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War Against Corruption In Hamlet

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Hamlet and His War Against Corruption, The Endless Battle of Humankind Corruption plays a vital role in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. For example, there are many references to a growing sickness such as the appearance of King Hamlet’s ghost, the ailment of time, and Hamlet’s view of Claudius and Gertrude’s incestual relationship. The source of this corruption is Claudius, King Hamlet, and even Hamlet. At the surface Hamlet has a unique and commendable characteristic to resist corruption and disease; however, due to Hamlet’s intent to commit revenge for his father, the play suggests that corruption is an inevitable consequence of human existence that we cannot avoid in the real world. In the first scene, the characters Barnardo, Marcellus, …show more content…

Hamlet, son of King Hamlet, presents his state of mind of his relationship to Claudius by making a cleaver remark to him. After Claudius marries the queen, Gertrude, shortly after King Hamlet’s death, Claudius makes graces to the dead King Hamlet when announcing, “And thy best graces spend it at they will But now my cousin Hamlet, and my son (1.2.63-64).” When Claudius declares Hamlet his son, Hamlet responds in an aside muttering, “A little more than kin, and less than kind (1.2.65).” As Hamlet’s first line in the play, this aside line brilliantly shows that Hamlet’s disgust of the image of Claudius being a father to Hamlet, and while also shedding light on the incest in Claudius’s marriage. More significantly, Hamlet’s aside might be a demonstration of him speaking directly to the audience to help the audience sympathize with him. Since the audience is listening to the characters just as much as Hamlet, Shakespeare might be presenting that Hamlet exists in a world between the audience and the play and that his role is to help direct the audience’s perspective to the many examples of corruption that personally trouble him. This is one of the many examples of corruption in the royal family itself, where Hamlet shares his perspective with the audience to find the source of this growing

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Although Hamlet is plotting to murder a king which is the highest form of treason any person could commit in his time, is made to seem like an honorable and justified action. Through the ghost of his father demanding that Hamlet avenge his untimely death by the hand of his brother, the audience disposes of this idea that plotting against and killing a king is treason. The audience understands Hamlets rage and desire for revenge and is encourages it although Claudius is the new king of Denmark and father to Hamlet. This betrayal Hamlet commits against his former uncle now his adoptive father would disgust the audience had it not been that Claudius was guilty of murdering Hamlets father and plotting to murder Hamlet. By having this double crossing it establishes how not even the bonds of family can quench the thirst for power and

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After learning this, Hamlet’s sole motivation is to avenge his father’s death by revealing Claudius’ deception. Hamlet’s initial plan to expose Claudius is to have performers put on a play imitating the events of his father’s death. Hamlet says, I’ll have these players play something like the murder to my father before mine uncle. I’ll observe his looks; I’ll tent him to the quick. If ‘a do blench, I know my course…The play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King (Shakespeare

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Claudius is then compared to the internal organs of slaves and a man without morals, remorse or kindness (Ham.2.2.607-608). The powerful metaphors and adjectives used to describe Claudius not only express Hamlet’s intense contempt and disdain towards him, but also serve to convince Hamlet to commit murder. However, Hamlet depicts himself as a whore, a prostitute, and a swearing kitchen maid (Ham.2.2.614-616), reiterating the notion that he is worthless, as well as weak for expressing his emotions through words rather than actions. The shift from metaphors to similes indicate Hamlet’s failure to move past his cowardice and proceed with an act of revenge that would inflict

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Claudius was the first person to start off the greed train, after that it became a tumbleweed of greed centered events. The book Hamlet is focused on Greed. Everyone in the book wants something that someone else has. They are never happy about what they have. Greed is wanting what others have and the book hamlet is centered around just that, murder, sacrifice, and mischief.

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Hamlet Character deception is a common characteristic that has and will be a reflecting characteristic in literature for centuries. In many of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, deception, whether positive or negative, is being used to mislead, to protect characters, or to hide a crime or future crime. Analyzing why the characters are using deception against each other is very important to the reader’s understanding of the work as a whole. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, He uses Hamlet’s deception of character and also the character’s use of deception towards Hamlet to carry out the overall theme of the tragedy. The theme that is represented, is that in able to get malicious revenge, you must be able to act as if you are someone different than your true self while in turn, being able to deal with others deceiving you.

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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.

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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.

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This amorality stems from his desire to avenge the “rank and gross[ly]” (Shakespeare, 29) cruel actions of his uncle, the King Claudius. In the end however, both Hamlet and Claudius die with little pomp, victims of each other in a cyclical stream of karma. Shakespeare uses this eventuality to denounce the use of cruelty as a means to an end, for it brings nought but meaningless death. The fact that Hamlet becomes so cruel specifically because of Claudius’ treachery is a testament to the relationship between oppressor and oppressed. As Hamlet becomes that which he once hated, Shakespeare emphasizes the fact that the line between victim and oppressor is often more blurred than defined.

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Deceit and deception are not the only themes in the story of The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, but it is also a way certain characters, mainly Hamlet himself, use to carry out their own personal gain. The focus will mainly be on the main character as he is the best example for a character using deception to his own ends. Hamlet is a very odd and curious character. He does not seem very ambitious, but actually, he is. He uses the tool of deception, under the disguise of moral justice, to seek revenge for his father’s death.

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After the sighting of the ghost, Shakespeare introduces a grieving Hamlet, and the happy couple, Claudius and Gertrude. Claudius gives a rousing speech to the court which creates a supporting group for his rule, yet he still can not get Hamlet to fall in line with the rest of the crowd. Old Hamlet’s murder still preoccupies Hamlet’s mind, so Claudius decides to take a drastic measure to win Hamlet to his side. Claudius states to the entire court and Hamlet that, “[He is] the most immediate to our throne, and with no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son do I impart to [him]” (Hamlet 1.2 113-116). By naming Hamlet as his heir, Claudius sets up the ending of the play perfectly.

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