- The paper will focus on the character of Claudius and his quest for power
- Claudius is a character in Shakespeare’s hamlet that has been displayed to love power.
- He does all he could to ensure that he secures and maintains the highest position in the land. He does this without necessarily considering how it will impart on his reputation and even the reaction of the people around him.
- He engages in numerous acts such as marrying the wife of the late king who is also his brother almost immediately.
- All he cares about is having the coveted position and the favours that with it. In this paper, we shall analyse the theme of power as displayed by the character of Claudius in the novel (Cantor 45).
The story line
- The story is all about Hamlet; the son of the late king who raged with anger towards Claudius whom he claims killed his father and inherited his mother.
- Being the possible heir of his father’s throne, hamlet feels bad at the fact that his uncle would act ruthlessly towards his family simply because he was hungry for power.
- Claudius was completely ignorant of the fate that would befall the late king’s family and simply pursued his selfish interests.
- It would have been required that the uncle acts slow towards the death of the kind by seeking to find out how he was killed and how well the throne would be managed (Cefalu 406). However, Claudius seems to celebrate the king’s death by grabbing the throne and subsequently taking over the wife of the king.
The quest for power
- Kingship was the highest form of power in the land and was hereditary. This implied that the next king online had to serve the king faithfully until his death.
- The hereditary was also to move from the king to his first born son. Realising that the king was taking long to die and that his son was mature enough to take over leadership, Claudius decided to take it upon himself and killed the king.
- He could not imagine dying before sitting on the coveted position. Hamlet on the other hand could not allow such injustice to happen to the land and especially upon his family (Nardo 186).
- He plotted to kill Claudius and revenge for the death of his father as well as bringing an end to such a similar trend in future.
- Before hamlet laid his hand to destroy the Claudius, he had to carry out a test that would prove that indeed it was Claudius that killed his late father. The test proved the facts and hence making hamlet with no alternative but to destroy Claudius. With this knowledge, we again observe the power hungry Claudius planning to kill hamlet as he had proved to be the main hindrance to his leadership. As if it was not enough killing the late king, he plans a fight that will see hamlet being killed through a poisonous spear (Forker 223). He does not consider the guilt that he already has of innocently killing the king and is determined to kill his son so that he remains the only heir of the kingdom.
Outcome
- The hunger for power has led to the death of various characters in the novel had nothing to do with the death of the kind. In the process of killing Claudius, hamlet pins down an innocent man think that he was the king.
- Even though hamlet and Claudius ended up dying before enjoying serving as kings, they managed to revenge on each other and most probably soothing their souls. It was all about nobody winning the battle as they both died almost at the same time.
Works cited
Cantor, Paul A. Shakespeare: hamlet. Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Cefalu, Paul. "Damned Custom Habits Devil": Shakespeare's Hamlet, Anti-Dualism and the Early Modern Philosophy of Mind." ELH 67.2 (2000): 399-431.
Forker, Charles R. "Shakespeare's Theatrical Symbolism and Its Function in Hamlet." Shakespeare Quarterly 14.3 (1963): 215-229.
Nardo, Anna K. "Hamlet," A Man to Double Business Bound"." Shakespeare Quarterly 34.2 (1983): 181-199.
