Lust, or lechery, is having the intense sexual desire to be with someone, which may lead to many sexual, immoral acts. Lust is best represented in Hamlet as the relationship between Queen Gertrude and King Claudius. After King Hamlet is murdered, Gertrude quickly marries her late husband’s brother, Claudius. The titular character even states that his mother got remarried with “ most wicked speed, to post with such dexterity to incestous sheets” ( 1. 2. 155-156) and sheds light on the lecherous, undignified nature of this marriage. Though the marriage was hasty and so soon after the death of King Hamlet, seeming inconsiderate to Hamlet's mourning, it was also religiously wrong. For as the ghost of King Hamlet stated, “ O wicked wit and gifts, …show more content…
Greed is the desire to have more of something than others, to the point of excess and selfishness. Envy and greed go hand in hand in Hamlet, and is represented through the character Claudius. Claudius murdered his brother, King Hamlet, because he wanted what his brother had. Claudius reveals why he murdered the King when he is overcome with guilt, he says “ I am still possess'd Of those effects for which I did the murder, My crown, mine own ambition and my queen.”( 3.3.53-55). Meaning he committed the act of murder to obtain the three things he was envious that his brother had: being king, the lifestyle and Gertrude. Claudius could end his envy of his brother and obtain the lavish lifestyle he so desired. Envy and greed intense lead Claudius to commit the condemning act of regicide. One definition of regicide is killing a person of royalty deliberately, in this case, it was King Hamlet. In history, most cases of regicide have been executions or court ordered executions, such as in the cases of King Louis the Sixteenth of France and his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. King Louis the Sixteenth was sentenced to death after being convicted of conspiring with foreign powers.This contrasts to the regicide in Hamlet because King Hamlet was not put on trial or found guilty of any crime. Claudius was not satisfied with his own life and longed for the life of his brother. Claudius killed his brother for his own personal gain, without justifiable
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 ...
It is here that one begins to see the theme of revenge and the idea that power can cause corruption. A family is supposed to be loyal and trusting of each other without any doubts; or so it was thought. Shakespeare uses Claudius’ betrayal of late King Hamlet to disprove the notion that family is always loyal. Claudius’ jealousy of his own brother and his desire to be the most powerful in Denmark corrupted him. It led him to betray his own family, a bond that is supposed to be unbreakable, and all the while feeling no guilt while acting as if he had not committed the crime. In addition to this, Claudius also takes late King Hamlet’s wife. Hamlet is enraged by the crime and adultery committed by his supposed family and feels he must seek justice for his father by taking out revenge on Claudius and therefore betraying him. Subsequently, the play becomes a slippery slope of events stemming from betrayal and revenge. The betrayal of one character became the revenge and betrayal of many others as seen when Horatio says, “… violent and unnatural acts, terrible accidents, casual murders, deaths caused by trickery and by threat, and finally murderous plans that backfired on their perpetrators,” showing that each act committed by the characters were returned back to them. This can be supported through the deaths of Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet as these were just a
Let us look at Claudius. Claudius is devious and intelligent, but also selfish. Claudius kills his brother, the King, to gain social, political, and economic power. “Of those effects for which I did the murder: My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.” (3.3.Lines) Claudius from a Marxist point of view would be looked at as a figure who was been corrupted in his craving for political power. In fear and to protect his power, Claudius convinces Hamlets friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to spy on Hamlet to make sure he goes to England. “By letters congruing to that effect, The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England, For like the hectic in my blood he
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the minor character, the late King Hamlet, demonstrates the complications of loyalty. Throughout the play, Shakespeare includes varies moments of loyalty that are portrayed not only through Hamlet but as well as Laertes. Late King Hamlet is considerably the catalyst of the complications that spur the downfall in the relationship between Laertes and Hamlet. When the late King Hamlet quoted:“A serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark is by a forgéd process of my death rankly abused. But know, thou noble youth,the serpent that did sting thy father’s life now wears his crown”the ghost was explaining to Hamlet how Claudius, “the serpent”, took the life and crown of the previous king, late King Hamlet (I,v,39,I,v,49).
Oddly, it appears that Gertrude possess more significance to Hamlet than one first anticipates. Her swift call to matrimony leads Hamlet into a spiraling quarry of depression and grieving. This mirrors the Oedipus complex. Gertrude sexually commits herself to Claudius causing Hamlet to feel a sense of jealousy and disappointment. In retaliation, he expresses his repressed desire of love through his unruly comments. He even goes as far as to say that the love is incestuous. Furthermore, in Act 3 scene 4, Hamlet confronts his mother directly in a closet. Addressing concern over her sexual actions, he exclaims “In the rank sweat of an enseamèd bed, / Stewed in corruption, honeying and making love / Over the nasty sty” (III.iv.104-106). Not only does this quote show that Hamlet disapproves his mother’s marriage, but also that he believes Claudius is a wicked criminal. Aligning with the Oedipus complex, Hamlet strangely obsesses over his mother’s love life while viewing his uncle in
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...
Hamlet possesses an uncomfortable obsession with his mother’s sexuality. For this reason, Hamlet’s soliloquies provide most of the audience’s information about Gertrude’s sexual activities. In his first soliloquy, Hamlet refers to the relationship between Gertrude and Claudius when he exclaims, “Within a month…She married. O, most wicked speed, to post / With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!” (I, ii, 153-157). In saying this, Hamlet displays how hastily Gertrude has abandoned the late King Hamlet, Hamlet’s father, such that she has already married Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle. In addition, Hamlet acknowledges that Gertrude and Claudius have quickly developed a very sexual relationship. Despite the very recent death of her husband, Gertrude is unable to control her sexual desires, and she remarries less than two months after King Hamlet’s funeral.
Claudius kills his own brother so that he can claim the crown and the queen. He disposes of a good and noble king to satisfy his greed. He sacrifices his brother, the good of the country, and the happiness of many to fulfill his ambition. He cares only for himself. Knowingly or not, most humans, at one point or another, will be driven by greed. Most, however, will not have the determination and desperation that Claudius displays. This is partly because of the differences of the times. In the time period that Shakespeare wrote the play, murder was heavily frowned upon as it is now. Greed is part of all people. They see something they want and they tell themselves that it is only what they deserve. It is inescapable, but we can control it to a certain degree.
[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...
... 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.
Claudius is justly punished for the murder of king Hamlet. The punishment fits the crime because his brother's son killed him. King Hamlet killed by the brother killed by the king's son. He was murdered. It was pay back, "what goes around comes around" "an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth" What these two quotes are mainly saying is that you get what you give. Claudius took his brothers life therefore his life was taken away. Not only did Claudius kill his brother to marry his wife and take over his throne, but he caused the deaths of the queen, king Hamlet, Polonius and Ophelia.
Throughout Shakespeare’s play, revenge intertwines to bring about the deaths of most of the main characters. Hamlet’s course of revenge initiates the first fatality when Polonius gets caught spying on him and Gertrude (III. iv. 24-25). By pursuing revenge, Hamlet killing Polonius paves the way for more lives to be lost. Claudius sees the murder as an opportunity to eliminate Hamlet, because Laertes’s obsession with revenge leaves him vulnerable. Laertes’s and Hamlet’s revenge lead to the deaths of Gertrude, Laertes, Claudius, and finally Hamlet (V. ii. 287-357). The revenge of each character ironically ended their own life. By acting upon revenge and having inimical intentions, the individuals brought fatalities that were unnecessary.
Claudius was motivated to take the throne for many reasons but one of the mains ones was his enormous greed. Claudius was not happy being the king’s brother, or being super wealthy, but rather he wanted to be the king himself, he wanted to be the wealthiest and most powerful man in entire kingdom. Claudius reflects back on what he has done when he says, “Forgive me my foul murder? /That cannot be; since I am still possessed/ Of those effects for which I did the murder-/ My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.” (Hamlet 3.3.52-55). Claudius knows that he has done wrong but his greed has consumed him and he cannot simply give up everything he has taken. The wealth and power he has acquired is what he has wanted his whole life and now he cannot imagine himself without it. He has committed a murder and he has married the queen he will now stick to his ambitions and not turn back. Greed is often when someone wants something in an extreme or an excessive amount above what is necessary. A certain amount of everything is
With his thinking mind Hamlet does not become a typical vengeful character. Unlike most erratic behavior of individuals seeking revenge out of rage, Hamlet considers the consequences of his actions. What would the people think of their prince if he were to murder the king? What kind of effect would it have on his beloved mother? Hamlet considers questions of this type which in effect hasten his descision. After all, once his mother is dead and her feelings out of the picture , Hamlet is quick and aggressive in forcing poison into Claudius' mouth. Once Hamlet is certain that Claudius is the killer it is only after he himself is and and his empire falling that he can finally act.