tragic hero’s flaws. These flaws lead Hamlet not to be a bad man, but a regular form of imperfection that comes along with being human.

The speech of Hamlet “O that this too sullied flesh would melt, … But break, my heart, for I must hold my tongue.” (1.2.129-159) is where we can see Hamlet’s sadness towards his mother, Gertrude and his uncle Claudius and feels disappointed about their decision of getting married. Hamlet is seen to be too upset after his father’s death. It’s not even a month has passed and he gets to hear another news about his mother Gertrude and uncle, Claudius getting married. In the beginning of Act 1 Scene 2, King Claudius gives a speech to his courtiers, telling them about his recent marriage to Gertrude, mother of Hamlet and his brother’s widow. Claudius says that he mourns his brother but has chosen to balance Denmark’s mourning with delight of his marriage. He also mentions in his speech that young Fortinbras has written to him, rashly demanding the surrender of the lands King Hamlet won from Fortinbras’s father, and dispatches Cornelius and Voltimand with a message for the King of Norway, Fortinbras’s elderly uncle.

The facades that each character assumes are all important to the complex duplicity and insanity that follow. It shown that all characters in the play have multiple personalities with the exception of Horatio. The characters reveal what’s behind their mask only when they talk to the audience during the asides and soliloquies in addition to the manipulation of language for Hamlet’s case. Furthermore, Shakespeare introduces the actors to add the ‘play within a play’ effect. This acts as a tricky literary device that suggests that the play itself revolves around the charade undertaken by most of Shakespeare’s characters as the ‘play within a play’ occurs in the middle of the play…...

Claudius also seems like a respectable king because he mourns the death of King Hamlet and tells “[the] whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe” (21). Although Claudius seems to be a good king who is deeply saddened by the death of the late King Hamlet, he is actually a horrible man who murdered King Hamlet in a way “most foul,...strange and unnatural” (57). He took his crown and acted as if his death was an accident. Claudius makes it difficult for Hamlet to uncover the truth behind his actions because he constantly acts like nothing is ever wrong. After many different plots against Claudius, Hamlet prevails and the real Claudius is exposed. Claudius played an important role in the play because he reinforced the motif Seems Versus Is and showed the reader that although people can come across as honest and respectable, deep down they can have an evil side.

In the play Hamlet, Claudius is known as the villain of the play. He is the lead antagonist who is characterized as a cunning, incestuous, and vile, usurper. Many readers and critics of the play do not dispute this perception, especially after reading how Claudius became the King of Denmark; He steals the throne by poisoning his brother, the previous king, and quickly marrying Queen Gertrude his widowed sister in law (1.5.42, 60-74). The general reading of Claudius’s character paints him to be a corrupt, cowardly politician, in addition to being Hamlet’s (the protagonist) foe. This portrait engages first-time readers to judge Claudius immediately and although this perspective of his personality is proven to be true, it is limited. Claudius

     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.

At best, I believe that Act I, Scene II might be one of the most important parts of Hamlet. It prepares any reader with the character’s styling of Hamlet, its importance to the play, its characters, and the logical play on words to show the complexity of Shakespeare’s skills as a playwright. Though, it might be a bit of over-aggrandizing to say that the first Act and second scene could be so crucial. It set the tone of the play for many of the characters and their motives from Claudius, Gertrude, and Hamlet. The Act shows the true nature of many of the characters and where they stand in the apparent and the hidden stance. As the scene begins, we see Claudius come straight out as the antagonist, though not immediately. He (Claudius) begins to establish himself as King of Denmark but it is until Hamlet makes his appearance that we see some of Claudius’s attributes.

In the book of Hamlet, William Shakespeare introduces the character King Claudius in act one scene two. The character makes an impression of a powerful man who commands respect from every individual. Shakespeare portrays Claudius’ role as the most crucial and intriguing person. In the play, Claudius is the most mysterious, the most controversial and the most discussed character as many people look at him only to see a villain. As the play starts, Claudius is the King of Denmark, who has inherited Gertrude, and the uncle to prince Hamlet. As with the rest of supporting characters in the play, Claudius is underdeveloped to his complete potential (Mabillard,n.p). His major role that he plays in Hamlet is to spawn Hamlet’s anger and confusion

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