HAMLET ESSAY Chloe Murphy

I believe Claudius is a black- hearted villain. As a king, he is disloyal and cannot be trusted. He murdered his dear brother King Hamlet, then soon after married his brother's wife Gertrude. The heresy that lies within the castle of Elsinore all leads back to Claudius. A king is a monarch, a figure head of loyalty, honor and glory. But Claudius does not fit into any of those categories. His greed for the throne shows no empathy. Although he was not in power for an immense amount of time, one would consider this a great thing as a King with no amount of empathy would not be ideal for the citizens of Denmark. Too imply that Claudius is a good thing is a little bit far fetched. He is the epitome of a typical power hungry man. He let nothing get in his way to become King, as well as marrying Gertrude. He is very cruel and I empathize with Hamlet for this as if one could imagine your Uncle murdering your Father and parading around as King, its hardly ideological for poor young Hamlet to dwell on. However he's not a one-dimensional character. For example, his soliloquy in the prayer scene, here for the first time we see he has a conscience and feels regret. He does show some signs of remorse despite committing cold crimes, whilst also showing one good trait of monarchy, such as decisiveness. He can be seen like Hamlet, enthralled in sin and guilt, as he seems trapped in his crime which he can do nothing to escape from, which is clearly shown in the scene where he tries to pray for forgiveness from God. This is possibly the only sign of remorse we get from Claudius. He is an egregious sly fox. How he and Laertes converse as how to plan Hamlet's death is very sly. This is another bad trait for Claudius. How can a nation trust a man who's title was conceded by death and deceit? If Claudius was in power for any longer than two months I'd say Denmark would've gone to ruins. He's the kind of guy you could imagine pulling a Stalin and Hitler, befriending one another then betraying each other in seconds! In no way possible could one find a reason to think Claudius is a good King. He is at the end of almost every death in Hamlet. Even his own wife Gertrude. The list could go on. But we don't exactly know what made Claudius so evil and there is no show of envy towards his brother. What could be the reason for all this evil behaviour? As the play concludes, Claudius continues to defend his evil spoils. He prods Laertes to seek revenge with a poisoned sword, and at the

same time prepares a poisoned drink, determined to be rid of Hamlet. As everyone knows, all Claudius's plans fail, bringing all but Horatio to their deaths, and returning the kingdom to those whom his nobler brother had once conquered. His evil acts are a "disease" he spreads to his loved ones, causing death and destruction to occur in this famous tragic play. Claudius murders King Hamlet by poison; thereafter, a metaphorical poison seeps through the play: rottenness, cankers, 'things rank and gross in nature' meet us at every turn. Then at the end it once more becomes literal poison: Gertrude, Claudius, Laertes, Hamlet are all poisoned; and on Claudius, already dead or dying from the poisoned rapier, Hamlet forces the poisoned cup. Claudius is ultimately too crafty for his own good. Perhaps one of the hardest obstacles in portraying Claudius is the lack of information on King Hamlet. We know very little about the previous king and of his relationship with his brother. The few scenes of the ghost and the biased view through his son and his subjects are hardly a good base for analyzing his character. Claudius admits that God influences the monarchy and yet he chooses to violate the divine monarchial progression. Hamlet recognizes Claudius' evil nature beyond simply the murder of his father; Hamlet sees that Claudius is corrupting all of Denmark. Claudius' reign is compared to "an unweeded garden/That grows to seed'' Here in a heartfelt soliloquy we see a rightly side of remorse which is needed. I believe Claudius dwelled too much into greed and power. He could've been a good king but just trotted along the wrong footsteps

''O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven; It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, A brother's murder. Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will: My stronger guilt defeats my strong 40 intent; And, like a man to double business bound, I stand in pause where I shall first begin And both neglect. What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,''