Describe the state of mind of King Claudius

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At the beginning of Act III scene I on page 135, Claudius is anxious to discover the reason of why Hamlet “puts on this confusion grating so harshly all his days of quiet with turbulent and dangerous lunacy.” Claudius is still putting up an act and the tone he uses is one of a concerned parent. The King continues this act and accepts Hamlet’s invitation to see a performance of a play, telling Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to “Give him a further edge, and drive his purpose into these delights.” In other words Claudius is telling encourage his enthusiasm, and direct his interest toward these amusements. This façade of fatherly love is cracked in Claudius’s small aside on page 137, lines 50-55 which first reveals to us the reason of Claudius’s fearfulness, it is also proves that Hamlet’s Ghost was right, and Claudius truly did kill Hamlet’s father. The reason for this aside is Polonius’s comment on how people makes displays of devotion and pious acts in order to sweetly disguise the devil himself. To which Claudius responds, in his aside, “O, ’tis true! How smart a lash that speech doth give my consciences! The harlot’s cheek, beautified with plastering art, is not more ugly to the thing that helps it than is my deed to my painted world: O heavy burden!” This is a very vivid description of a harlot’s face, which has a lot of make-up on her. Makeup is used in poetry to symbolize masks hiding a person’s true intention, and their true intentions. This aside is not only the only speech that shows that Claudius did kill his brother, it also show’s us that Claudius feels guilty about guilty about killing his brother, saying that all this deceit is a heavy burden. At the end of this scene Claudius suspects that Hamlet is only playing the lunatic, stating that his emotions weren’t that of a man in love, and it was not like madness. “O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,” meaning that Claudius believes that the cause of Hamlet’s melancholy mood is because there is something brooding in his soul. Claudius then begins to make plans to send Hamlet to England.

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In Act III scene II Claudius doesn’t speak much, however his actions speak a multitude to Hamlet.  Hamlet’s performance of the mousetrap greatly upsets Claudius who gets up and leaves when the murder of the King is performed. Not only does Hamlet have his proof that Claudius is guilty, Claudius now realizes that Hamlet knows that he killed his own brother.

In Act III scene III Claudius now feels threatened by Hamlet and has begun to take action against Hamlet. While speaking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Claudius’s tone and choice of words changes dramatically, instead of describing Hamlet’s lunacy as being ...

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