Claudius what are your motives for killing the
king, marrying his wife and taking on the
role of father to
his young son?
Claudius is introduced in act I, ii. In this scene he has an important speech. In
this
speech he talks
about the death of the king, his marriage to the queen and the foreign problems
of the state. He
utilizes many transitions and tends to empiseze the foreign affairs of the
state. I
don't know what
to make of this, it could mean various things. It could mean that Claudius is
making a grab for
power shown in his concentration on the foreign polices trying to distract from
his lust for
power, along with his marriage to the queen giving the change in leadership a
smoother and more
acceptable feel.
He also down plays the death of the formal king so that he
can redirect the
peoples' attention to his plans and the problems of the state. But I could mean
something else
I'm not sure. Later on in this scene Claudius talks to Hamlet, Hamlet is very
depressed,
Claudius gives hamlet some comforting and fatherly advice here trying to get
him out
of his deep
depression. But what is his true motivation here is he trying to get hamlet as
a backer
for his new rain,
so he is just lying and manipulating
hamlet, or dose he have true and deep
feelings for
Hamlet and is just trying to help hamlet and was no self-interest in it. I feel
right now
that it a bit of both I think he cares about hamlet but would also like him
to support his rise to
power.
Next we come to act II, ii, hamlet has made many strange comments and
actions lately,
many people think
he is going, or has gone insane. Claudius finds two of Hamlets good friends
to spy on him and
try to find out what wrong with him. At this point we know that Hamlet knows
that Claudius
killed his father but we don't know whether Claudius knows that hamlet knows or
even if he
suspects, this cast a strange light on this scene. First if Claudius suspects
hamlet
knows that he
killed his father then we might assume that Claudius is sending these spy to
find
out for sure if
he knows, but if he dose not suspect hamlet then this might be another show of
Claudius's
affection towards Hamlet. So the same question keeps coming up dose Claudius
like
Hamlet or is he
just using him? At this point it to hard to tell so we must delve deeper in to
the
story and there
is still the mater of the queen. Claudius is marred to the queen but dose he
love
here, and was
there an affair before their marriage? In
this scene there is an interesting couple
of lines that the
queen says, "I doubt it is no other but the main His father's death and our
o'erhasty
marriage." in reference to the
possible causes of Hamlets strange attitude recently, but
what caught my
eye was that she admits that there marriage was over hasty, something in which
Hamlet accused
her of very early on, this gives me reason to believe that she was having an
affair with
Claudius before the death of the king, or at least that she was overly
accepting of his
advances. But
this raises a different question, did she know of the killing maybe even help
plan
it? I don't know
yet but I would like to think that she is a good wife and didn't help with the
killing
of her husband,
but ...
After a
couple more unsuccessful tries to figure out what Hamlet is thinking, also
fairly
uninlighting,
Claudius is caught in a clever trap set
by Hamlet to prove to Hamlet that Claudius
killed his
father. This is bad news for Claudius but is good for my quest for knowledge. We
see in
this scene
Claudius reacts very deeply when he is reminded of the deed that he committed,
which is shown by
the line "Give me some light. Away!" right in the middle of a
play. Then
admittedly he
goes to the church to repent his sins and ask for forgiven for his crimes with the
passage
"Thanks, dear my lord. .... Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe. All may
be well." this
bring a whole new
light on to the question, it give significance evidence that he is deeply
remorseful about
his crimes. At this point I think that he is not after power solely but maybe
he
was joules of his
brother great success and let his emotions get out of control and in this fit
he
forfill his
fantasy to be his brother. It goes well with his desire to be a father to
Hamlet, a husband
to the queen, and
the king. the queen must also be finding comfort in Claudius taking over, it
probably help her
coup with the pain of losing her husband
Now the table turns Claudius has wanted to love
and be the father of Hamlet, but he
sees that that is
no longer possible with hamlet need for revenge Claudius must kill him so that
he may continue
to live at least part of his dream. In act IV, vii Claudius plots with Laertes
to kill
hamlet. At this
point it is as if Claudius has accepted what he must due and no longer shoes
any
love or sypanthy
towards Hamlet and instead plan his treacherous death.
Last
scene is also a very reveling scene two lines in particular "Gertrude, do
not drink.",
"[aside] it
is poisoned cup; it is too late.". These revel to me much about his
character, they show
that he was truly
in love, or at least desired to be with, her. and by saying do not drink out
loud
he was almost
admitting his guilt to trying to kill Hamlet all to save the queen, this is
powerful and
says to me that
he did have a heart and I would figure that he just lost control of himself in
the
pursuit of his
dream which was to be all that his brother had been.
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