This, therefore opens the question – Does Hamlet really want to kill Claudius? Everything I have just written questions this. We do have the suspicion that the ghost isn’t trust worthy as we have no real proof that the ghost is genuine, but if Hamlet disliked Claudius anyway (as he married his mother so close to the death of his father) then he should have killed Claudius when he had the chance.
This brings me onto my next character analysis, Claudius. Claudius is the reason that the whole main problem started in the first place. He is a very jealous person. We can tell this by the way he killed King Hamlet (his brother) and married his brother’s widow, the Queen, Gertrude. This is a very jealous act to carry out.
The problem with Claudius is that, even though he is a murderer, he was a very good king, this made Hamlet jealous. We can see this in Act 1, Scene 2. Claudius opens the scene with a speech. This speech is very important as it tells us about how Claudius feels about both his private life and his new life as king of Denmark. In this speech, he addresses many points with efficiency such as; grief for his brother’s death ‘though yet of Hamlet, our dear brothers death, the memory be green, and that it us befitted, to bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom’.
He also speaks of his marriage to Gertrude and how happy he is. He says that he is both happy and sad which I think should already cast suspicion into whether Claudius’ grief was genuine ‘In equal scale weighing delight and dole, taken to wife’.
He then directs his attention to Denmark’s problems. He sends ambassadors to deliver a letter to the King of Norway ‘Out of this subject; and we hear dispatch you, good Cornelius, and you, Voltemand, for bearers of this greeting to old Norway’. This shows us that Claudius is ready to be a good king – which is a problem for Hamlet, and as he already has a lot of problems to deal with, then this is not good.
Even thought Claudius was a good king, he is still a murderer and when Claudius realises that Hamlet knows of this (in Act 3, Scene 3 after the ‘Murder of Gonzago’ is performed.) Then he decides to send Hamlet away to England. This shows that Claudius is clever but heartless and ambitious as he wouldn’t let anything get is his way of being King.
In the final scene, Claudius finally gets what he deserves – even though he didn’t mean for it to happen. In this scene, it really questions whether he loved Gertrude because when she is poisoned, he doesn’t try to stop her drink. If he loved her, then he would, but he just says ‘(Aside) it is the poisoned cup. It is too late’ I think that Shakespeare just used Claudius here to convey information to the audience so in fact he shouldn’t have said anything which shows that he is even more heartless than we would originally think. This shows that Claudius only cares about himself and he only married Gertrude to become king. If it wasn’t for Claudius, a lot of the problems in Hamlet wouldn’t have happened.
Another character that proves to be a problem is Gertrude, Hamlets mother. Gertrude is a very confused character. In Act 1, Scene 2, Hamlet is still morning the death of his father, but Gertrude doesn’t seem to be upset at all. She has already married Claudius and tells Hamlet to ‘cast thy knighted colour off’ (his black morning clothes) which means that she is telling him to stop grieving. This makes a question arise – Does Gertrude love either men that she married? Because if she didn’t, then she married for status and that wouldn’t make her any better then Claudius.
Gertrude cares about Hamlet though. In Act 3, Scene 1, she tells Ophelia that she wants her to make Hamlet happy ‘And for your part, Ophelia, I do wish that your good beauties be the happy cause of Hamlets wildness’. Also, in the final scene of the play, she tells Hamlet about the poisoned drink so he would have revenge on Claudius before he died. ‘No no the drink, the drink! Oh my dear Hamlet! The drink, the drink! I am poison’d’.
We don’t know whether Gertrude knew that Claudius murdered her husband or if she loved either of them, but her confusion in love proved to be a problem in this play.
Another confused character in this play is Ophelia. She has comparisons to Gertrude in that she is confused in love. She doesn’t know whether to obey her father of her boyfriend, Hamlet.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Polonius tells Ophelia not to see Hamlet again against her will. ‘I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth have you slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk to Lord Hamlet’. As Polonius is her father, Ophelia has no choice but to agree ‘I shall obey my Lord’. This causes a problem for Ophelia. She thinks that she is in love with Hamlet but she can’t be with him.
I compared Ophelia to Gertrude before, but comparisons can also be made with Hamlet and Ophelia. Hamlet pretends to be mad and Ophelia actually goes mad. Mad with grief with the fact that the person she loved killed her father. This causes problems because Ophelia is so maddened with grief that she, unfortunately, drowns.
In Act 4, Scene 5, we see how mad Ophelia is. She speaks complete nonsense ‘They say the owl was a baker’s daughter, Lord. We know what we are, but know not what we may be’. She sings about Valentines Day and makes up other various songs. I think that this is to show that she still loves Hamlet even though what he did to her father and to her. The king tries to talk to her, but she wouldn’t listen. I think that Ophelia’s madness symbolises the problems that have arisen in Denmark while Hamlet is in England.
The main reason as to why Ophelia went mad was because of the death of her father, Polonius. Polonius was advisor to King Hamlet, and then when he died, he automatically became advisor to the new king, Claudius. He has to do as the King says, which often means that he has to do things that he doesn’t like doing.
He told Ophelia not to carry on seeing Hamlet because of his pretend insanity. Ophelia had to agree because if Hamlet really was mad, then he might hurt her and Polonius was a good father so he wouldn’t let that happen to her. This is just one piece of evidence that shows that he cares about her. But, all fathers care about their children so Polonius was just being a caring parent, but I don’t think that he realised how much Ophelia and Hamlet cared about each other. He also cares about his son, Leartes, but as he is in France for most of the play, we don’t see this affection as much as we see his affection towards Ophelia.
Polonius isn’t in the play very much as he is killed in Act 3, Scene 4 of Hamlet. His killer is Hamlet but it was accidental as he thought it was the king. Polonius was watching Queen Gertrude to give her protection and this shows that he cares about her too. In my opinion, the King should have been protecting her but that just questions his love for her again.
When this scene is taking place in Act 3, Scene 4, Hamlet tries to talk to his mother, but she thinks that he is going to hurt her ‘what wilt thought do? Thou wilt not murder me? Help. Ho!’ Polonius cries out from his hiding place behind the arras and Hamlet ‘thrusts his rapier through the arras’ and kills him. After they realise that it’s not King Claudius, Hamlet doesn’t feel sorry for what he has don’t to Polonius at all. He compares what he had just done to what Gertrude did by marrying to brothers. ‘Almost as bad, good mother, as kill a king and marry with his brother’. Polonius didn’t mean to cause a problem, but he did and through his efforts to help, he got himself killed.
Polonius’ son is Leartes. Leartes causes a problem when he comes back from France in Act 4, Scene 5. He is angry that his father has been killed and automatically assumes that Claudius killed him. (I think that this is evidence to show that Claudius’ character is quite daunting for Leartes to think that he killed him straight away.) ‘O vile King, give me my father’. Claudius and Gertrude quickly tell him that Hamlet killed his father and Leartes compares Hamlet to ‘the blackest devil’ which shows us his hatred for him.
They plot for a duel between Leartes and Hamlet. Hamlet will be killed and they will make it look like an accident. I think that Leartes is foolish for listening to Claudius but he was angry at Hamlet for murdering his father so he had no choice but to go along with it. He was also worried for Ophelia and needed to be with her in case she did something stupid in her madness.
Claudius makes Leartes listen to his plot and Leartes agrees to be part of it because he blames Hamlet for the murder of his father and the madness of his sister. ‘And so I have a noble father lost, a sister driven into desp’rate terms, whose worth, if praises may go back again, stood challenger on mount of all the age, for her perfections. But my revenge will come’. Leartes brings a problem to the play because he is a revenger, if he didn’t take action against Hamlet, then the lives of himself, Gertrude, Claudius and Hamlet would have been saved.
The only main character that doesn’t die is Horatio, Hamlet’s trusted best friend. Horatio is also the only main character that isn’t really a problem. But, just because Horatio is not a problem, doesn’t mean that he is not an important asset to the play. He is in the opening scene of the play. He also introduces the ghost to us and it the first to question whether the ghost is the king or not ‘looks ‘a not like the king?’ he also shows his bravery by challenging it ‘stay, speak, speak, I charge thee speak’. He is the person who decides to tell Hamlet about the ghost ‘let us impart what we have seen tonight unto young Hamlet’.
If it wasn’t for Horatio, then we wouldn’t learn very much about Hamlet’s feelings as he talks to Horatio about his problems. There is an example of this in Act 3, Scene 2 when Hamlet explains to Horatio his plot to prove that Claudius killed King Hamlet. This is a clever device that Shakespeare used so that there didn’t need to be a narrator to convey information. Instead, he used characters in his plays to put across important points in his plays so that audience would follow what was going on – dramatic irony was used a lot in this way. In the case of Hamlet, Horatio was used to convey information.
Horatio was a very good friend to hamlet. He valued Horatio’s friendship so much that in Act 3, Scene 2, he gave a speech to him to show how grateful he was that they were such good friends ‘Horatio, thou art e’en as just a man, As e’er my conversation cop’d withal.
In the final scene of the play, when both Hamlet and Horatio know that Hamlet is about to die, Horatio is prepared to commit suicide so he and Hamlet could die together. He makes comparisons with himself to Pre – Christian Romans who preferred to commit suicide rather then live an ignoble life. ‘I am more an antique Roman then a Dane, here’s some liquor left’. In my opinion, wanting to die for you friend is the ultimate test of friendship.
The main reason as to why Hamlet is a problem play is the character who started the whole main problem off through no fault of his own, the dead King, Hamlet.
Claudius is more to blame, as he murdered him, but if the King had not died, and then come back to arouse suspicion that he had been murdered, then Claudius wouldn’t be king, Gertrude would still be married to Hamlet’s father, Hamlet and Ophelia would still be together and Hamlet, Gertrude, Claudius, Ophelia, Leartes, Polonius and King Hamlet 1 would all still be alive.
So, therefore the main character and also the reason why Hamlet is a ‘Problem Play’ is Claudius. If he had not been so jealous of his brother, then no one would have died or gone mad or needed to carry out revenge (Hamlet’s main problem). But, if Claudius had not killed King Hamlet 1, then the play would not have a story line, it would not be a tragedy and it would defiantly not be a ‘Revenge Play’. If it wasn’t for Claudius’ actions, Hamlet the play would have no plot and Hamlet the character would have no ‘raisond’ệtre’.
