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

Hamlet’s Villain, King Claudius      Ã‚  Ã‚   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 Literature consider Shakespeare’s 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 â€Å"majesty of Denmark.† He could have been made a crude dramatic villain—a crowned â€Å"Shakebag† or â€Å"Black Will,† to use the phraseology of his creator’s own day. He could have been made pure straw—a 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 sheer 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 crà ©tin, or the merest crank, among his critics could imagine. But neither did he dislike Claudius; he knew tha t, in the great Greek phrase, it was the duty of creators to â€Å"see fair†Ã¢â‚¬â€[char]—in the handling of their creations. It would appear that the successor of Hamlet I might have been a very 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 â€Å"very... .... San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Rpt. from Shakespeare’s 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. Putnam’s Sons, 1907–21; New York: Bartleby.com, 2000 http://www.bartleby.com/215/0816.html    West, Rebecca. â€Å"A Court and World 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. â€Å"Shakespeare.† Literature of the Western World. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992.