A person’s setting can tell you a lot about why they do certain things or behave a certain way. What’s taboo to us is normal to them. Their time and surroundings set the scene. Hamlet by William Shakespeare is set in Denmark during the late medieval time period: a time of dominant monarchies, a time of war. All of which plays into why the characters behave the way they do. They’re power hungry and hold a grudge like no other. Why? Social status, social status was everything throughout this time period, before this time period and very much after this time period. Thus they slaughtered each other and executed their tasks in secrecy, in hopes they would not be subject to the wrath of the one they wronged, to move up the social ladder. Throughout the time of kings and queens people struggled to climb the social ladder, not caring who they hurt in the climb to gain power. The power struggle that remained prominent throughout the ages is the underlying cause of most tragic events in Hamlet.
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...
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...th until it consumed its maker.
Ambition can be a good thing; however too much ambition can be deadly. In this case it was extremely deadly. The establishment of social statuses gave people a reason, not a justified reason, but a reason to step on others to move up the social ladder. Claudius murdered his brother for his crown. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern betray their best friend Hamlet, because he would have been the downfall of them. Too much ambition eliminates morals and judgment. Too much ambition makes only one person important and that person is the person it has infected. Due to the deadly nature of an ambition overload the ending result in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet was death of the royal family. The determination of Claudius to get to the top of the social ladder fell through and brought him and everybody associated with him down with him.
In other words, he displays the natural rise and fall of a deceiver. As the illusionist and criminal, Claudius is the owner of secrets he wishes would never be discovered since the throne isn’t the only thing at risk for him. To understand Claudius, one must understand that the severity of his crime comes at the price of his own head. In effect, this is Shakespeare hinting at the idea that the illusionist will eventually hurt himself through his own illusions. In the beginning, Claudius acts like a true noble king. To most characters he was of strong character and perhaps he only took the throne because he was told to since nothing was out of nature. However, as he quickly realizes that Hamlet knows of his faults, Claudius’ character makes a sharp turn in personality. This is shown through the way he addresses Hamlet. Before the meta-theatre occurs, Claudius is shown to be comfortable in addressing Hamlet, the son of the man he murdered, as his own; “But now, my cousin Hamlet, and my son—" (1.2.64). In comparison, as his fear begins to further develop into paranoia, he begins to address Hamlet as not his own child, but Gertrude’s child as he asks, “Where is your son?” (4.1.3). By doing this Claudius attempts to end relations with Hamlet physically and mentally. In spite of that, that didn’t seem to be enough for Claudius. In addition to considering Hamlet an enemy,
Hamlet is a normal person which brillant ideas. He waited so long to kill Claudius because he wanted people to be able to know the story of really happened and did not want to seem like a bad guy. Hamlet’s soliloquy, “To be or not to be” (Act 3,Scene 1 Line 64) also means should he live to do as his father or or die to betray him. Hamlet knew everything that was going on in the kingdom but wanted to act as if he did not to get even further in and have more information. He did this because he wanted to think a more brilliant plan to kill Claudius and anyone else that was dealing with it, that is how he killed
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
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
Hamlet lives in a country of different worlds. At the time, Denmark was in a state of transition between three metaphysical worlds; the heroic world, where a man's honour was foremost, killing was not accepted but expected, might was power, the Machiavellian world, an amoral world where politics and mind games were employed ruthlessly, the ends justified the means, and the Christian world of love and forgiveness. Hamlet was a Christian living in a dying Heroic world which was succumbing to the Machiavellian world. Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, belonged to the heroic world, and so for him revenge was of the utmost importance, shown by the fact that "but two months" (1:2, 136) after his death he returned to instruct Hamlet to avenge his murder. Hamlet's disgust at his mother's marriage to his uncle before "the salt of most unrighteous tea...
Why do people crave power, fortune, and lust when all it leads to is corruption, greed, and/or death? In the play of Hamlet by William Shakespeare, one character's greed for power and fortune leads to tragedy. First, Claudius murders King Hamlet and attempts to kill prince Hamlet inorder to keep the crown to rule Denmark. Secondly, Claudius sets up a plan that involves putting a poisonous pearl in the winner's victory cup that eventually Gertrude drinks. He also puts poision on the tip of the sword that eventually kills Laertes in the duel. Lastly, Claudius sends Rosencranz & Guildenstern to escort Hamlet to England to secretly be killed so that he can keep the crown. One may object that Polonius' death was not the fault of Claudius' greed because Hamlet killed Polonius. However, Hamlet was obsessed with killing Claudius because he wanted to seek revenge for his father. Claudius' Greed for power is to blame for all the tragedies in the play Hamlet.
Ambition is a force of driving passion, one which inherently connotes neither a sense of right or wrong, the flavour of the ambition is defined by the selfish- or selflessness of the intent. In Hamlet, Shakespeare draws focus mostly upon the malevolent face of ambition, which arises from greed, lust, ignorance, and fury. Through this exploration of ambition and its effects, Hamlet encapsulates the cause of suffering, as Claudius’ act of regicide is the first boulder in a terrible rockslide of woe and madness which ensues. While this tale may be fiction, it teaches the very true nature of suffering, and coerces the audience to reflect on the effects of their actions, and to take responsibility for the pain and suffering which happens around them. Every instance of sorrow and death which arises throughout the play can be traced back to the original coup d’état of King Hamlet, exemplifying how deeply corruption can effect one’s surroundings. Although, just as the first drop of water into a vase cannot be defined as the one responsible for filling it1, the ambition of others – mainly Hamlet and Laertes – also contribute to the suffering of the royal community.
This is demonstrated through the admiration of the people in Denmark and how he was well liked and respected keeping the chain intact. The murder of Hamlet’s father disrupted the Chain of Being as killing a King is a huge violation since they are the highest in the chain directly under angels. This allows the audience to feel this sympathy for Hamlet because losing someone in the Elizabethan era, who is near the top of the Chain of Being like a king, is able to make the audience feel Hamlet’s sadness and mourning. As well, the audience would believe that there would be a vast impact on the kingdom. Also, in the speech, Hamlet talks about how he needs to be serious and take action when he says, "Oh, from this time forth/My thoughts be bloody, or be worth nothing!” (IV. iv. 64-65). This shows that Hamlet’s thoughts on wanting to start planning Claudius’s death lets the audience feel that
I believe envy to be the cause of the multiple tragedy’s in this play. Before Claudius could’ve been greedy or even act on his greed, he would’ve had to have been envious of his brother first. As it turns out he was jealous enough to kill him, “Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole, with juice of cursed hebona in a vial, and in the porches of my ears did pour the leprous distillment” (257). Claudius was jealous of his brothers money and title, not to mention he was coveting the queen as well. It could also be said that once Claudius took the throne that Hamlet may’ve been experiencing some jealousy of his own over the crown. Along with Hamlet’s plot to seek revenge over his father’s murder, he very well could’ve been seeking his
...ble that someday the legendary cultural baggage that accompanies Hamlet will be lost, and future generations may wish to judge the play on its dramatic merits and not on its required-reading position. If that is the case, they may very well "make" the play "bad" through their different perspective, one which we cannot yet appreciate, and Hamlet, already four centuries old, may disappear from our cultural consciousness. As the prince himself might say, perish the thought.
Power: everyone desires to be in charge sometimes right? Well in Hamlet there are two individuals specifically who long to be the “head honcho.” Claudius kills his brother for goodness sake, and Hamlet just wants to make the people happy, and to seek revenge on Claudius. Hamlet just wants to be in control long enough to get rid of Claudius and everything else will fall into place. Hamlet and Claudius go back and forth throughout the play as to who will regain power in the end, they both will give up everything to get what they want: Hamlet wants revenge, and Claudius wants power, and in a way, they both succeed.
The Complex Character of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Upon examining Shakespeare's characters in this play, Hamlet proves to be a very complex character, and functions as the key element to the development of the play. Throughout the play we see the many different aspects of Hamlet's personality by observing his actions and responses to certain situations. Hamlet takes on the role of a strong character, but through his internal weaknesses we witness his destruction.
The motivation behind his act of killing his brother in the first place is told by MB where “Gertrude is uppermost in [his] mind It is to possess her that he has killed his brother. He enumerates the prizes of his crime: ‘My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.’ The queen is at the top of the series.” (185) Claudius is motivated by his greed for power and for the love of a person that he previously could not have to commit the first crime to trigger the order of events after. In addition to this his “trick of sending Hamlet to England” (AT 142) is motivated by the fear of Hamlet being after him because he knew that Hamlet was suspicious of him. As many know, the tables turn when Hamlet returns to Denmark and reveals to Horatio that he actually sent Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to their deaths. This is act is motivated by his will to of course, return and do what he need to do, not thinking of the consequences that will result in the death of his two previous friends. Throughout the entirety of the play, “revenge remains the dominant motive,” (AT 170) so the motivation to take “revenge by a son for a father that is directed by the latter’s ghost,” is the first motivation that can be seen within the play. As Hamlet continues to try and “assure us that he has strength and means [to take revenge],
In writing Hamlet, William Shakespeare plumbed the depths of the mind of the protagonist, Prince Hamlet, to such an extent that this play can rightfully be considered a psychological drama.