Hamlet Killing Claudius Analysis

If Hamlet has succeeded in killing Claudius here, he would fail because he would be doing Claudius a favor by sending him to heaven, which–in Hamlet’s mind–would not fulfil his vengeance. Although Hamlet does not take the chance to kill Claudius in prayer mode, he should have been able to kill Claudius earlier in the play. For example, when Hamlet is betrayed by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, he feels a strong hate towards them for being “demanded of a sponge” (4.2. 12). Here, a sponge is depicted as someone who gets rewarded for completing a task, but the rewards can be “squeezed” back out. One of the task Claudius asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to do is spy on Hamlet–marking a betrayal in their friendship. This betrayal stays in the

This can also be depicted as Claudius being the id and King Hamlet being the super ego. Since Hamlet could not kill Claudius at a glance, it demonstrates that “Hamlet is able to do anything – except take vengeance on the man who did away with his father and took that father’s place with his mother, the man who shows him the repressed wishes of his own childhood realized. Thus the loathing, which should drive him on to revenge, is replaced in him by self-reproaches, by scruples of conscience, which remind him that he himself is literally no better than the sinner whom he is to punish” (Slaveney 264). Here, Slaveney emphasizes that taking away Claudius would also mean Hamlet would lose part of himself since Claudius is depicted as the physical desire of Hamlet’s shown in the real world. After the death of King Hamlet, it shows Hamlet’s superego is being weakened since there is no restraint to what he do with his mother; and after Claudius’ rise to power, it shows that Hamlet id strengthen as we know that Claudius is beast-like and does whatever he pleases to

During the renaissance era, we view that women are a gentry under men when Shakespeare’s play clearly displays women having no voice and action in society. For instance, Hamlet is enraged by how Gertrude had many choices to choose from; out of all the choices she chooses to marry Claudius. This disgusts Hamlet because it is his uncle Gertrude is marrying, which makes Hamlet think, “frailty, thy name is woman” (1.2. 150). Given that women is depicted as a weak figure in society, Gertrude would not be able to remain queen without a king. Thus, her desperate attempt to become queen means that she has to marry Claudius to stay in power, which causes Hamlet to lose all respect for her and he shows this when he only addresses her with the title queen instead of mother because she finally gets all that she