| directory |
| home | contact |
|
|||||||||||||||
| search | |||||||||||||||
The Dramatic Significance of ClaudiusFrom Shakespearean Tragedy by A. C. Bradley.King Claudius rarely gets from the reader the attention he deserves. But he is very interesting, both psychologically and dramatically. On the one hand, he is not without respectable qualities. As a king he is courteous and never undignified; he performs his ceremonial duties efficiently; and he takes good care of the national interests. He nowhere shows cowardice, and when Laertes and the mob force their way into the palace, he confronts a dangerous situation with coolness and address. His love for his ill-gotten wife seems to be quite genuine, and there is no ground for suspecting him of having used her as a mere means to the crown.1 His conscience, though ineffective, is far from being dead. In spite of its reproaches he plots new crimes to ensure the prize of the old one; but still it makes him unhappy (iii, i. 49 f., III. iii. 35 f.). Nor is he cruel or malevolent. On the other hand, he is no tragic character. He had a small nature. If Hamlet may be trusted, he was a man of mean appearance -- a mildewed ear, a toad, a bat; and he was also bloated by excess in drinking. People made mouths at him in contempt while his brother lived; and though, when he came to the throne, they spent large sums in buying his portrait, he evidently put little reliance on their loyalty. He was no villain of force, who thought of winning his brother's crown by a bold and open stroke, but a cut-purse who stole the diadem from a shelf and put it in his pocket. He had the inclination of natures physically weak and morally small towards intrigue and crooked dealing. His instinctive predilection was for poison: this was the means he used in his first murder, and he at once recurred to it when he had faile to get Hamlet executed by deputy. Though in danger he showed no cowardice, his first thought was always for himself. I like him not, nor stands it safe with us-- these are the first words we hear him sspeak after the play-scene. His first comment on the death of Polonius is, It had been so with us had we been there;and his second is, Alas, how shall this bloody deed be answered?He was not, however, stupid, but rather quick-witted and adroit. He won the Queen partly indeed by presents (how pitifully characteristic of her!), but also by 'witch-craft of his wit' or intellect. He seems to have been soft-spoken, ingratiating in manner, and given to smiling on the person he addressed ('that one may smile, and smile, and be a villain'). We see this in his speech to Laertes about the young man's desire to return to Paris (i. ii. 42 f.). Hamlet scarcely ever speaks to him without an insult, but he never shows resentment, hardly even annoyance. He makes use of Laertes with great dexterity. He had evidently found that a clear head, a general complaisance, a willingness to bend and oblige where he could not overawe, would lead him to his objects, -- that he could trick men and manage them. Unfortunately he imagined he could trick something more than men. This error, together with a decided trait of temperament, leads him to his ruin. He has a sanguine disposition. When first we see him, all has fallen out to his wishes, and he confidently looks forward to a happy life. He believes his secret to be absolutely safe, and he is quite ready to be kind to Hamlet, in whose melancholy he sees only excess of grief. He has no desire to see him leave the court; he promises him his voice for the succession (i. ii. 108, iii. ii. 355); he will be a father to him. Before long, indeed, he becomes very uneasy, and then more and more alarmed; but when, much later, he has contrived Hamlet's death in England, he has still no suspicion that he need not hope for happiness: till I know 'tis done,Nay, his very last words show that he goes to death unchanged: Oh yet defend me, friends, I am but hurt [ = wounded],he cries, although in half a minute he is dead. That his crime has failed, and that it could do nothing else, never once comes home to him. He thinks he can over-reach Heaven. When he is praying for pardon, he is all the while perfectly determined to keep his crown; and he knows it. More -- it is one of the grimmest things in Shakespeare, but he puts such things so quietly that we are apt to miss them -- when the King is praying for pardon for his first murder he has just made his final arrangements for a second, the murder of Hamlet. But he does not allude to that fact in his prayer. If Hamlet had really wished to kill him at a moment that had no relish of salvation in it, he had no need to wait. 2 So we are inclined to say; and yet it was not so. For this was the crisis for Claudius as well as Hamlet. He had better have died at once, before he had added to his guilt a share in the responsibility for all the woe and death that followed. And so, we may allow ourselves to say, here also Hamlet's indiscretion served him well. The power that shaped his end shaped the King's no less. For -- to return in conclusion to the action of the play -- in all that happens or is done we seem to apprehend some vaster power. We do not define it, or even name it, or perhaps even say to ourselves that it is there; but our imagination is haunted by the sense of it, as it works its way through the deeds or the delays of men to its inevitable end. And most of all do we feel this in regard to Hamlet and the King. For these two, the one by his shrinking from his appointed task, and the other by efforts growing ever more feverish to rid himself of his enemy, seem to be bent on avoiding each other. But they cannot. Through devious paths, the very paths they take in order to escape, something is pushing them silently step by step towards one another, until they meet and it puts the sword into Hamlet's hand. He himself must die, for he needed this compulsion before he could fulfil the demand of destiny; but he must fulfil it. And the King too, turn and twist as he may, must reach the appointed goal, and is only hastening to it by the windings which seem to lead elsewhere. Concentration on the character of the hero is apt to withdraw our attention from this aspect of the drama; but in no other tragedy of Shakespeare's, not even in Macbeth, is this aspect so impressive. 3 Notes 1. I do not rely so much on his own statement to Laertes (iv. vii. 12 f.) as on the absence of contrary indications, on his tone in speaking to her, and on such signs as his mention of her in soliloquy (ill. iii. 55). 2. This also is quietly indicated. Hamlet spares the King, he says, because if the King is killed praying he will go to heaven. On Hamlet's departure, the King rises from his knees, and mutters: My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:3. I am indebted to Werder in this paragraph. How to cite this article: _______ More Resources  Queen Elizabeth: Shakespeare's Patron King James I of England: Shakespeare's Patron The Earl of Southampton: Shakespeare's Patron Going to a Play in Elizabethan London Ben Jonson and the Decline of the Drama Publishing in Elizabethan England Shakespeare's Audience Religion in Shakespeare's England Alchemy and Astrology in Shakespeare's Day Entertainment in Elizabethan England London's First Public Playhouse Shakespeare Hits the Big Time
|
More to Explore Hamlet: The Complete Play with Explanatory Notes Analysis of Uncle Claudius Claudius and the Condition of Denmark Claudius and the Dumb-Show: Why Does he Stay? Claudius and the Mousetrap In Secret Conference: The Meeting Between Claudius and Laertes Defending Claudius - The Charges Against the King Introduction to Hamlet The Hamlet and Ophelia Subplot The Norway (Fortinbras) Subplot Deception in Hamlet Hamlet: Problem Play and Revenge Tragedy Analysis of the Characters in Hamlet The Elder Hamlet: The Kingship of Hamlet's Father Hamlet's Relationship with the Ghost Philological Examination Questions on Hamlet Quotations from Hamlet (with commentary) Hamlet Study Quiz (with detailed answers) Analysis of I am sick at heart (1.1) Hamlet: Q & A
Soliloquy Analysis: O this too too... (1.2) Soliloquy Analysis: O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!... (2.2) Soliloquy
Analysis: To be, or not to be... (3.1) Soliloquy Analysis: Tis now the very witching time of night... (3.2) Soliloquy Analysis: Now might I do it pat... (3.3) Soliloquy Analysis: How all occasions do inform against me... (4.4) The Dumb-Show: Why Hamlet Reveals his Knowledge to Claudius Ophelia's Burial and Christian Rituals The Baker's Daughter: Ophelia's Nursery Rhymes Hamlet as National Hero O Jephthah - Toying with Polonius The Death of Polonius and its Impact on Hamlet's Character Blank Verse and Diction in Shakespeare's Hamlet Hamlet's Silence An Excuse for Doing Nothing: Hamlet's Delay Foul Deeds Will Rise: Hamlet and Divine Justice Shakespeare's Fools: The Grave-Diggers in Hamlet
Hamlet's Humor: The Wit of Shakespeare's Prince of Denmark All About Yorick Hamlet's Melancholy: The Transformation of the Prince Hamlet's Antic Disposition: Is Hamlet's Madness Real? The Significance of Ophelia's Flowers Ophelia and Laertes Mistrusted Love: Ophelia and Polonius The Significance of the Ghost in Armor Shakespeare's View of the Child Actors Through Hamlet Divine Providence in Hamlet What is Tragic Irony? Seneca's Tragedies and the Elizabethan Drama Shakespeare's Sources for Hamlet Characteristics of Elizabethan Tragedy
Why Shakespeare is so Important Shakespeare's Language Shakespeare's Influence on Other Writers |
©1999-2021 Shakespeare Online. All Rights Reserved.