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

critical points Villain, King Claudius In the fun Hamlet Shakespeare has concocted a multi-dimensional character in the person of King Claudius. It is the feeling of this essay to analyze and probe all the various aspects of this curious personality. cellblock and Trent in The Cambridge History of English and American Literature consider Shakespeares options in designing the character of Claudius There were at least deuce ways in which an ordinary, or rather more than ordinary, dramatist talent collect dealt with this some other majesty of Denmark. He could have been made a crude dramatic villaina crowned Shakebag or relentless Will, to use the phraseology of his creators own day. He could have been made pure strawa mere common usurper. And it would egress 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 get down which, putting sheer poeti c faculty once more aside, is the tune 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 inconstant a writer as the merest crtin, or the merest crank, among his critics could imagine. But uncomplete did he dislike Claudius he knew that, in the great Greek phrase, it was the profession of creators to see faircharin the handling of their creations. It would appear that the successor of Hamlet I might have been a very respectable person, if his familiar 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 disaster of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/ha mlet/full.html Ward & Trent, et al. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. brisk 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 produce Co., 1992.