As with all the supporting characters in Hamlet, Claudius is not developed to his full potential. His primary role in the play is to spawn Hamlet's confusion and anger, and his subquent arch for truth and life's meaning. But Claudius is not a static character. While his qualities are not as thoroughly explored as Hamlet's, Shakespeare crafts a whole human being out of the treacherous, usurping King of Denmark.
When we first e Claudius, he strikes us an intelligent and capable ruler. He gives a speech to make his court and country proud, addressing his brother's death and the potential conflict with Norway. Claudius knows that a change in government could ignite civil unrest, and he is afraid of possible unlawful allegiances and rebellion. His speech juxtapos the people's loss with the new beginning they will have under his care, and he us the death of Hamlet's father to create a n of national solidarity, "the whole kingdom/To be contracted in one brow of woe" (1.2.3-4).
Claudius has assumed the role of the chief mourner, and the people can unite behind a collective suffering. He can now concentrate on his kingly duties, and he takes immediate and decisive action by nding Cornelius and Voltimand to appea the Norwegian king. He also deals skilfully with Laertes' request to leave for France. "On the whole, then, there emerges a King who is well qualified for here continually appears on the stage a man who is utterly unlike the descriptions, and this in t
urn gives to Hamlet's words their real value." (Lok, Outrageous Fortune, 79).
But Claudius, in private, is a very different person. The Ghost refers to him as "that incestuous, that adulterate beast" (1.5.42), and we soon realize that his crime is what is "rotten in the state of Denmark." The King has committed fratricide and regicide and has bedded the Queen with "the witchcraft of his wit" (I.v.47). Claudius reprents the worst in human nature -- lust, greed, corruption, and excess. Claudius and his corrupt court bask in the pleasures of the flesh:
The king doth wake tonight and takes his rou,
Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spring reels;
And as he drains his draughts of Renish down,
The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
窦漪房
The triumph of his pledge (1.4.8-12)
However, Claudius is not a total sociopath, devoid of moments of guilt and regret. His deeds, on occasion, weigh heavy on his heart:
朋友的问候
五大神兽图片
(aside) O, 'tis true!
How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!
The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,
Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it 雍正皇帝简介
Than is my deed to my most painted word:
O heavy burden! (3.1.49-53)
He tries to ask God's forgiveness in a moving soliloquy but he realizes that he still reaps all the benefits of his crimes and cannot give them up:
My fault is past. But O, what form of prayer
Can rve my turn? "Forgive me my foul murder"?
That cannot be, since I am still posss'd
Of tho
effects for which I did the murder,
小厨宝怎么安装My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. (3.4.52-55)
Claudius can also be nsitive and gentle. He is genuinely sorry for Polonius' death, and he truly loves Gertrude. He must kill Hamlet, but he refus to do so with his own hand for Gertrude's sake. He also sincerely likes Ophelia, and treats her with the kindness that she should receive from her great love, Hamlet. But even tho whom Claudius cares for cannot come before his ambition and desires. He will u the grieving Laertes to whatever ends necessary, and he denies Rozencrantz and Guildenstern the knowledge of the contents of the letter to England -- knowledge that would have saved their lives, or at least made them proceed with caution. And Claudius does not stop Gertrude from drinking the poison in the goblet during the duel between Hamlet and Laertes becau it will implicate him in the plot.
It is clear that we are intended to e Claudius as a murderous villain, but a multi-faceted villain: a man who cannot refrain from indulging his human desires. He is not a monster; he is morally weak, content to trade his humanity and very soul for a few prized posssions. As the great critic Harley Granville-Barker obrves: "we have in Claudius the makings of the central figure of a tragedy." (Granville-Barker, Prefaces to Shakespeare.3., 269)
薏苡仁的吃法
新生儿落户Claudius is also notable for the way his character speaks to the play's ideas about monarchy and power. "A bad man, but a good king." That's one scholarly asssment of Claudius's character. There's no question that Claudius is a bad man: nice guys don't kill their brothers and steal their wives. At the same time, Claudius certainly ems like a competent ruler. The fact that he manages to assume his brother's crown so smoothly is a testament to his powers of persuasion. As he says himlf, he had to convince the nobles of the court to accept his bizarrely-timed and probably sinful marriage to Gertrude.
Aside from crown-stealing and wife-stealing, Claudius goes on to diplomatically avoid war with Norway and keep the members of his court (minus Hamlet) under control. We should note that the trouble between Denmark and Norway began when Old King Hamlet accepted Old Norway's challenge to a duel in which the winner would walk away with some of the other ruler's lands. Of cour, Old Hamlet won the duel, but his willingness to gamble away part of his kingdom suggests he wasn't exactly the terrific king his son remembers. In any ca, Claudius cleans up the mess with Norway when his negotiations prevent Old Norway's son (Fortinbras) from attacking Denmark in order to retrieve Norway's lost territory.
Later in the play, Claudius's handling of Laertes's rebellion is especially impressive. Even at sword p
oint, Claudius manages to calm the kid down and convince him that he is innocent of Polonius's death. His palace is invaded by Laertes's followers, and still Claudius comes out on top – and wearing his crow
上班族n.
Claudius is no better off than Hamlet in the character traits of honesty, derving and just. The King Claudius is not honest, but a lying, manipulative king. He shows this every time he creates a plan to place him in higher power. An example of his dishonesty is deceiving his wife Gertrude into offering her son a poisoned drink. King Claudius shows that he is not derving or just in that he kills his brother for throne to Denmark and the former king's wife. There is neither justice nor derving in such an act
