Claudius Foul Deed In Shakespeare's Hamlet

Although he realizes that murdering King Hamlet in order to acquire the throne was wrong, Claudius ignores his conscience in favor of keeping his possessions and his power. After watching the play, which Hamlet composed in order to expose Claudius’s foul deed, Claudius can not contain his guilt. Seeing his own actions played out before him reminds Claudius of the magnitude of the sin, and his conscience is able to convey to him a clear distinction between right and wrong. As a result, Claudius spends his soliloquy lamenting his sin, grieving that his “offense is rank, it smells to heaven” (3.3:36). Claudius’s sin is weighing on him, knowing that it is foul and offensive to heaven. Scent is a relative sense, so after time it does not affect

In order to begin to close this gap, Claudius has the desire to pray, however he feels stuck, stating “Pray can I not”. Typically after a christian has sinned, prayer is a step towards forgiveness. But because Claudius has not made an effort to repent for his sin, it continues to smell and widen the gap between himself and God’s dwelling place. Claudius tries to pray, but soon realizes that it is no use, for if he wants forgiveness and access to heaven, he must reconcile his conscience and get rid of the stench of his sin. This -- is frustrating to CLaudius because on Earth, when he has had issues, he has been able to use his “gilded hand’ to “shove by justice”. Claudius has immense power and wealth, which he represents with “gilded hand”, and this power and wealth have allowed him get away with dirty deeds, and avoid justice (3.3:59-62). However, in heaven, Claudius will be judged for his actions, and his gilded hand will not be able to push aside justice come judgement day. On the contrary, Heaven sees Claudius’ hand as he depicts it in act three scene three: stained with his brother’s

Less than two months after the death of King Hamlet, his wife Gertrude gets remarried to his brother Claudius. Her disregard for honest mourning appears to Hamlet to be exceedingly disrespectful to his father, and the love that King Hamlet once shared with Gertrude. Hamlet’s anger towards his uncle and his mother intensifies after he is visited by a ghost of his father, and learns the truth about King Hamlet’s unjust murder. Hamlet then assumes a falsified antic disposition of which he appears utterly mad, to the extent that King Claudius feels threatened and unsafe around such an unpredictable person. The queen and king become very concerned about Hamlet's behavior, and once in private, they begin to discuss what may be the cause of this behavior. The queen exhibits a sense of guilt as she suggests that Hamlet’s disposition must be a result of “no other but the main— His father’s death and our o’erhasty marriage” (2.2: 56-7). Gertrude does not mention anything about Hamlet’s murder to Claudius in her private conversation with her husband, so she appears to be innocent of that sin against King Hamlet. However, her crime lies in the way that she responds to his death. Rather than mourn with and comfort her devastated son, Gertrude is quick to marry his brother, securing her stature in court. As a women of time, Gertrude is defined by the