Power Vs. Happeness Essay, Research Paper

Power Vs Happiness

Claudius what are your motives for killing the king, marrying his wife and taking on the

role of father to his young son?

Claudius is introduced in act I, ii. In this scene he has an important speech. In this

speech he talks about the death of the king, his marriage to the queen and the foreign problems

of the state. He utilizes many transitions and tends to empiseze the foreign affairs of the state. I

don’t know what to make of this, it could mean various things. It could mean that Claudius is

making a grab for power shown in his concentration on the foreign polices trying to distract from

his lust for power, along with his marriage to the queen giving the change in leadership a

smoother and more acceptable feel. He also down plays the death of the formal king so that he

can redirect the peoples’ attention to his plans and the problems of the state. But I could mean

something else I’m not sure. Later on in this scene Claudius talks to Hamlet, Hamlet is very

depressed, Claudius gives hamlet some comforting and fatherly advice here trying to get him out

of his deep depression. But what is his true motivation here is he trying to get hamlet as a backer

for his new rain, so he is just lying and manipulating hamlet, or dose he have true and deep

feelings for Hamlet and is just trying to help hamlet and was no self-interest in it. I feel right now

that it a bit of both I think he cares about hamlet but would also like him to support his rise to

power.

Next we come to act II, ii, hamlet has made many strange comments and actions lately,

many people think he is going, or has gone insane. Claudius finds two of Hamlets good friends

to spy on him and try to find out what wrong with him. At this point we know that Hamlet knows

that Claudius killed his father but we don’t know whether Claudius knows that hamlet knows or

even if he suspects, this cast a strange light on this scene. First if Claudius suspects hamlet

knows that he killed his father then we might assume that Claudius is sending these spy to find

out for sure if he knows, but if he dose not suspect hamlet then this might be another show of

Claudius’s affection towards Hamlet. So the same question keeps coming up dose Claudius like

Hamlet or is he just using him? At this point it to hard to tell so we must delve deeper in to the

story and there is still the mater of the queen. Claudius is marred to the queen but dose he love

here, and was there an affair before their marriage? In this scene there is an interesting couple

of lines that the queen says, “I doubt it is no other but the main His father’s death and our

o’erhasty marriage.” in reference to the possible causes of Hamlets strange attitude recently, but

what caught my eye was that she admits that there marriage was over hasty, something in which

Hamlet accused her of very early on, this gives me reason to believe that she was having an

affair with Claudius before the death of the king, or at least that she was overly accepting of his

advances. But this raises a different question, did she know of the killing maybe even help plan

it? I don’t know yet but I would like to think that she is a good wife and didn’t help with the killing

of her husband, but …

After a couple more unsuccessful tries to figure out what Hamlet is thinking, also fairly

uninlighting, Claudius is caught in a clever trap set by Hamlet to prove to Hamlet that Claudius

killed his father. This is bad news for Claudius but is good for my quest for knowledge. We see in

this scene Claudius reacts very deeply when he is reminded of the deed that he committed,

which is shown by the line “Give me some light. Away!” right in the middle of a play. Then

admittedly he goes to the church to repent his sins and ask for forgiven for his crimes with the

passage “Thanks, dear my lord. …. Be soft as sinews of the newborn babe. All may be well.” this

bring a whole new light on to the question, it give significance evidence that he is deeply

remorseful about his crimes. At this point I think that he is not after power solely but maybe he

was joules of his brother great success and let his emotions get out of control and in this fit he

forfill his fantasy to be his brother. It goes well with his desire to be a father to Hamlet, a husband

to the queen, and the king. the queen must also be finding comfort in Claudius taking over, it

probably help her coup with the pain of losing her husband

Now the table turns Claudius has wanted to love and be the father of Hamlet, but he

sees that that is no longer possible with hamlet need for revenge Claudius must kill him so that

he may continue to live at least part of his dream. In act IV, vii Claudius plots with Laertes to kill

hamlet. At this point it is as if Claudius has accepted what he must due and no longer shoes any

love or sypanthy towards Hamlet and instead plan his treacherous death.

Last scene is also a very reveling scene two lines in particular “Gertrude, do not drink.”,

“[aside] it is poisoned cup; it is too late.”. These revel to me much about his character, they show

that he was truly in love, or at least desired to be with, her. and by saying do not drink out loud

he was almost admitting his guilt to trying to kill Hamlet all to save the queen, this is powerful and

says to me that he did have a heart and I would figure that he just lost control of himself in the

pursuit of his dream which was to be all that his brother had been.