ipl-logo

Ambiguity In King Claudius

1738 Words7 Pages

In this first encounter with King Claudius he is both depicted as a compassionate and insensitive father towards his nephew Hamlet. For example, King Claudius displays signs of affection when he tells Hamlet “tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father. But you must know your father lost a father” (1.2.90-93). In this quote King Claudius is depicted as a very caring man towards Hamlet’s lost. Claudius displays sign of sympathy trying to relate to Hamlet's grief. He attempts to heal Hamlet’s broken contrite heart by relating his lost of his father to the lost of his father when he was young. In doing so, Claudius is trying to feel Hamlet’s sorrow and support him in his grieving process. Claudius …show more content…

Depending on the point of view the king can be seen as caring or uncompassionate and even both. In this ambiguity it allows the reader to look beneath the surface. The king is depicted as both a genuine and superficial man. Between this zone of ambiguity the reader can read between the lines to find the true motives of the king. The truth lies within this zone and Shakespeare is able to make the reader dissect the surface of the king to find his secret motives. Further, Shakespeare does not depict the king in one manner to make the reader critically analyse both the interior and exterior of the king. The vagueness of this character captures the attention of the reader and helps show that the king is more than what he appears to be. The king might be more than a sympathetic or unsympathetic ruler or even both. These contrasting ideas sit uneasily with the reader and Shakespeare uses his speech to give an uncomfortable first impression of the king. This is a crucial aspect that Shakespeare included to make the audience gain their own perception of the king. By this undefined nature of the king the reader is left unsure about how the king truly feels about Hamlet. It allows room for predictions and foreshadowing of how the king will treat Hamlet as the play

Show More
Related

Personification Of Claudius's Speech

398 Words | 2 Pages

In this speech, Claudius wisely starts off with the recognition of Denmark’s grief over the death of King Hamlet through the use of personification where it says, “ our whole kingdom to be contracted in one brow of woe). This helps emphasize that Denmark, as a whole, has suffered a loss. He also says that he still has fresh (green) memories of his brother. He starts off his speech saying all of this because he wants Denmark to think that he is also grieving with them as a nation and that he not only lost a King like everyone else but he also lost a brother. His use of language in speech really exemplifies how Claudius is the master of deception - in the middle of his speech from lines 5 to 6, he justifies his marriage to Gertrude by my making

Read More

Claudius's Vocabulary Affects Hamlet

169 Words | 1 Pages

Claudius expects Hamlet to be respectful and treat him like a father figure

Read More

Hamlet Public Match Essay

1722 Words | 7 Pages

From the outside, King Claudius looks as if he is a very nice and kind person, trying his best to make the people like him. Claudius acts as if he is genuinely sad about the death of Hamlet’s father. He is mourning, “To bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom

Read More

Similarities Between Hamlet And Claudius

695 Words | 3 Pages

Hamlet and Claudius have similarities beyond the sharing of blood and differences that sever the family bond. Hamlet’s suicidal tendencies and confliction of murder bubble up in his monologue while Claudius is battling a half guilty conscious and the urge to pray. These thoughts of bring rise to similar emotions, however Hamlet and Claudius come to different resolutions at the end of each of their monologues. They both dissect the source of their resolve and in turn raise the question what is the greatest source of motivation for each of them.

Read More

Claudius: A Great Ruler

1407 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the books of the bible, we are introduced to many wonderful stories and parables. The most fascinating thing about these stories are their intricate attention to details which can be followed up on and expounded upon in todays time. I have been given the opportunity to write a biography of all of the rulers which are mentioned throughout the book of Acts. Some of the rulers during this time period have a wealth of information, having achieved many great things within their lifetimes. While others are barely mentioned in the history books at all.

Read More

Hamlet Step Parents

867 Words | 4 Pages

The Relationships Between Children and Step Parents From the first act of the play the delicate relationship between Hamlet and King Claudius is presented. Hamlet speaks freely about his grievance of his dead father and his feelings towards his uncle, who is now his father (Shakespeare 11). His mother marrying his uncle is a difficult relationship for Hamlet to accept and process. It is clearly shown throughout the play that he thinks his mother moved on too quickly and betrayed his father by marrying his brother. Though the fact that he is his uncle plays a vital part to his relationship with King Claudius, it must also be taken into account that he is now his stepfather as well.

Read More

Hamlet And Julie Tragic Hero

1771 Words | 8 Pages

This paper will argue that both title characters from Hamlet and Miss Julie are tragic heroes in an absurd world. Both characters find themselves fighting an immortal battle; Hamlet is struggling for identity and meaning, Julie for independence and freedom. Hamlet 's struggle takes place after the betrayal of his father which throws him into a depressive and self-destructive cycle of indecision and contemplation. Julie 's struggle takes place slowly throughout her entire life, accelerating with her failed engagement and her relations with the servant Jean. This essay will explore the elements of a tragic hero and to what extent they apply to Hamlet and Julie.

Read More

Family Dynamics In Hamlet

928 Words | 4 Pages

It seems that Claudius was not happy with just taking his brothers throne, he also took his brother’s wife. Hamlet feels that the new king is full of greed and has taken over their lives. On top of his obsession with revenge Hamlet also appears to have sexual desire for his mother. The loss of his father along with his mother’s marriage to Claudius and his confusion to his feelings for his mother have set hamlet on a dangerous.

Read More

King Hamlet Quote Analysis

970 Words | 4 Pages

The Kingdom of Denmark had just suffered the death of a great King and leader. King Hamlet was a father to the people of Denmark. Some of the citizens fully believed that Hamlet Jr. should be king because it passed down the lineage. Others believed that Claudius should be king because he was the brother of Hamlet and now the husband of Queen Gertrude. King Claudius says, "This ough yet of Hamlet our dear brother 's death

Read More

The Affects Of Hamlet's Perspective On Life

402 Words | 2 Pages

He is later disgusted by his mother’s quick remarriage to his uncle, Claudius, almost two months after the death of his father who was also his mother’s husband. After Hamlet’s conversation with his father’s ghost in which Hamlet was told that his father was murdered by Claudius, he became filled with even more grief because he has a difficult duty of killing his uncle in order to avenge his father’s death. This is seen in the “to be or not to be” soliloquy.

Read More

Abuse Of Power In Elizabethan Era

1534 Words | 7 Pages

Firstly, Hamlet is a play of a man by the name of Hamlet, whose father was murdered by Claudius, his uncle. Claudius murdered the king by pouring poison in his ear to claim the throne for himself. Hamlet is then told by a ghost to murder Claudius for revenge, and he struggles within himself for the length of play whether to do it or not. When Hamlet begins to hesitate it does more damage than good and causes a chain reaction of tragic events, and makes the readers question whether Hamlet is truly sane or not. Claudius’s corruptness begins to show when he uses his authority to order those around him to rid of Hamlet.

Read More

Self-Consciousness In Hamlet

272 Words | 2 Pages

In the final scene of Hamlet, Hamlet says “Being thus be-netted round with villainies, -- Ere I could make a prologue to my brains, they had begun the play” (Shakespeare 131). Hamlet ironically thinks to himself as a character in a play because he is so melodramatically self-conscious. By adding this sense of paradoxical exposure, Shakespeare shows his effort to foreground the fact that the audience is watching a play within the play. Since Hamlet is such a rich character, Shakespeare’s work shows how he has something within him goes beyond what a play is capable of representing.

Read More

King Lear's Character Growth

1955 Words | 8 Pages

Preema Hamid ENG 338 Professor Prescott March 29, 2018 King Lear’s Character Growth Shakespeare’s King Lear is a complex play that complicates morality with foolishness, as well as associates madness with wisdom. It is about political authority as much as it is about family dynamics. William Shakespeare, known for his clever wordplay, wrote this play so that King Lear 's wisest characters are depicted as making foolish decisions. Lear, the King of Britain, is an authoritative and important man.

Read More

Hamlet Strengths And Weaknesses

1844 Words | 8 Pages

Hamlet is William Shakespeare 's renowned tale of mystery, intrigue, and murder, centered on a young misguided prince who can only trust himself. Some may say that the actions of Prince Hamlet throughout the play are weak and fearful, displaying a tendency to procrastinate and showing an apathetic nature towards his family and peers. Others spin a tale of a noble young scholar, driven mad by the cold-blooded murder of his father by his uncle. In truth, I believe Hamlet is neither of these things. Hamlet is a sort of amalgamation of the two, a bundle of contradictions thrown together into one conflicting but very human mess of a character.

Read More

Moral Ambiguity In Hamlet

932 Words | 4 Pages

Due to Hamlet dismissing all of his moral behavior and not caring about what is right or wrong changes the whole direction of Hamlet’s character. This leads to the entire demise of the royal family who is left slain on the floor dead by the end of the play. Although Hamlet’s behavior ends up killing multiple people who were not even meant to die, discourages readers from identifying him as purely evil or purely good--which is the true definition of an ambiguous character. Hamlet was not trying to be purely evil, he was only trying to seek revenge for his beloved father. Furthermore, Hamlet ends up dying in the end of the play after fighting and killing Laetres and Claudius, who had created a plan to slay Hamlet.

Read More

More about Ambiguity In King Claudius

Related Topics

Open Document