In my opinion I feel that Claudius has flawed personality traits but yet is evil for the act of planning and committing murder on his brother the former King Hamlet. Claudius has a vision and that vision was to kill his brother, take his brother's wife for his own wife and be heir to the throne. In order for Claudius to kill King Hamlet Sr., he has to have a plan in which he does. Claudius' plan is premeditated and he plots to kill his brother with some poison that he pours in his ear while sleeping. The premeditation and the physical act of killing his brother is what makes Claudius an evil person. Claudius clearly shows the reader how evil he is when he tells his nephew Hamlet to be a man and get over his father's death. Claudius asks Hamlet, "Why should we in our peevish opposition take it to heart?" (1.2.100-101). Claudius asks his nephew why are you resisting and taking this to heart. This isn't something that a normal human being would say after murdering his nephew's father in cold blood. Claudius shows that he is going to get what he wants even if he has to kill his own brother.
When I think of a flawed human being, I think of certain character flaws that most human beings possess. Here are some character flaws: argumentative, dishonest, conceited, self-fish, narrow-minded, being the victim, etc.. The list goes on but the point that I am trying to make is that Claudius possesses some of these character flaws as well, which makes his character more of a human being to the reader. He has somewhat of a heart and acknowledges that murdering his brother was wrong and wants to be forgiven for it. Claudius admits to God:
O my offense is rank, it smells to heaven,
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not... (3.3.35-37).
The play could also be called "The Tragedy of Claudius, King of Denmark", but wouldn't be as interesting to the audience as Hamlet's tragedies are because Claudius' character never changes and he never goes through any real tragedies, he is one that is causing the tragedies to happen. Hamlet fits the play because he is the one that goes through all of the changes in the story and is the main character that has to endure all of the tragedies that are bestowed upon him.
i agree on your points about what makes him evil. he is without a doubt evil for simply planning and executing the task of murdering his own brother. he is very cold in the matter of talking to Hamlet about his father's death as if he did not personally know Hamlet Sr. nevertheless it was his brother which makes it even more disturbing. Also i like your viewpoint about how the change of the title would not be fitting because Claudius does not not truly face a tragedy of bigger magnitude compared to Hamlet; especially considering the type of emotions Hamlet goes through in comparison to Claudius.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the points you chose that portray Claudius as an evil man. He premeditated the murder of his own brother and showed no empathy towards his nephew. Hamlet struggles in coping with the death of his father and Claudius lacks the ability to comfort him, and instead tells him to grow up and get over it. I also agree that changing the play “The Tragedy of Claudius, King of Denmark” wouldn’t make sense. Claudius is responsible for all of these deaths and he doesn’t; change which ultimately leads to his death at the hands of Hamlet.
ReplyDeleteYour arguments for Claudius's evilness are very empowering to me. I didn't complete this assignment because I fell asleep and didn't wake up until after 12, but the last paragraph of your response is almost word for word what my intro was going to be. The obvious fact is that Hamlet is on the receiving end of the splattering fan of Claudius's evildoing. To call this play the "Tragedy of Claudius" would require an interesting twist of philosophy, and what it means to be a tragic character. To Shakespeare, the person who endures the most physical and obvious harm is the most tragic character, so the play is thus named after Hamlet.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Claudius could be considered a tragic character in a dangerously deeper sense, because he has probably had a troubled life and upbringing that steered his faith towards a body of violence and treachery. Understanding of this type of unfortunate history of people can be instrumental in correcting this type of character, and keep him from becoming such a heavy distributor of proverbial shit.
But I digress...