In act 3 scene 1 Gertrude remains as the Ghost had described her, the loving mother caught in Claudius’s web. She asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern whether they have tried to amuse her melancholy son, and she tells Ophelia she truly hopes the young woman’s virtues can bring Hamlet back to his senses. Ophelia doesn’t answer the Queen and the audience can only surmise that Gertrude has added fuel to the fire of the young girl’s consternation.
Claudius’s prayer was a very unique experience for the audience because it was not expected by any means. When he prays at his private altar, although he says his sin is so great that it renders him incapable of praying. He admits before God that he has committed the “primal eldest curse” by carrying out his “brother’s murder”. He admits that his contrition is unforgivable since he is unwilling to give up the spoils of his ill-won battles. He begs instead that some divine assistance might bow his knees and soften his heart so that he can ask for forgiveness.
Actually from the top of this scene (act 3, scene 3) any ambiguity concerning Claudius’s character disappears. He identifies Hamlet as his enemy and plots to have him dispatched to England. He conspires with Polonius to spy on Hamlet yet again. Then, kneeling in prayer before sleeping, the king confesses the depth and severity of his crime. He likens himself to Cain, the primal or first murderer, and admits that he cannot bring himself to ask for God’s mercy. “But oh, what form of prayer / can serve my turn?” Claudius knows that he will never abdicate the throne, nor will he give up Gertrude and all “those effects for which I did murder,” such as his power and position. He expects to spend eternity in hell.
Then in act 4 scene 1 he blames himself for not have been sterner with Hamlet from he beginning. He worries what will tell his subjects; Gertrude tells him that Hamlet is contrite and has promised to dispose of the body. Claudius is clearly aware of all the ramifications that attend his reactions to the report. He inquires after Hamlet’s health but clearly remains primarily concerned with his own well being. “My soul is full of discord and dismay” he says. He will act quickly on the news but he is clearly fearful. “His liberty is full of threats to all”. He hides his fears behind the apparent concern of an uncle, who has been protecting Hamlet out of love but who will protect Hamlet no longer. He will send him to England and they will tell the people that he is mad. Hamlet’s having murdered Polonius will ultimately work to Claudius’s advantage. Hamlet must receive punishment and although all in Denmark love him as their rightful crown prince in whom rests all hope the king may now exile the prince with impunity and without upsetting Gertrude, as even she sees the need to get Hamlet away.
When Claudius responds to Polonius death by sending Hamlet to England, Hamlet tells Claudius that he knows the king’s purpose in sending him away. Claudius apparently misses or over looks the warning and chooses instead to respond to Hamlet’s insulting “Farewell Mother”. Claudius corrects him offering an opportunity to apologize. Hamlet then completes the insult by explaining that because man and wife are of one flesh, Claudius is indeed Hamlet’s mother. With this insult Hamlet digs another barb into Claudius about the incest which always weighs on Hamlet’s mind. Claudius finally perceives the depth of the danger Hamlet poses and entreats Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to hurry him to England to get him out of the way. Although unknown to everyone but the audience, Claudius now sees that he must instruct the King of England to kill Hamlet. The lines between good and evil appear clearly now as the gray areas that have masked Claudius’s dark purposes vanish. Claudius’ evolution into the consummate villain is complete.
In act 4 scene 5 Claudius showed that he has consistently orchestrated emotions and has convincingly played the role of concerned King, friend of Polonius, kindly father figure for Ophelia, and dutiful husband to Gertrude. He is lavish with words in this scene making a great show of his deep empathy for Gertrude, for Laertes, for Ophelia even for Hamlet. “O Gertrude, Gertrude /when sorrows come they come not in single spies/ but in battalions”. Hyper dramatically, he concludes his litany of sufferings they have all had to bear by saying “O my dear Gertrude, this,/Like to a murdering piece, in many places/ Gives me superfluous death.” No one suffers more than Claudius. Contrasted with his soliloquy of scene 3 where he vows to have hamlet executed, the speech proves his insincerity to the audience. Now, in blatant dramatic irony, Shakespeare makes the audience privy to the truth before the characters can discover that truth for themselves.
Still, in the political coup of this scene, he wins Laertes’ loyalty by urging Gertrude to “let him go” so that he may speak freely. He then gives Laertes free reign, placing himself in apparent jeopardy:
Make choice of whom your wisest friends you will,
And they shall hear and judge ‘twixt you and me:
If by direct or by collateral hand
The find us touch’d, we will our kingdom give,
Our crown, our life, and all that we call ours
To you in satisfaction
In his public show, he manages to manipulate the trust of everyone present.
In act 4 scene 7 Claudius confirms that Hamlet killed Polonius, though seeking to take Claudius’ life. Laertes can’t understand why Claudius didn’t punish Hamlet for such capitol crime. Claudius explains that he has restrained himself, even though he has no intention of letting Hamlet get away with his crimes.
Claudius struts for Laertes in this scene, but, if we believe what he says, he also demonstrates his ability his ability to care. Caring would mitigate his evil and add to the paradox inherent in his character. As shown in his prayer scene in act, Claudius has a Christian conscience even if he is incapable of satisfying it. In this scene he demonstrates that he may also be a devoted husband who prizes the emotional well being of his beloved wife. Despite his knowledge that Hamlet is a great danger to him, he tells Laertes that he has chosen not to hurt his “son” because the Queen “lives almost by his looks,” and Claudius lives almost for the Queen.
However, Claudius’ entirely self-serving evil becomes immediately apparent when he explains to Laertes his second reason for not punishing Hamlet for Polonius’ murder: the great love the country has for Hamlet, which would not look kindly on the King who threatened him. Scholars contend that succession to the throne of Denmark was determined by a vote. Knights of the realm chose from candidates who petitioned for the throne. According to the Scandinavian legend. Gertrude’s father was the King before King Hamlet. King Hamlet was selected by his predecessor to marry the princess, and the marriage clinched his election to the monarchy. If these conditions exist, Claudius clearly cannot afford to lose a face before his knights and he cannot afford to lose Gertrude; nor can he jeopardize his tenuous popularity by risking a backlash against the throne.
By exercising his skill with posturing emotions, Claudius convinces
Laertes that he has restrained his actions toward Hamlet for reasons that make him look like a kind man and a responsible monarch. The speech wins Laertes over and Claudius gains a powerful ally. Now that his plan to Hamlet executed by the English king has failed, Claudius needs Laertes’ assistance in eliminating Hamlet.
The two hatch a grand scheme to ensure that Hamlet will not escape again. As in the murder of king Hamlet, undetectable poison serves as the weapon of choice for Claudius. Like his malicious intentions, which he masks with sweet sentiments, Claudius’ penchant for poison proves his insidiousness. Hamlet’s statement in his letter that he has returned “naked” to Denmark leads to the conclusion that he will face Claudius alone. The conspirators have every reason to expect success in their plot especially as Laertes is as renowned for his swordsmanship as is Hamlet.
Claudius evil ambition has infected Laertes, despite the fact that Laertes has been in Paris, away from Claudius’ influence. Hamlet has returned to put right what he perceives as Claudius’ wrongs, but by causing the deaths of Polonius and Ophelia, Hamlet has become an evil of the evil he opposes. That something is “rotten in the state of Denmark,” as Marcellus observed in Act2, is now clear throughout the kingdom.
Claudius also proved that he is a chance hunter, he hunted the chance of Laertes’ sadness for the death of his sister and father he convinced Laertes to become his ally and now he will not face Hamlet alone. Just as he did before when he hunted the chance that Hamlet was out of Denmark and killed King Hamlet and became he himself King of Denmark.
Throughout the play he proved that he wanted to be totally independent, he thought alone and had no friends.
In the last scene Claudius’ directive becomes a pivotal moment. How the director and actor interpret the four words determine the tenor of the rest of the play. If Claudius mutters the line under his breath then he has no thought to protect Gertrude or to warn Hamlet. If he cries it out the director must find a reasonable way for Hamlet to react, one that reflects a commitment to Hamlet’s being aware of the poison does he want Gertrude to die?- or a commitment to his being tunnelvisioned, intent on his mission to “end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” Is Gertrude’s death “a consummation devoutly to be wished,” or is it a shocking blow that crushes any will Hamlet may have left to alive?
Throughout the play Claudius is socially adept, and his charm is genuine. He can exhibit deep distress over his “dear brother’s death” and admiration for his wife, “Th’imperial jointress to this warlike state.” He knows the value of a great funeral, but quickly turns mourning into celebration and moves on “With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage” to whatever lies ahead. He is a decisive man, fair in his politics and commanding- if Gertrude’s allegiance in any indication-in his bedroom.
The Queen has chosen to marry Claudius, and she defends him even to her son. In fact, she never opposes Claudius in anything. Were he dark and sinister in all things, she would fear and despite him; she follows him willingly even when he arranges to send her beloved son into the jaws of death. He must be sincere in his love for her. He explains his feelings for her at the end of Act 4 , but he has proven these feelings consistently throughout the play
The Queen his mother
Lives almost by his looks, and for myself,
My virtue or my plague, be it either which,
She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul
That as the star moves not but in his sphere,
I could not by her.
The character who loves is not merely a cold-blooded killer. Like Hamlet, his conflicting imperatives tear him apart.
Whereas he recognizes that his “offense is rank” and “smells to heaven,” he also admits that he will not make amends with God because he refuses to give up what his crime had bought him. He is willing to take the consequences of his actions.
In some ways, Claudius exhibits more heroism than Hamlet. He manipulates fortune and he takes what is not rightfully his, but he remains unapologetic for his actions; he possesses enough strength to admit that he would do the same again. Hamlet, torn by conscience to smite the morally deficient Claudius, causes the death of six innocent people before he accomplishes his goal. By taking full responsibility for his actions, Claudius mitigates his evil nature.
What makes Claudius a villain is that he is wrong, and Hamlet is right. Claudius is a sneak who murdered and lied. Hamlet commits his murders in the open and suffers the pangs of his own conscience. Claudius subverts his conscience and refuses to ask for divine forgiveness. Hamlet seeks contrition and absolves himself of guilt before he dies; Claudius receives no absolution and seeks none. Hamlet will spend eternity in heaven; Claudius will burn in hell.
The king of Denmark, Hamlet's uncle and later his stepfather, is shaped from a stock type familiar to Elizabethan theatregoers--the neglected younger brother who seeks to take over his older brother's title by unscrupulous means. Claudius, however, is a complex figure about whom Shakespeare gives you a good deal of information. You learn how the public attitude toward him has changed in Denmark (and changes again after Polonius' death); you learn about his drinking habits and his personal appearance as compared with his late brother's. Above all, you see him in action politically--manipulating, placating, and making pronouncements--and you see how his tactics in dealing with Norway or Poland link up to the conduct of his personal affairs. There is no question about his political ability, which is tied in with his talent for manipulating people and converting them to his point of view, as he does with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Some interpretations of the play suggest that we are meant to see him as more suited to the role of king than Hamlet is. His constant hypocritical smiling makes him easy to dislike, yet his genuine remorse in the Prayer Scene makes him more sympathetic, and hence more difficult for Hamlet to kill. Note that nowhere in the play does he directly express his feelings for Gertrude.
At the beginning of the play, Claudius is a man who has achieved his heart's desire and is fully confident of his ability to preserve his position.
If it cost him any pain to commit adultery with his brother's wife and then kill him, this cost is now forgotten in the happy possession of his crown and
beloved Queen. But this possession required more than criminal daring than knowing what he wanted and taking it. If he was not an able politician, his murder would not have assured him election to the throne over the pretensions of his nephew, Hamlet. If he was not an attractive person, he could never have won the sentimentally conventional Gertrude to his adulterous love. Now that he has his throne and Queen he wants only peace to enjoy them. In an admirable diplomatic move, he averts war with Norway. In his more personal diplomacy, he wins the support of the chief counselors of state for all of his plans and tries most earnestly to win the goodwill of Hamlet by requesting that he remain in Denmark to enjoy his royal favor. He believes in making the best of a difficult situation and preaches such acceptance to Hamlet. But if Hamlet was still in conspicuous mourning two months after his father's death and appeared to grudge Claudius his throne and marriage, in four months time his behavior has become dangerously provocative. Anxious to overcome this single impediment to his security and the smooth functioning of his state, Claudius sets spies on Hamlet to try to understand what is troubling him. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern can tell him nothing, but the scene he witnesses between Hamlet and Ophelia, in which Hamlet seemed to threaten his life, convinces him that he must act immediately to protect himself, and he decides to do this by sending Hamlet off to England for a time.
Though he has controlled himself very well up until this time, his composure breaks down when, through the performance of the play ordered by
Hamlet and Hamlet's accompanying remarks, he faces the incredible fact that Hamlet has exact knowledge of his crime against Hamlet's father and is
dedicated to revenge it. But though a cool, criminal head would dictate Hamlet's destruction, Claudius is instead plunged into spiritual despair. All
his hidden guilt now comes to the surface and, rather than add a new crime to his conscience, Claudius' only concern is to try to repent his former sins and so win the salvation of his soul. This is very difficult for him because he knows it would require him to confess his sins, give up his crown and Queen and face possible execution. Moreover, he loves Gertrude so profoundly that he cannot bear her loss. He is a man in love with life, pleasure and especially power and he only wishes to be able to enjoy them and to use them well. But Hamlet has so succeeded in arousing his guilt that all of this seems nothing beside the sin of brother murder by which he gained them. Despite even his own nature, then, he desperately prays for the grace which would enable him to give up his worldly pleasures and achieve spiritual peace. Though his ties to crown and Queen are too strong to permit this total renunciation, the extent of his guilt and hesitance to proceed further into crime reveal a nature not essentially evil.
Claudius is a man capable of deep love, hearty enjoyment and a beneficial use of power. He wants nothing more than to win the love and admiration of all and, even in the face of Hamlet's rudest provocations, manages to maintain a cordial politeness and concern. His only flaw is that he feels himself entitled to more than his given portion and there is no inner hindrance to prevent his taking it. Though he preaches the acceptance of his evil as the will of heaven, he was unable to accept the heavenly dispensation which gave his brother everything that he, himself, desired; and so he made himself the god of his own universe and celebrates his power with the earthly thunder of cannons. Hamlet's insane killing of Polonius, however, puts an end to Claudius' hesitation. He can no longer deny Hamlet's extreme danger to him and self preservation overrides the objections of his conscience and his loving concern for Gertrude's peace of mind. But as his conscience was strong enough to arouse his guilt but not sufficiently powerful to cause him to forego his life and happiness, so now it does not prevent him from planning Hamlet's murder but makes him too squeamish to perform it himself. He plots to convert Hamlet's exile into his death, though he does not stop to consider how he will later answer for this death. And when this plot fails, he immediately plans another, this time using Laertes instead of the King of England as his instrument. Again the plot is conceived in too desperate a state to really mark its consequences, and this time its failure is so awful that it involves the accidental death of his beloved wife and his own final end.
Relying upon his continuing ability to shape his destiny, Claudius piles misconceived plot upon plot in a desperate attempt to preserve his ill -
gotten gains. Though he keeps his head when Laertes threatens his throne and, more fearfully, when Gertrude drinks the poison he had prepared for Hamlet, he is so concerned to preserve his life that he has forgotten his soul. He has missed the opportunity of repenting his former sins and when he dies nonetheless, it is in the act of piling more crimes and lies upon his unprepared soul. He had earlier explained that his reason for not taking
direct action against Hamlet was "that my arrows, / Too slightly timbered for so loud a wind, / Would have reverted to my bow again, / And not where I had aimed them." And so has it also been of the puny plots by which he hoped to outwit the "divinity that shapes our ends."
As a conclusion Claudius is a king who killed his own brother and married his wife so according to Elizabethan belief he has committed incest. Claudius is contrasted to Hamlet as he is a man of actions. The crime Claudius is the central action around which the play revolves because if there was no crime there would be no ghost so no revenge so we would have no play.
Throughout the play Claudius is contrasted with king Hamlet and he is presented as a symbol of evil.
Elizabethan belief is that any body, which goes against natural order has to be punched and therefore Claudius has to pay with his life. He killed his own brother, he killed the king of the country and lawfully became the king, and this was against natural order.
Claudius does not commit evil carelessly he knows that what he has done or is doing is wrong but he is willing to sacrifice his ethics to obtain his goal.
He is strong minded, patient and very purposeful he makes his plans very carefully and proceeds according to them.
He shows and intelligent, he is fully aware of Hamlet suspicions and also the reason of Hamlet’s supposed madness.
Only on two occasions does Claudius show anything of conscience one in a site Polonius’s description of Ophelia and another is his soliloquy while he is praying , even in these occasions he is unwilling because for him carrying out his resolution is very very important.
Claudius is calculating, ambitious and rather less in his pursuit of power. It is these qualities along with Hamlet’s uncertain that delays his death, at the end Claudius accusation exposes him as a true villain.
Claudius is much manipulated. He uses Hamlet’s friends against him and plots that Hamlet would be killed away from Denmark so that it would not affect his position.
Claudius is a symbol of rottenness that Hamlet sees in Denmark.
In the same time Claudius has several good qualities; he is intelligent, reasonable and is a competent and able to take decisions of kings.
The dramatic relation between Hamlet and Claudius is the action around which the action of the play turns and it is the conflict and tension between them that is very important to our study for the play.
