Selfish Ambition Selfishness may help one reach the top, but it will not keep one there. Characters in Hamlet and Fifth Business who place power and personal ambition above all else eventually meet their end. The characters may hide behind a mask, live in constant fear, and bath in overconfidence which all lead to their downfall. The characters Claudius from Hamlet, and Boy from Fifth Business are such people. Their selfishness would get the better of their ability to stay in power. Can a selfish person stay in power after the public discovers their greedy ways? Claudius is a character that attempts to hide his egomania from his countrymen. He speaks to his countrymen with great pride and honour in his words; words from which one cannot fathom …show more content…
The noblemen in the court are left in the dark to believe what Claudius’s lies. Claudius hides behind this mask of his, the persona of an honourable king, to prevent others from seeing his deep dark secrets. He intend to use lies and deception to keep himself in power, rather than using his own abilities to prove himself a worthy king. However, a mask can only work for so long, people will eventually discover the truth and act upon it. Boy Staunton on the other hand does not hide anything. He wildly flaunts his wealth and abilities to others. Unlike Claudius, Boy shows his true unadulterated self to the world, especially Dunstan. Boy shows Dunstan nude pictures of Leona then says “Nice, nice, nice! Of course it isn’t nice! Only fools worry about what’s nice” (149, Davies). Boy bluntly states the fact that he does not care about being nice nor how his actions affect others. He does not worry about sharing his inner self-centered ideals with others. Rather, he wants to be known as the pragmatic man who achieves success with non-ethical ways. In contrast to Claudius, Boy uses his own power and abilities to cover up for his selfish ideology. Both characters have different methods of keeping themselves in power using their egocentric minds. No matter if they are hiding or showing their true self, they will face their …show more content…
After this event, Claudius has been in constant fear of being revealed to the public. He immediately considers sending Hamlet away to England to be executed. This fear slowly eats away Claudius’s mind and hinders him from making the right decisions which will eventually lead to his downfall. Conversely, Boy does not show any fear of people finding out about the snowball incident. He have concerns about people knowing the snowball incident, but he suppresses that worry in his unconscious mind. Even under the circumstance where Boy is reminded of Mary Dempster by Magnus and Dunstan, he claims he does not know of that woman. Boy does not falter when Magnus is trying to strike into his heart. “Boy had plenty of experience in being baited by hostile people, and he did not show by a quiver how strange this was to him” (251). The quote explains that Boy can handle circumstances where people try to strike fear into him. Unlike Claudius, Boy completely conceals his fear and handles the situation to the extent where he still aggressively denying what Magnus and Dunstan is trying to convey. Despite how well Boy can handle the situation, Boy’s unconscious mind is flooded with anxiety as he is reminded of the truth. Both characters, consciously or unconsciously fear the truth, the truth that leads to their downfall. In either event, their constant fear will slowly consume their own power
Although playing what’s thought to represent a noble king, Claudius totally differs from that title. Claudius is a manipulative, under minding, selfish person: “That we wish wisest sorrow think on him,/ Together with remembrance of ourselves,/ Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen” (1.2.6-8). King Claudius kills the king of Denmark his own brother just to turn into the king of
Many seemingly self-governed decisions a hero acts out on are usually triggered by past events. Events that have passed and outwardly been forgotten may not be apparent in the present lives of many, but can leave behind emotional tolls responsible for influencing significant decisions in the midst of being made. Following deeper into the plot of both Hamlet and Fifth Business, the stories unravel to show both heroes, and villains, have made life-altering decisions, that ultimately result in the resolution of the plot, based on previous happenings brought upon by Dunstan and Horatio, the fifth businesses. In the case of Boy Staunton, an emotionally underdeveloped millionaire, one could assume the social empire he built for himself stemmed from
People sense that they are guilty when they feel that they have done something wrong and they regret their actions. This would be considered “true guilt.” False guilt is when one feels guilty for an action that they are not responsible for. Both types of guilt have a destructive impact. However, false guilt has, if not more of a destructive (damaging?) impact upon a person. In the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare and the book Fifth Business, by Robert Davies, the main characters both have a sense of false guilt and it causes them to go into solitude. Hamlet takes on getting the revenge of his father's death because of guilt which leads him to isolation. Dunstan also takes on the guilt
be a powerful man, has his life unravel before him as he loses his job, his
It is without question that William Shakespeare’s Hamlet teaches us the truth about power and social status and how it can destroy one’s character and current status on the social scale. People are in constant battle and competition with each other, aiming to reach the highest of the highest. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, there are many scandals that happen all at once. One scandal that happens in Hamlet is the unexpected and rapid marriage of King Claudius and Queen Gertrude.
... of treachery and, luckily, Hamlet realizes the king’s subterfuge, crushing the plot and flipping it back on him. Claudius remains steadfast in his efforts to remove Hamlet, going so far as to set up a false fencing competition and foolishly pushing the poisoned wine without considering the suspiciousness of the action. In his short-sighted and rash decision making, Claudius shows that he allows his inflated sense of regality and self-worth to cloud his judgment.
Claudius is also a character who is neither true to himself nor to others: he is not being true to the rest of the kingdom. He does not want to give up his gains, so the people of Denmark do not know why their previous King has died and his brother taken over. While making an attempt to pray, he realizes that his sins cannot be forgiven.
Both Percy Boyd Staunton and Claudius are very similar. They are both power hungry and will do anything to make it to the top. Boy shows his dedication to succeed by saying “if you don’t hurry up and let life know what you want, life will damned soon show you what you’ll get.” (Davies 120-21) This quote explains how if one does not take action, fate will take determine what you get. Different from Claudius, Boy captures his power and status legally, without hurting anyone, but through determination and hard work. However they both feel guilt and they both try to conceal their guilt, by not thinking about it and ignoring it, but eventually they cannot hide it any longer. In the end Dunstan confronts Boy about the snowball but Boy denies it, he says “I threw the snowball-at least you say so, and for argument’s sake let that go-and you dodged it. It precipitated into something which was probably going to happen anyhow. The difference between us is that you’ve brooded over it and I’ve forgotten it.” This quote shows how Boy tries to forget about the incident, and it shows how he makes excuses that it would have happened anyway. This is a way for Boy to mask his guilt. However, the confrontation with Boy and Eisengrim has made him realize the truth, the truth
[4, 1, 40] These idiosyncrasies are observed in the play when Claudius becomes concerned he will lose power as King and the likelihood Hamlet will murder him to avenge his father’s death. This is apparent when Gertrude informs Claudius that Hamlet is, “Mad as the sea and wind, when both contend which is mightier”. [4,1,6] With these thoughts daunting Claudius, he approaches Laertes in a Machiavellian manner to convince him to murder Hamlet, for he knows Laertes is angry, deranged and “Vows to the blackest devil” [4,5,131] after the death of his father. In doing so, Claudius has the intent to use Machiavellian powers over Laertes who is currently mentally unstable, with the objective being that Laertes will murder Hamlet to avenge his own father’s (Polonius) death. Claudius is able to successfully persuade Laertes in a manipulative speech, especially with his snide comment, “Not that I think you did not love your father, but that I know love is begun by time, and that I see a passage of proof.” [4,7,96] Claudius’ malicious comment indicates he is using his power over Laertes, so that the burden and repercussions do not rest on him, so that he may retain his authority as King. By utilizing his power over Laertes, Claudius is successful, as Hamlet is slain, however, as reflected in Claudius’
Claudius is seen in Hamlets eyes as a horrible person because he convicted murder and incest. Claudius had killed the king of Denmark, Old Hamlet, to obtain the position of the throne. He had been jealous of Old Hamlet’s wife Gertrude and wanted to marry her for her power. Although, such an act would be called incest and considered unnatural he did not care, all he had cared about was the power that he would be stealing from Hamlet and Old Hamlet, Gertrude’s son and husband (R). When Hamlet had talked to his f...
William Shakespeare’s tragic drama Hamlet invites various interpretations of the structure because of the play’s complexity. Let us in this essay analyze various interpretations of structure.
The first individual to create a false appearance which works and declines in his favour is Claudius. The primary approach Claudius uses with appearances is to hide his crime of killing his brother. In order to disguise the fact that he killed his brother to become King, Claudius presents himself as a calm individual. This is first seen at the beginning of the play with his wedding. When Hamlet acknowledges the death of his father, Claudius replies, “’Tis unmanly grief. It shows a will most incorrect to heaven, A heart unfortified, a mind impatient, An understanding simple and unschooled” (1.2. 94-97). Throughout this text, Claudius shames Hamlet from mourning for so long, claiming it is unmanly. It is evident that Claudius wants Hamlet to
Michael Almereyda’s movie adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet brings about a new perspective through its performance. The movie adaptation, Hamlet (2000), retells the original play in a modernized setting, bringing out various different elements of characters, which highlights a new reading of these characters as individuals, and a newfangled reading of the play as well. Throughout the movie, Ophelia and Gertrude, the woman-leads, are advanced in a progressive manner compared to the original play. In particular, Gertrude from Hamlet (2000) is noticeably altered from Hamlet, the play. This new interpretation of Gertrude and the play created by the movie adaptation advances the position of Gertrude as a woman, as well as motifs of incest, misogyny,
King Claudius, as illustrated in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, displays both charm and eloquence. Claudius is an intelligent person and is able to deceive people into believing he is innocent and morally guided. He is adept at manipulating people in order to advance and maintain his own power and fails to show any remorse for his actions. Claudius utilizes his linguistic skills to portray himself as an innocent and prudent leader; however, upon further inspection his diction is a mere smoke screen that hides his manipulative and cunning nature.
In writing Hamlet, William Shakespeare plumbed the depths of the mind of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to such an extent that this play can rightfully be considered a psychological drama.