What Is The Morally Ambiguous Nature Of Claudius

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Hamlet, a studious young man and Prince of Denmark, struggles to face the death of his father and the task to kill his father’s murderer, Claudius. He was once known as a charming, smart young man before his father’s death. However, Hamlet experiences depression and anger at the world, causing him to look outwardly on society but failing to look inwardly on himself. The death of his father and the task for vengeance leads him to question whether or not he should follow through in killing Claudius. He becomes a man of thought rather than a man of action. In addition, the delay of King Claudius’ murder leads the readers to believe that he wishes not to kill him; he

In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, the playwright introduces the compelling, complex, and complicated character of the Prince of Denmark, Hamlet. In the events of the play, Hamlet swears revenge against his uncle for the foul murder of his father, the king. However, despite his intense catalyst, Hamlet reveals to be continuously torn between his motive of revenge and conflicted conscience, generating an inability to carry out his desired actions. While Hamlet possesses the passion and intellect to murder his uncle, Claudius, his actual inclination to act upon the murder directly opposes that of his powerfully emotional contemplations (S.T. Coleridge). Hamlet’s overzealous thoughts become unrealistic compared to his actual endeavors throughout the play.

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.

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.

To start, King Claudius repeatedly generated specific plans, such as to have “in quick determination thus set it down: [Hamlet] shall with speed to England” to which Claudius knew would be for Hamlet to be killed (Shakespeare 3.2.182-83). This scheme alongside his collaboration with Laertes to devise a plot to kill Hamlet in Act IV, Scene VII, efficiently was akin to Hamlet’s own premeditated plans to “have [the] players play something like the murder of [his] father before [his] uncle,” observe his uncle during the process, and have “the play [be] the thing wherein [he will] catch the conscience of the King” (Shakespeare 2.2.623-25, 633-34). Furthermore, both Claudius and Hamlet, after murdering someone, pertaining to old King Hamlet and Polonius, respectively, showed sparse grief or contrition as King Claudius stated “[his] crown, [his] own ambition, and [his] queen” all resulted from murdering his brother and thus, was not willing to relinquish those perquisites (Shakespeare 3.3.59). In congruence, Hamlet did not show much immediate regret or remorse after slaying Polonius as he declared Polonius a “wretched, rash, intruding fool” who was not where he should have been (Shakespeare 3.4.38). Although Hamlet and Claudius

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

Another reason why the killing of Claudius is justified is the fact he has directly caused the mental state we see hamlet in. Hamlets main worries are the death of his father; caused by Claudius. His mother marrying Claudius and finally everyone moving on so quick from the death of old Hamlet. (Not directly Claudius but being called a little girl didn’t help) All of this complied has pushed hamlet to the brink of suicide and to repair his mental state he feels he must revenge his

The full presentation of Claudius in the play Hamlet makes us react more sympathetically, especially to the actions of other characters, than we otherwise may because if it wasn't for Claudius’ initial action of killing his brother, each character would not have gone on their own downward spiral. Claudius can be seens as poison that is slowly harming each character. The first character that the reader sympathises is Hamlet. Dressed in all black, Hamlet is mourning the loss of his beloved father. Not only is he mourning this, he is also mourning the loss of his trust in women. As soon as His father dies, his mother remarries his uncle and then his love interest begins to ignore his letters, and this all trickles back to Claudius. He even calls

Claudius is the other major example of ambition in the story, as shown through his drastic measures taken to assure that no one discovers that he killed the King and used his death as an opportunity to take up the crown. It is revealed to Hamlet by his father’s ghost that Claudius killed the former ruler in his own garden by pouring poison into his ear. This is very characteristic of Shakespeare’s tragedies, characters will kill each other off for their own ambitious agendas without hesitation for morals or law and Claudius fits into this trend perfectly. To further ensure that his status as king is not compromised, he seduces the King’s wife, Gertrude, and attempts to get Hamlet to forget his father by calling his grief childish and a hindrance to his role as the prince (365). The King’s ghost informs Hamlet that Gertrude was one of the most virtuous women alive and wouldn’t have taken lightly to his sudden death, so it is apparent that Claudius took extreme measures to get Gertrude on his side. To go through all this work to ensure that he remained in power proves that Claudius was just as ambitious to achieve power as Hamlet was to remove him from it.

Within the close proximity of his father’s death, Hamlet’s mother has remarried to her late husband’s brother, Claudius. In this monologue, Claudius insults Hamlet’s continuous misery for his father frequently in order to improve his self confidence. He accuses Hamlet’s “obstinate condolement” (1.2.93) to be “of impious stubbornness” (94). Claudius believes Hamlet’s stubborn and constant grief is insulting to God’s natural cycle of life and is a “will most incorrect to heaven” (95), meaning that his grief is not out of true sadness, but instead defiance. It is ironic that Claudius accuses Hamlet of being disrespectful to both God and heaven, while he is married to his dead brother’s wife.

Immediately upon introduction to Claudius, his plans are very clear: to remove Hamlet from the scenario. The unjust king manipulates anyone he can to have his way; Gertrude and Laertes being the two who have the most impact on Hamlet. Claudius managed to convince both Hamlet and Gertrude that the rightful heir had misguided feelings:

     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.

Claudius’ manipulation takes advantage of surrounding characters’ affection for Hamlet. Paired with Hamlet’s apparent madness, he easily sways them into doing his bidding by feeding them incorrect information, thus influencing their decisions and actions. While innocent characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern believe their duty is to simply diagnose the reason for Hamlet’s madness, Claudius uses their care for Hamlet and blind loyalty to plot Hamlet’s death. This along with several other attempts of spying on and murdering Hamlet eventually lead to the deaths of multiple characters including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Not only that, but all the while he is attempting to take Hamlet’s life, he is fearing for his own and desperately

Upon observation, it seems Claudius’ soliloquy reveals another perspective to the audience. Instead of the cold and heartless impressions created by Hamlet, Claudius appears vulnerable and uncertain, evidently worried about his consequences of the murder of Old Hamlet. However, in truth, this soliloquy reveals his hypocritical nature as he searches for forgiveness, raising questions concerning his sincerity of his speech and desires.

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