Character Analysis of Claudius from the Play Hamlet by Shakespeare
In the play, "Hamlet", Shakespeare needed to devize an evil character, a villain that is ambitious, and has the ability to scheme to get what he wants. The character would also have to contain some good qualities, such as kindness and contriteness. These good qualities make the character seem more human and thus, more believable. Claudius is this character. Shakespeare uses Claudius in his revenge theme in this play. Without the acts of Claudius, this theme just would not be. The entire play revolves around what Claudius has done, or will do.
The evil traits of Claudius by far outweigh the good things he does. He is very ambitious, perhaps too ambitious. Claudius wanted to be king so badly, that he murdered his own brother to achieve his goal. This is how the revenge theme is weaved into the
play. Hamlet, the dead king’s son learns of the act from a ghost,
"A serpent stung me; so the whole ear of Denmark
Is by a forged process of my death
Rankly abused; but now that noble youth The serpent that did sting thy father’s life
Now wears his crown." (Act I, Sc. V, Lines 42-46)
Claudius not only wanted to be the king of Denmark, he also wanted the queen that came with it. In Act I Sc. II Lines 8-14, Claudius has just recently been crowned king and is addressing the court. He shows in his words how happy he is to be married to Gertrude, the Queen.
"herefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as ‘twere with a defeated joy,
With an auspicious, and dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral, and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole,
Taken to wife; ...."
The ambition of Claudius lays the foundation for the theme of revenge. Without his need to be king and his willingness to do anything for it, the play would be completely different. This evil trait is, in part, what in the end kills Claudius.
Claudius’ other evil trait, his scheming, also leads to his death. An example of one of Claudius’ many ‘plans’ was when he summoned Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to do some spying on Hamlet to find out what was ailing him.
"Moreover that we much did long to see you,
The need we have to use you did provoke
Our hasty sending. Something hav...
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...) was very wrong and he realises there is little that he can do to make things well..
" O, my offence is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t,
A brothers murder! Pray can I not,
Through inclination be as sharp as will.
My stronger guilt defeats my stronger intent...."
(Act III Sc. IV Lines 39-43)
"My words fly up, my thoughts remain below;
Words without thoughts never to heaven go."
(Act III Sc. IV Lines 100-101)
These traits give Claudius a human side and this plays into the author’s purpose by making the reader wonder if Hamlet is going to do the right thing by killing Claudius. It gives the reader second thoughts.
Claudius was the villain in "Hamlet." He showed all the necessary characteristics of an evil character but Shakespeare put some "extra" into him. He did this be giving him somegood characteristics. What he had was a well blended character with the ability to be both a murderous bad guy to a kind hearted good guy. Shakespeare had Claudius fit well into the theme of revenge. It was all centred around him. With out him, It would have been a happy ending, or completely different.
Hamlet was told by the ghost of king hamlet to get back at Claudius for his death, or his soul will travel on earth forever. Even before hamlet knew about Claudius killing his father he had problems. It made hamlet mad that his mother would marry so fast and with his uncle. What Claudius did was an outrageous, back stabbing, and unbelievable thing. It was clearly an act of jealousy for his brother's throne and the wife. Claudius did pay back for his actions. Claudius lost his wife, his messenger, and died and even after his death kept loosing because he lost his castle to Fortinbras.
Delving into the character of King Claudius in Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, we find a character who is not totally evil but rather a blend of morally good and bad elements. Let’s explore the various dimensions of this many-sided character.
Hamlet is a normal person which brillant ideas. He waited so long to kill Claudius because he wanted people to be able to know the story of really happened and did not want to seem like a bad guy. Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (Act 3,Scene 1 Line 64) also means should he live to do as his father or or die to betray him. Hamlet knew everything that was going on in the kingdom but wanted to act as if he did not to get even further in and have more information. He did this because he wanted to think a more brilliant plan to kill Claudius and anyone else that was dealing with it, that is how he killed
Claudius is the antagonist in this play, in easier words, the villain. He is the brother of the now dead King of Denmark, Hamlet. Claudius murders his brother and does it in a way that it seems as though death had claimed him in a natural way. He is then quick to marry Queen Gertrude, as a favor to the state of Denmark. Claudius throughout the play is calculating, and will do anything to stay in power: including murdering the son of his current wife, his nephew, Hamlet. During the play, Hamlet becomes a threat to the crown and power in his possession. To overcome this, Claudius confides in Laertes that Hamlet was the cause of Polonius’s death. In an act of revenge Laertes plans his act “I will do ‘t. And for that purpose I’ll anoint my sword. I bought an unction of a mounteback, so mortal that, but a dip a knife in it, where it draws blood no cataplasm so rare, collected from all simples that have virtue under the moon, can save the thing from death that is but scratched withal. I’ll touch my point with this contagion, that if I gall him slightly it may be death” (4.7.139-148). This works wonderfully in Claudius’s favor. With Laertes plotting to avenge his father, Claudius won’t have to get his hands dirty again, and...
Claudius’s chief concerns about Hamlet are that his life would have been in danger; his safety. Claudius is concerned that Hamlet would have killed him instead of Polonius, if he was there at that time. He was scared when he heard the news of Hamlet killing Polonius thinking it was him behind the tapestry. With relief and fear, Claudius tells Gertrude, “O heavy deed! It had been so with us, had we been there” (4.1.13-14). Claudius is relieved that he was not murdered by Hamlet. This contributed to character development because this shows us that Hamlet is ready to take revenge, since in the beginning he was confused and afraid, but now has taken the steps to take revenge. Character development can be seen in Claudius too because now we know that Claudius is afraid of the consequences, he will be receiving for the crime he has done.
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 Hamlet is a play that tells of a young man, Hamlet, who wanted revenge for the death of his father. After speaking with his father's spirit, Hamlet was led to believe that the person who murdered his father was his uncle, Claudius. Claudius kills his brother mainly because of jealousy, the crown, the queen and a hatred of his brother. Therefore Claudius is guilty of the murder of his brother.
Claudius' Greed for power is to blame for all the tragedies in the play Hamlet. Claudius was jellous of his brother and did go through exstemes inorder to gain power through greed. Relying on others was another tragedy. Polonius' death was not the fault of Claudius' greed. Hamlet killed Polonius. Don't assume because assuming lead to sticky situalions. Nevertheless, Hamlet was obsessed with killing Claudius because Claudius had killed his father and Hamlet wanted to seek his father's revenge. Keep your nose out of other people's buisness and find another solution to making your fatther proud. The bottom line is that Claudius craved power fortune and lust therefore leading to corruption, greed, jeallousy, and death.
Claudius is responsible for the death of King Hamlet, regardless of this, he wants to portray himself as someone that is worthy of running the nation of Denmark. Claudius connects to the people of Denmark by demonstrating that they are all participating in the grieving of King Hamlet, “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death The memory be green, and that it us befitted To bear our hearts in grief” (I.ii.1-3). King Hamlet’s death is very recent, but Claudius places himself as someone that is part of the kingdom that will be mourning the death of King Hamlet. This is demonstrated through irony since instead of mourning he is actually enjoying what King Hamlet has left behind; the nation of Denmark and his wife, Gertrude. Through this, Claudius also demonstrates that he wants others to believe that he has not done anything wrong. In order to convey the image of being healthy, Claudius and his court drink merrily within the castle; making the excesses that the court enjoys apparent. Hamlet is not fond of the drinking but then comes to the conclusion that “His virtues else, be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption” (I.iv.33-35). Hamlet then foreshadows his own destiny. No matter how good a person may be, that person can become corrupt due to something that has ...
... the only way to honour his father Polonius is by killing Hamlet. In addition, as Claudius reads the letter from Hamlet to Laertes he says “'Tis Hamlet’s character. “Naked” And in a postscript here, he says “alone.” Can you advise me?” (IV, VII, 52-53). This shows that Claudius takes advantage of Hamlet’s return alone as an opportunity for Laertes to kill him. Through Claudius’s actions the readers observe how he deceives Laertes into killing Hamlet for his own benefit without getting blood on his hands. Furthermore, Claudius’ desperation to kill Hamlet leads to him losing sight of what is important, which is being the king of Denmark, what he originally wanted, instead the lies he told and the manipulation he spread is now taking over. To conclude, it is evident through the play that the words and actions of Claudius have only lead to the spread of deception.
Ambition is the desire for power, honor, fame, wealth and the will to do anything to obtain them. Claudius is full of ambition and commits nefarious acts against his own family to gain power. In Act one; Scene five, Hamlet has been blessed by the presence of his father’s ghost. King Hamlet, who is absolutely irate, tells Hamlet exactly how he died. Murdered, more specifically poisoned, by his brother in his sleep. Not only did Claudius murder him but he robbed him “Of life, of crown, of queen.” All of these are things he viciously snatched from King Hamlet to fulfill ambitious life style. Although in Denmark the people elect their king Claudius is of royal blood, he knows the ins and outs of governing a body of people, thus possibly the reason...
As illustrated through his speeches and soliloquies Hamlet has the mind of a true thinker. Reinacting the death of his father in front of Claudius was in itself a wonderful idea. Although he may have conceived shcemes such as this, his mind was holding him back at the same time. His need to analyze and prove everythin certain drew his time of action farther and farther away. Hamlet continuously doubted himself and whether or not the action that he wanted to take was justifiable. The visit that Hamlet recieves from his dead father makes the reader think that it is Hamlet's time to go and seek revenge. This is notthe case. Hamlet does seem eager to try and take the life of Claudius in the name of his father, but before he can do so he has a notion, what if that was not my father, but an evil apparition sending me on the wrong path? This shows that even with substantial evidence of Claudius' deeds, Hamlet's mind is not content.
Claudius, using his wits, convinced Laertes that Hamlet should be killed, “To show yourself your father’s son in deed/ More than in words? / To cut his throat I’ the church!” (Hamlet 4.7 125-127). Claudius learns that Hamlet is still alive he thought of a master plan to use Laertes to kill Hamlet. Claudius has already turned Laertes against Hamlet by saying that he murdered his father in cold blood and has gone unpunished because the queen and all the kingdom is in love with him. Laertes who is fueled by misguided anger is prepared to do whatever it takes to get his revenge against Hamlet. Laertes simply suggests that he kill Hamlet in cold blood, but Claudius uses his superior intelligence to come up with a truly dark and evil plan to kill Hamlet. Intelligence is mostly thought of as an admirable quality but a select few choose to use it for the wrong reasons. It can sometimes lead people to think they are above the law and can simply get away with whatever terrible crime the commit (Nyborg 344-345). This was the case with Claudius he thought that he had planned the murder carefully and meticulously enough that no one would ever ask questions. Even once Hamlet knew his evil secret Claudius did not give up he came up with plan after plan to kill Hamlet. Claudius, in his mind, had thought that he had earned everything he had acquired. He may have
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.
Claudius is one of the main characters responsible for his own death in the play because he portrays himself to be untouchable; not thinking clearly of the consequences to his actions. He starts off by killing his own brother and marrying his queen, Gertrude, only because he lust power and sex. His cold-hearted actions make him the antagonist of Hamlet and most deserving of death. Through all of his malicious actions, he plans a duel between Laertes and Hamlet assuring Hamlet’s death as well by poisoning a drink and the end of Laertes’ sword. He definitely got a taste of his own medicine because he died a rightful death by the sa...