Shakespeares Hamlet - Hamlet’s Villain, King Claudius Essay -- GCSE E

Hamlets Villain, King Claudius In the drama Hamlet Shakespeare has concocted a multi-dimensional character in the person of King Claudius. It is the intent of this essay to analyze and probe all the various aspects of this curious personality. Ward and Trent in The Cambridge History of English and American books consider Shakespeares options in designing the character of Claudius There were at least two ways in which an ordinary, or rather more than ordinary, dramatist might have dealt with this other majesty of Denmark. He could have been made a crude dramatic villaina crowned Shakebag or abusive Will, to use the phraseology of his creators own day. He could have been made pure strawa mere common usurper. And it would appear that he has actually seemed to some to be one or other of these two. Neither of them is the Claudius which Shakespeare has presented and those who take him as either seem to miss the note which, putting bold poetic faculty once more aside, is the note of Shakespeare. It is not to be supposed that Shakespeare liked Claudius if he did, and if he has produced on respectable readers the effect above hinted at, he certainly was as ineffectual a writer as the merest crtin, or the merest crank, among his critics could imagine. But neither did he dislike Claudius he knew that, in the great Greek phrase, it was the duty of creators to see faircharin the handling of their creations. It would appear that the successor of Hamlet I might have been a actually respectable person, if his brother had not possessed a kingdom and a queen that he wanted for himself. (vol.5, pt.1, ch.8, sec.16, no.53) Literary criticism varies in its evaluation of Claudius. The very... .... San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. from Shakespeares Women. N.p. n.p., 1981. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. New York G.P. Putnams Sons, 190721 New York Bartleby.com, 2000 http//www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html West, Rebecca. A Court and universe of discourse Infected by the Disease of Corruption. Readings on Hamlet. Ed. Don Nardo. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1999. Rpt. from The Court and the Castle. New Haven, CT Yale University Press, 1957. Wilkie, Brian and James Hurt. Shakespeare. Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.