Hamlet: The difference between Hamlet and Claudius
In the play Hamlet, the young man is faced with some serious dilemmas. Hisfather, King of Denmark, has died under suspicious circumstances. Theking's brother Claudius ascends the throne -- and takes his widowed sister-in-law as his wife. To Hamlet, this amounts to incest. Claudius, good atmaneuvering, acknowledges his prior relation with his new wife but "To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom To be contracted in one brow of woe, Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature That we with wisest sorrow think on him, Together with remembrance of ourselves. Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen, The imperial jointress to this warlike state, Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,-- With an auspicious and a dropping eye, With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, In equal scale weighing delight and dole,-- Taken to wife: ... " (Act I: ii) Hamlet is terribly offended by the marriage of Claudius and his motherGertrude, but that alone does not justify murder to Hamlet, who is the heirto the throne. However, after this scene, Hamlet meets a ghost claiming to
This is a brilliant plan on Claudius' part as the entire court will seethat he had no part in the death. He becomes so angered that she fears for her life andcries out. Without a witness, the best Hamlet can do isinfer from the information he has. Once Hamlet has decided that Claudius must die, events keep unfoldingthat demonstrate to him that he is almost certainly right about Claudius. His friend Horatio sees the ghost first, and bringsHamlet to see it in Act I scene v. Hamlet does not have the kind of proof we would expect today. Hemakes the decision that Claudius must die. He sends former friends totheir death because he finds they are actually plotting against them. He is angered by the marriageof Claudius and Gertrude, but that does not make Claudius the king'sassassin. Claudius' ghost, if that is who it is, is also outragedthat Claudius married Gertrude, describing the relationship as incestuousand adulterous. AsHamlet expected, when the murder is played out, Claudius leaps up, callsfor the lights to be lit and storms out of the room. If this should fail, And that our drift look through our bad performance, 'Twere better not assayed.
Common topics in this essay:
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King Denmark,
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Gertrude Claudius,
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Stabbed Laertes',
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,
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