“What makes a character a monster”? An individual in a text could be considered a monster based on their actions. A “monster” would be considered a character who has committed cruel behaviors and actions, as well as demanding others to commit cruel actions for pleasure. Since monsters commit these type of actions, they tend to have specific personality traits and characteristics. A “monster” may possess characteristics such as cruelty, evilness, selfless, and inhumanity. This individual’s personality is typically filled with ugliness. Often times, a monster would also be considered the antagonist of the story. During this semester, we were instructed to read a number of texts which included Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, and …show more content…
Claudius’ would be considered the stereotypical monster because of his harmful and cruel actions. The city of Thebes was originally ruled by King Hamlet however, One day, King Hamlet’s brother Claudius decided to murder his brother by poisoning him and then thought he could take the throne. The city of Thebes and King Hamlet’s son young Hamlet were not aware he was murdered. One day, young Hamlet was informed by the guards that there is a ghost who keeps appearing that looks like his father. This prompts young Hamlet to stay one night with the guards to attempt to speak to his father’s ghost. When he finally does get the chance to speak to the ghost, the ghost wants to explain what really happened to his father. “But know, thou noble youth,/ The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/ Now wears his crown”, the ghost explained to Hamlet (I, V 38-40). The ghost revealed that Claudius murdered him by poisoning him when he was sleeping. By the ghost explaining what really happened to his father, helped defined what types of individual he is. After, Claudius killed his brother and married his brother’s wife, he instructed Hamlet to look at him as his father. However, Claudius is attempting to plan Hamlet’s murder by instructing Laertes to sword duel against Hamlet. After Claudius received a note from Hamlet asking for permission to return to Thebes, Claudius …show more content…
The antagonist in both of these is Claudius. The reason that Claudius is the antagonist in both of the stories is because of his cruel actions. The cruel actions that Claudius has is a plan to murder his brother, King Claudius and take the throne. A quote from the movie explaining this is “We take Hamlet to the English king, it depending on when we get there who he is, and we hand over the letter” (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead). It is not obvious to exactly what this quote means but when connected with the outcome of Hamlet, the reader has a better understanding of what exactly this quote means. This quote makes the connection between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Hamlet. The connection is that it is uncertain yet to Rosencrantz if Claudius has yet to have killed King Hamlet. Rosencrantz knows of the plan by Claudius to kill King Hamlet but does not know when he plans on taking this action. The reason for Claudius to kill King Hamlet is to take over power of Thebes. Claudius does it in this way because he does not want to wait for the power to be handed over to him. Claudius is only focused on committing evil actions to give him joy. This is exactly what the action of planning to kill King Hamlet is. Claudius strives for power of Thebes through actions of cruelty. In both Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, it is true that Claudius
For ages, we have wondered what is the difference between monsters and men that make them who they are. What are the characteristics that define a monster? Typically it’s the bad guy, the person or thing that comes into the story just to cause massacre or stand in the protagonist’s way. On the other Men are just defined as people who are the opposite of evil. There can be multiple people in a story who can be characterized as men. They don’t all necessarily have to be heroic to be considered as men. In the literature pieces of Macbeth, Beowulf and Frankenstein; there are countless instances where one might be able to distinguish between Monsters and Men. But they all fall in different genres. Macbeth is a story about a tragic hero; the fallen one or the man who brought misery upon himself. The monster can be identified as guilt. This guilt built stronger and stronger and led him to be his worst enemy. Beowulf is an epic about a hero (men) who takes on great challenges and adventures. His worst enemies are all the monsters that took place over the course of the story. Like: Grendel and his mother. This epic poem was made around the Anglo Saxon period. And lastly, Frankenstein is about a crazy doctor who created a monster. The monster name wasn’t Frankenstein, the doctor’s name was. That’s why the story is called “Frankenstein’s monster.” All these literary pieces are plotted so intelligently that it takes a moment before one can distinguish the monsters and the men.
Hamlet, for reasons of trepidation chooses not to kill Claudius, his nemesis, in the altar room. This fatal procrastination results in the unnecessary deaths of Laertes, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Hamlet himself. This casts a most inauspicious light upon Hamlet, but only if the original premise is true. The obverse side of the argument is that Hamlet, because he desires all those who are in league with Claudius to suffer the same ignominious fate that his father suffers. Thus he delays his revenge in order to intensify the misery of the other characters. This also casts a most inauspicious light upon Hamlet, but only if the general premise of the book is true, that Hamlet is the hero and is not enslaved to evil. That general premise is false. For even the Prince admits that he may be under the thrall of the Devil, who is able to “assume a pleasing shape” and is “very potent with such spirits [of melancholy]”.
Claudius is the antagonist in this play and starts all of the drama. Claudius is the reason why hamlet is trying to seek revenge. Other characters are trying to seek revenge throughout the entirety of the play also. Shakespeare in the play Hamlet, is trying to make this a play on revenge between many characters and also show the insecurities of Hamlet as he tries to seek revenge.
Kallie Wagner Professor Arevalo World Literature 1 28 April 2014 Hamlet’s Gone Mad Hamlet is without a doubt one of the most complex pieces to interpret for many different scholars and people. The question of the truth behind his madness has become a debate among anyone who lays eyes on the play. In fact, madness plays a large role within the play that will cause many situations as well as effect them. I believe Hamlet unintentionally went mad attempting to act like a mad man.
An important factor of any fictional story is the antagonist, or a person who conflicts with the protagonist – the “hero” of the story (Encarta). As many have come to the realization already, Claudius is the main antagonist to Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Uncle to Prince Hamlet, King of Denmark and Husband of Gertrude, Claudius is quite a character. Imagine the guilt and anxiety brought about by killing one’s own brother, claiming his kingdom as your own, and then going so far as to marry his widow. These were the crimes of King Claudius of Denmark, and one can see that he was pretty much written to be despised by the reader, a noticeable aspect of Shakespeare’s age-old work. Moreover, many often quickly assume, upon their first reading of the play, that Prince Hamlet ought to kill the king (Goddard).
The play has an antagonist Claudius, who is Hamlet’s uncle and the King of Denmark. There are two significant ways Claudius acts as a foil for Hamlet. Firstly Claudius does not hesitate to utilize violence to further him self and advance his compulsive desire for power. Hamlet is seeking the avengement of his father, which requires the use of violence. However, unlike Claudius, Hamlet is constrained by his conscious to act upon his revenge. Claudius’s desire for power is shown when it is found out that he murdered his brother in order to take over the throne. As for Hamlet he is told about the murder of his father from a ghost and is deciding whether to kill Claudius or not but the idea that if he is wrong he goes to hell comes into his mind. This acts as a foil to Hamlet because Hamlet learns at the end that he needs
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 in Claudius, both his capacity for good and evil.
I feel that makes a monster a monster, but what about attitude and emotions. Should I say the lack thereof? Hitler was called a monster and he looked like me and you. He was considered a monster because of killing millions of people, which is an act out of the ordinary. Serial killers are monsters in the modern times. In this regard, the villains are considered monsters because the evil ways are figuratively monstrous. A monster can be created through branding of names. An example that I like to use is Elphaba in Wicked. People called her wicked, and she finally accepted the name, saying, "Let all Oz be agreed. I'm wicked through and through."
One main theme that arises in the Hamlet is the power struggle between Hamlet and Claudius. The main problem is between Hamlet and Claudius; they are in an ongoing battle throughout the play to see who will rise with the power of the throne. Claudius is the antagonist in the story and has multiple people under him that follow his every rule (Innes). He is a manipulative character who seeks revenge on Hamlet through other people he knows. On the other hand, Hamlet is the protagonist of the story, he is very unhappy after finding out the news of how his father had been killed (Innes). He is overtaken though by the ghost of his father, Old Hamlet, and is seen to become mad as a consequence. Although Hamlet seeks revenge against his new stepfather he procrastinates killing him. Hamlet has also considered killing himself beforehand because of the struggle of power between his stepfather and himself. In the last scene of the play the power struggle that had been between Hamlet and Claudius comes to a conclusion as Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius and Hamlet die. Throughout the play Laertes, Horatio and Gertrude choose a side to be on, either between Hamlet’s and Claudius’s who both are trying to obtain the utmost power.
Commonly, a hero is considered as a representative of morality, justice and power. Also, people have various ways to evaluate their own heroes. Especially children, as they grow up, are more likely to create their heroes who are usually brave, strong, righteous and indestructible. However, villains are the opposite side of heroes, and they are evil, demoniacal and cruel. Some of those heroes would easily turn into villains when they are trying to get revenge because their hearts are filled with hatred. The play Hamlet by Shakespeare tells the tragic story of a prince avenging the death of his father. In the play, the main character Hamlet changes from a hero into a villain through his immoral and repellant actions.
The relationship between Hamlet and Claudius is problematic, largely due to the fact that they both wish death upon the other. For instance, they view each other as a threat, which is a foreboding sign within a royal family. When Hamlet learns that his father was murdered by his own uncle - Claudius, Hamlet vows to avenge his father’s death by killing Claudius when he is told, “But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown” (1.5.38-40). In other words, the ghost of Old King Hamlet informs Hamlet that Claudius has murdered him. He compares Claudius to a serpent, a large deadly
Throughout Shakespeare 's Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet himself, is determined to achieve his ultimate goal by seeing that Claudius is put to justice for the crime of murdering the king of Denmark, Claudius 's very brother and Hamlet 's father, and figures that he must pretend to have been driven insane by his father 's death in order to gather the evidence needed on Claudius without anyone figuring out his true intent. However, this ultimately becomes the undoing of Hamlet and causes harm to everyone that comes in contact with him. The suffering of others in the story, inflicted by Hamlet, are examples of the motifs of misogyny (evoked by his mother), incest and incestuous desires (occurring between Ophelia and Laertes, Claudius and Gertrude, and even Hamlet and Gertrude), which compliments and help develop the main themes, such as, the impossibility of certainty,
This anger also influenced Hamlet to accidentally kill Polonius as he thought that he was Claudius. Another character that was influenced by “The Mousetrap” was Claudius who seemed worried and guilty, but not necessarily remorseful after watching the play. This was seen by how he quickly tried to get Hamlet sent to England and was even seen praying as Hamlet contemplated murdering him. Lastly, the theme of corruption in Hamlet was furthered by the aforementioned events as it demonstrated that King Claudius undeniably usurped the throne after murdering Old King Hamlet, and after doing so, is now attempting to use his power to silence Hamlet, who merely wants justice for the death of his father. Also, the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are so willing to betray their friend in order to do the king’s bidding suggest an underlying theme of disloyalty and corruption by itself. This observation is not only supported by how they willingly spied on Hamlet for the king, but also by how they chose to honor the king’s request, without any real questioning or protest, to take Hamlet to England so that he doesn’t cause any more trouble back
The supernatural, is an integral part of the plays of William Shakespeare. In addition, the supernatural is, in fact, an integral part of the structure of the plot of Hamlet. The supernatural appears in Hamlet in the form of a ghost. The role of the supernatural is very important.
As Hamlet and Claudius go back and forth between who opposes who, the line is blurred between who demonstrates the protagonist role. Though there are countless examples of dispute in this play, one major circumstance makes for us as a reader to believe Claudius is indeed the protagonist of the play, Hamlet. When Claudius makes Hamlet leave for England in attempts to have him murdered, we do not follow Hamlet’s journey, but we do have a major focus shift to Claudius and what he is doing. We get an inside take on how Claudius begins to manipulate people around him, and we further Claudius’ character structure when Hamlet is absent. While Hamlet is gone for three full scenes, the only way we hear about his journey is in a brief letter he sends to trusting friend, Horatio. As Horatio reads Hamlet’s letter to him, he finds out that a pirate ship attacked the boat going to England and kept Hamlet prisoner. The letter reads, “They have dealt with/ me like thieves of mercy; but they knew what they/ did; I am to do good turn for them” (IV.vi.19-21). All the focus between act 4 scene 5 and act 4 scene 7 when Hamlet is on a boat, is on Claudius. Hamlet merely gets a tiny little bit of recognition on where he is and what he is doing for three full scenes. If Hamlet was meant to be the protagonist, Shakespeare would not have used deus ex machina on a protagonist, and not follow what he is