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Shakespeares presentation of claudius
Shakespeares presentation of claudius
Significance in the play Hamlet
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In WIlliam Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, King Hamlet dies, Claudius and Gertrude are
getting married. Prince Hamlet wants vengeance for his father’s death. Why did Claudius want
King Hamlet dead.
The death of King Hamlet was intentional. Claudius killed King Hamlet because he was jealous, Hamlet was respected for bravery and nobility towards everything he did. Claudius is known for not being able to do things by himself and makes others do his work for him. Claudius wants the prince to also die so he can have the throne to himself. The death of King Hamlet was unsuspected and mysterious. When the ghost first appears everyone is quite frightened by it. [Act 1 Scene 5] The ghost tells Prince Hamlet that he was indeed murdered. The ghost tells Prince Hamlet to get revenge on his death. In the article, by Jon Melzer, he states that Claudius approaches things in a crooked matter. He then goes on to say that from the beginning he was the one to blame. When the ghost visited Hamlet, he says “Upon my secure hour
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Getting Hamlet out of the way first gives him a levage. Marrying Gertrude puts her in a tough spot because as of that moment she is the person in charge. In order for Hamlet not to inherit the throne Claudius and Gertrude get married. If they produce an offspring, that child will inherit the throne when they die and not hamlet. Claudius wants hamlet dead so if the offspring is not produced he cannot accept the inherit. If you were to compare the marriage of Claudius and Gertrude, you would see that in that time period it was considered okay to do. If you were to look at the time period in which “Hamlet” was written, it was considered incest and unapproved. As Lisa Jardine comparing the marriage of Gertrude and Claudius to Henry VIII [Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare Lisa
First of all, we will deal with the main plot of John Updike’s Gertrude and Claudius. The King of Denmark marries his daughter to Horwendil the Jute, although this marriage is not a question of love but a question of politics. Horwendil becomes King, when her father dies. She bears him a son, Amleth/Hamlet. She tries to love her husband and her son, but at forty-seven, Gertrude is seduced into a passionate affair by the King 's brother, Feng/Claudius. The King discovers the affair and confronts Claudius conspires with Corambus/Polonius to murder the King. After killing him, Claudius and Gertrude marry. Claudius wants Hamlet at Elsinore, but Gertrude thinks him a danger to her husband. Claudius prevails. The story ends, as Hamlet agrees to remain at the castle.
Immediately after her husband’s murder, Gertrude marries his brother in order to maintain her status as Queen of Denmark. If she were truly in love with King Hamlet, and was not with him to gain some sort of societal power, she would not have attempted to maintain said power by immediately marrying Claudius. Though one can argue that she married Claudius to appease the public, as her late husband was beloved by the populous, this claim simply does not hold up when one considers the hunger for power that plagues every character in Hamlet. Additionally, Gertrude’s attitudes regarding Hamlet’s grief arouse suspicion as to her true motives. As she tells him, “…/Do not forever with thy vailed lids/” (I.ii. 69-71.) She later continues, ”Seek for thy noble father in the dust/Thou know 'st 'tis common; all that lives must die,/Passing through nature to eternity” (I.ii. 72-74.) Though this can be written off as a mother simply being worried for her son’s well being, it seems as if there is some sort of deeper meaning to these words. As long as Hamlet is in mourning, the people of Denmark will hold the late King Hamlet in their memory, and may start to get suspicious as to why Gertrude “moved on” so quickly. Furthermore, her attempts to squander Hamlet’s grief are an obvious effort to conceal her true motives from the citizens of Denmark, and to maintain her current position of power. Through her
First of all, it is illegal to re-marry during the year following, a widow must mourn the loss of their husband for a year. Having been a widow for just over a month Gertrude is already engaged in a relationship with . Claudius, Hamlet’s Uncle and King Hamlet’s brother. This is inacceptable according to Hhamlet and his religion. It was incest and they didn’t even wait a bit before getting together. Consequently, while Hamlet kept increasing his anger, so did his desire for revenge against his father’s murder and the initiative tot really mad and mad him wants to kill Claudius even more and made him speak with his mother in hopes of talking in order to get some sense into her. Gertrude but she refuses to understand a word of what he said when he spoke of
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.
Furthermore, it is possible to propose that Shakespeare merely uses this scene to provoke irritation and consequently suspense from the audience. If Hamlet wasn’t given this opportunity to kill Claudius we would have not this insight into Hamlet’s indecisiveness, possible cowardice and inability to kill Claudius in cold blood. It is probable to suggest that through this soliloquy we are shown that Hamlet’s initial passion for revenge after the Ghost’s visitation has faded as the play progresses to merely thinking about killing Claudius.
He is the type of person that will do anything to get what he wants and everything in his power to stay king. He will do what it takes to get his way, even if that means betraying the person he is supposed to be committed to and love, his wife Gertrude. Gertrude is the mother of Hamlet, who she deeply cares for and loves. She is convinced that Claudius does as well. In order for Claudius to stay as king, he must keep Gertrude happy and pleased.
Hamlet delays killing Claudius because he understands the feelings Claudius has for Gertrude. Hamlet knows why Claudius wants King Hamlet out of the way. Hamlet knows this because he also wishes he could have Gertrude for himself. Hamlet tells Gertrude, “Good night, but go not to my uncle’s bed” (IV. iii.180). Hamlet does not want Gertrude sleeping in the same bed as Claudius, Hamlet wants her to realized that the king is an evil person. Hamlet does not want her to associate with Claudius in any way.
Claudius is Hamlet’s uncle and stepfather. He had an affair with Hamlet’s mother and murdered Hamlet’s father. Claudius cared for no one in the play but himself. There were very few happy moment for Hamlet in the play, but one came when he made a play within the play. Hamlet wanted to see the reaction the Claudius had to the scene on the play where they show how the king was murdered. Claudius’ reaction to the scene was astounding. “Give me some light. Away!”(III.2. 255). Hamlet saw his reaction and knew for sure that Claudius killed his father. Claudius was a horrible uncle ...
makes the metaphysics of the play dark. The ghost says nothing despite the valiant efforts on the parts of Horatio, Marcellus, and Bernardo. Suspense is created when the audience is ignorant as to the purpose of the ghost. Later in the play the ghost is utilized to allow Hamlet and the audience knowledge of the vile murder of the king by Claudius, the kings own brother. When the ghost finally speaks, he tells Hamlet,
Gertrude is the Queen of Denmark and has experienced significant life changes in the last few months. She buries her husband and has remarried her brother in law. This rapid transition to a new marriage does not bode well on her son, Hamlet. Hamlet discusses his distaste in this situation and reflects on this as he tries to overcome the grief of losing his father. Of course it does not sit well with grieving Hamlet that his mothers new marriage has created a lust-filled environment, and that Gertrude has portrayed herself as a very sexual character. At the beginning of the she play she also continuously takes Claudius’ side over Hamlets. An excerpt from Rebecca Smith’s A Heart Cleft in Twain: The Dilemma of Shakespeare’s Gertrude analyzes Hamlet’s first soliloquy in the first act where he voices his disgust for his mother and his shame for her and women in general. In Rebecca’s passage, she states that “Hamlet's violent emotions toward his mother are obvious from his first ...
In theory women during the Elizabethan Age had no power in their homes. In royal families the women are the breeders, they had the responsibility to keep the royal bloodline flowing by having male children to keep the male dominance. “A woman whose job is to represent the family, is doing the traditionally female job of being wife or mother.” (Billig) Gertrude’s role in the play had fairly little significance, besides that she was a mother and wife. She showed no reasons as to why she was in such a rush to remarry after her husband, King Hamlet’s death. Claudius, being the wicked man that he was, may have been so eager to claim the thrown as King that he married the widow to rule Denmark. This whole ordeal of his uncle sleeping with his mother made Hamlet infuriated and ill to his stomach. Hamlet showed his emotions when he said:
Towards the end of the play, Hamlet becomes enraged and accuses his mother for marrying his uncle in such a short time after his father’s death. The incestuous relationship suggest that his mother might have been involved in her husband’s murder, which is more reason to kill Claudius. Gertrude is a loving figure that is unable to understand Hamlet’s delicate state. Her way of solving problems is by isolating those that confront her, instead of analyzing her own mistakes and owning up to them. When Hamlet walks into his mother’s bedroom, he kills Polonius who is hiding behind the arras, and compares the murder to his mother’s guilt. “A bloody deed! Almost as bad, good mother, / As kill a king, and marry with his brother” (3.4.28-29). The queen cannot handle and truth and tells Hamlet to stop speaking. “O Hamlet, speak no more: / Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul, / And there I see such black and grained spots / As will not leave their tinct” (3.4.89-92). It’s a similar reaction of guilt, like Claudius who didn’t want to continue seeing the murder play because he didn’t want to accept the reality of his crime. In another instance, the queen decides to send Hamlet to England to prevent another death. Here, her solution is cowardly and says a lot about her character. She is inclined to go for the easy way out, rather than finding a solution to the huge mess she’s caused. In this scene, the reader can apply Gertrude as the antithesis to Hamlet. Unlike Hamlet who considered ethical and an innocent young man, Gertrude is described as traitor, wicked woman, and an adulterate. Her lust and external pleasures have impacted her family greatly and those she governs over. She is a shallow woman who does not see the consequences of her decisions. Even though she is at the highest level of authority, she seems to lack the most important qualities of a royal ruler: integrity and
In Gertrude’s choice to marry so soon after her husband’s death she transgresses the patriarchal bound of femininity. She refuses to remain in passive grief and obedient devotion to his memory. Gertrude’s sin was her inaction. She was willing to accept Claudius and didn’t think twice of rejecting him. In Hamlet’s eyes his father was the very d...
Claudius killed Hamlet’s dad and then married his mom to become the leader of Denmark. Later in the play, Hamlet sees his dad’s ghost and is informed of the horrific act committed by his uncle. Hamlets’ dad’s ghost says, “Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder” (I. V. 25). Hamlets’ dad says this to Hamlet so that his uncle could get retribution for his actions. Hamlet has many opportunities to kill Claudius, but is unable because of the wrong timing.
Consequently Hamlet comprehends that the natural biological time was ruptured by the murder of the king, thus, causing a discrepancy in Hamlet's mind, hence, he expresses it as though the prior sequence of the royal marriage was organized and methodical like the form of a table. Therefore, it is comprehensible that from Hamlet's point of view the marriage of King Claudius to Gertrude symbolizes the deflection of the royal lineage which in itself is also in correlation with the historical