Claudius and power
Quest for Power is one of the main agenda that Claudius had in his mind as he lived. He had purposed that he will not see his grave before occupying the coveted seat of the king. Claudius who is a character in Shakespeare's hamlet has been displayed to love power and would do anything to have it. This was done not considering the pain it would cause to him or to those around him, all that mattered to him was to get the position and maintain it. As we shall analyse in this paper, the greed that Claudius had did not work out well for the characters of the novel. In the end, he did not get to enjoy serving in the position he had longed for as the intentions behind his actions were revealed. The paper will focus on the character of Claudius and his quest for power. We shall also critically analyse the theme of power as displayed by the character of Claudius in the novel and how other characters were directly or indirectly by his selfish ambitions (Cantor 45).
Summary of the story
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. As if killing the king was not enough, Claudius marries his widowed wife almost immediately. Realising that his evil acts have been unveiled by the late king’s son hamlet, he plots to kill him so that he has an ample time enjoying his newly acquired power. This leads to a series of battles as the characters seek to avenge on what they believe to be ill treatment. This leads to the death of almost all characters in the novel including hamlet and Claudius. The deaths are either caused by the attempts of Claudia and hamlet to destroy each other or the frustrations that the characters had after being overwhelmed by the events.
Claudius and his quest for power
Kingship was the highest form of power in the land and was hereditary. The late king Hamlet was serving as king and his immediate heir was to be his son Hamlet. Claudius was however a greedy brother of the late king who realised that he will never sit on the throne unless he forcefully took it. It was expected that the next king online had to serve the king faithfully until his death. With this knowledge, Claudius realised that the king was taking long to die and that his son was growing stronger and powerfully to take over his father. The hereditary was to move from the king to his first born son or to the next able man just in case the son was too young to take over power. 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. With such events unfolding, his greed made him to kill the king with the hope the hope that he will not be discovered.
Claudius strategies to become king seemed to work for him until when the ghost of the late king approached hamlet and mentioned that his death was caused by his own brother Claudius. It was not easy for the king’s son to accept that his uncle could be this selfish and therefore testing his guilt. Hamlet on finding that his uncle was guilty 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. It must have amazed Claudius that his uncle could engage in such a selfish action just to be the king. It was even more annoying that his mother had also become a victim of his father’s death and blinded by Claudius by accepting to be married by him.
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. He was not concerned about the bad picture he had displayed to the people he was now leading and instead of accepting his guilt, he is into more selfish plans. The pain and the heartache was too much especially considering that hamlet’s mother was on the side of his uncle and not realising that he killed her husband.
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. In the process of fulfilling his greedy intentions of killing Hamlet, he stages a war that will see hamlet being pierced by a poisonous spear. This was definitely going to be a serious war as it also posed a great risk to the opponent. While all this will be happening, Claudius will be comfortable sitting outside the ring to await victory for him. It did not matter who will ultimately be hurt or killed in the process. All he cared about was how he would selfishly rule the land without any form of interference.
Consequences
The hunger for power has led to the death of various characters in the novel that had nothing to do with the death of the king. The attempts to kill Claudius, hamlet made several mistakes and subsequently killed one of Claudius servants. This was a victim of the greed that Claudius was not ready to honour up. Hamlet pinned down the innocent man through a curtain thinking that he was the king. Ophelia was also overwhelmed by the events that were taking place and ultimately killed herself by drowning. Hamlets mother on the other hand died after drinking poisoned wine that was meant for Hamlet. Realising that his mother was killed by poisoned wine, Hamlet forced Claudius to take the wine which subsequently killed him. Hamlet and his opponent Laerte also died as they fought with the poisoned spear.
Conclusion
The story ended on a very sad note as the climax being the death of the two major characters. Analysing the plot, we can conclude that the death was derived from greed of power by Claudius. If Claudius was satisfied with his position, hamlet would be at peace with him. There would be no subsequent plans to kill any of the characters as they would enjoy good relationships. However, the hunger for power made the characters lose their dignity and even value for life. The land was better off without any of the family members as the characters got overwhelmed by the greediness of Claudius and the desire for hamlet to avenge on the death of his father. Learning how this can affect our lives and relationships, we learn the important lesson of being content with what we have rather than going to some extends just to obtain what we wish to have. With life, one is able to achieve much more but once this is destroyed, then there is no hope for a better future.
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.
