Claudius :The Villain in Hamlet�A character Analysis�

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Major antagonist:

• He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle and later stepfather to Prince Hamlet. He obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his brother with poison and then marrying the late king's widow.
• Hamlet’s major antagonist is a shrewd, lustful, conniving king who contrasts sharply with the other male characters in the play. Whereas most of the other important men in Hamlet are preoccupied with ideas of justice, revenge, and moral balance, Claudius is bent upon maintaining his own power.
• The old King Hamlet was apparently a stern warrior, but Claudius is a corrupt politician whose main weapon is his ability to manipulate others through his skillful use of language.
• Claudius’s love for Gertrude may be sincere, but it also seems likely that he married her as a strategic move, to help him win the throne away from Hamlet after the death of the king.
• He is a smart thinker and smooth talker,

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Shakespearean Villain

• Shakespeare's villains are complex.
• Unlike the earlier antiheroes of the revenge or morality plays that were popular in Elizabethan and Jacobean culture, Shakespearean criminals lack the simple clarity of absolute evil.
• Claudius is a perfect example of a quintessential Shakespearean antagonist.
• Claudius has a number of dishonorable traits, such as his greed and corruption. He is an ambitious man who wants to advance himself in whatever way he can.

His relationship with the queen

• Claudius is socially adept, and his charm is genuine. He can exhibit deep distress over his "dear brother's death" and admiration for his wife, "Th’ imperial jointress to this warlike state." He knows the value of a great funeral, but quickly turns mourning into celebration and moves on "With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage" to whatever lies ahead.
• He is a decisive man, fair in his politics and commanding — if The Queen has chosen to marry Claudius, and she defends him even to her son. In fact, she never opposes Claudius in anything. Were he dark and sinister in all things, she would fear and despise him; she follows him willingly even when he arranges to send her beloved son into the jaws of death. He must be sincere in his love for her.
• His feelings for queen seems to be genuine. He explains his feelings for her at the end of Act IV, but he has proven these feelings consistently throughout the play:

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The Queen his mother

Lives almost by his looks, and for myself,

My virtue or my plague, be it either which,

She's so conjunctive to my life and soul

That as the star moves not but in his sphere,

I could not by her.

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His inner conflict:

• He is a character who loves and furthermore he is more than a mere cold-blooded killer. Like Hamlet, his conflicting imperatives tear him apart.
• Polonius’s innocent remark about the ‘harlots painted cheeks’ fills him with self lashing, as he admits that people like him also resort to pretend what they are not.
• Whereas he recognizes that he his "offense is rank" and "smells to heaven," he also admits that he will not make amends with God because he refuses to give up what his crime has bought him.
• He is willing to take the consequences of his actions. He is not ready to give up his relationship with Gertrude despite the guilt.

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A foil to the protagonist

• The mark of a great Shakespearean antagonist is how completely he mirrors the protagonist. Claudius is no more Machiavellian than Hamlet; both ultimately believe that the end justifies the means, and both ultimately sacrifice humanity and humaneness in the acquisition of their goals.

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• What makes Claudius a villain is that he is wrong, and Hamlet is right. Claudius is a sneak who murdered and lied. Hamlet commits his murders in the open and suffers the pangs of his own conscience. Claudius subverts his conscience and refuses to ask for divine forgiveness. Hamlet seeks contrition and absolves himself of guilt before he dies; Claudius receives no absolution and seeks none. Hamlet will spend eternity in Heaven; Claudius will burn in Hell.

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The qualities in Claudius

• King Claudius, as seen in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is both intelligent and well-spoken, two traits that, put together, complement his manipulative and dangerous nature.
• In fact though, it is his conscience that makes Claudius such a complex villain. Despite his rise to power seeming to have been carefully planned and executed, he nevertheless encountered certain things that he did not expect, such as the appearance of the ghost of his victim that ignited Hamlet‘s thirst for revenge.

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A tactful man in action and speech

• In Act 1 Scene 2 Claudius gives Hamlet a speech to try and get him to stop bringing up his father, probably fearing that the more the late King was talked about, or remembered, the more likely people were to look into his death. It is understandable that he wanted Hamlet to move on quickly.
• This speech seems carefully planned out, as if Claudius had written it out before he delivered it. Hamlet had probably been lamenting his father’s death for quite some time now, so Claudius had ample time to compose the speech.

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• Claudius begins his speech saying, “’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature, Hamlet, To give these mourning duties to your father“, but that he “must know your father lost a father, That father lost, lost his.”(1.2.87-89) But he insults Hamlet, adding “’Tis unmanly grief.”(1.2.94) This is the opposite of what Claudius says to Laertes later in the play, where he says that he should act quickly,

“Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There lives within the very flame of love. A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it”(4.7.114-116).

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• He would prefer to have Laertes act while his feelings of hatred and revenge were still fresh, whereas it would be preferable if Hamlet be quiet about his father instead of keeping his memory fresh in everyone’s minds.

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Manipulative and a politician

• Claudius is able to manipulate people, even the ones he claims to love. It is successful in both getting Hamlet not to act, but keeps him from traveling to Wittenberg. What he does no count on, is his victim’s ghost igniting Hamlet’s thirst for revenge.
• Claudius’ sneaky and manipulative ways eventually lead to the death of Polonius at Hamlet’s hands. Instead of punishing Hamlet for Polonius’ murder himself, Claudius sent the prince to England alongside Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with letters that would arrange Hamlet’s death, making it look like an accident
• He is having some one else do the dirty work to save the Queen’s feelings, but it had just as much to do with politics. Hamlet was well liked by the people, for reasons we are not aware of, and his punishment could lead the people to rally around him and rise up against the King.

He works on Laertes’s mind

• When Laertes comes back stealthily to Denmark when he gets to know about his father’s death. Claudius incites him against Hamlet. He is very clear and to the point with Laertes.
• Claudius insinuates that not to act, would be evidence of him not loving his father, saying

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“Not that I think you did not love your father, but that I know love is begun by time, and that I see in passages of proof”(4.7.111-113).

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• His tone is probably hinting that yes, he does want Laertes to think that he doesn’t love his father if he doesn’t act. I imagine his delivery to be very much like when someone says, “no offense but…”, still offending someone, but trying to lighten the blow. Line 113 also uses alliteration, using “passages of proof” to draw your attention to the image that follows, that of a candle.

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Contd…

• Going on, Claudius says “Time qualifies the spark and fire of it. There within the very flame of love A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it,”(4.7.114-116) alluding to the idea that over time a candles wick will burn down, as well as Laertes feelings for his father. This is why Claudius wants Laertes to act as soon as possible, when his feelings are fresh and raw. A candle will burn down on its own, but a snuff requires action, and to get closure over his father’s death, he needs to take action against Hamlet.
• He then compares inaction to pleurisy, which can mean excess, or even a chest inflammation, coinciding with the theme of sickness that was appeared throughout the play. Is he insinuating that him taking too much time to think about it could lead to sickness?
• Claudius continues to talk about the harm of delay, saying “ And hath abatements and delay as many As there are tongues, are hands are accidents; And then this should is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing.”(4.7.121-124). This means that if he waits long enough, he probably won’t do anything at all, bringing to question whether he really loves his father

• Claudius was successful in his plan to kill Hamlet, not due to some master workings of his own doing, but because of his ability to manipulate events according to his own desires.
• As a villain, Claudius continues to be impressive with his short-lived moral wavering, diplomatic dealings, manipulative maneuvers, and his love for Gertrude.
• Nevertheless, the foul murder committed by him and evil designs for Hamlet are seen judiciously culminating into his murder by Hamlet. His death is just, but Hamlet’s death in his hands is indeed tragic.