 The character of Claudius within Hamlet is presented as the primary villain indeed He is the person who triggered the tragedy initially So he is the person that killed his own brother King Hamlet in order to use up Hamlet So Prince Hamlet take power and become king and he swiftly marries Gertrude Okay, so he is very very hungry for power. He is very determined to maintain his position as king and Once he realizes Hamlet is a little bit of a threat He enlists the help of a few people within the play to act as his spies This includes Rosenstern, Guildenstern or rather Rosenkranz, Guildenstern as well as Polonius Okay, so he is very very treacherous, but also very sly and cunning He kind of hides in the shadows. He uses others to do his bidding For example, he uses Liertis as his primary weapon to kill Hamlet towards the end of the play But of course also he's sent a letter to England where Hamlet was supposed to be bound for on the ship once he had killed Polonius he'd sent this letter to England in order to have them kill him Okay, so he hides in the shadows and he even sometimes at some points in the play grapples with this He grapples with his own treachery, especially when he goes to the church to pray After the re-enactment after watching the actors who are traveling who come to Elsinore He watches the re-enactment of how he killed his own brother. So he grapples with this guilt However, he pushes that aside and still carries on being treacherous and so on Okay, so Claudius's character is of course presented as the villain of this play So of course if you're writing about Hamlet, you have to be familiar with Claudius. He is the usurper He is the uncle of Hamlet who is very very treacherous very fake And of course he also illustrates especially one of the things that Shakespeare's trying to convey which is you cannot trust people Simply by their appearances. So if you're writing about his character I've selected the most relevant quotations you can consider when writing about the character of King Claudius as well as the Word level analysis that you can do and what this shows about his character. So let's start with the first quotation So this is in the opening where we find that not only has King Hamlet really recently died But King Claudius took over after his brother's death and really rapidly married his wife and then During all of these festivities. He's very quick to try and push everybody to just forget about the previous King He says, you know, okay. Yes, he died. We're so sad, but actually let's move on Let's you know, even if the memory is quite fresh of King Hamlet. Let's move on, you know He's died. Let's move on. Okay, so it seems like especially given that he's his direct brother It seems a little bit suspicious that he's so quick to move on. Okay He states here though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death the memory be green ellipsis So here what he's basically saying especially when he's talking about the memory of King Hamlet. It's green He is even acknowledging outwardly. Yeah, King Hamlet has died really recently It's so recent that we still can't remember him vividly, but let's move on. Let's move on Okay, so of course here we can see that he's very treacherous. He's very sly and cunning, but also he's very power hungry He wants to really quickly establish himself as the King of Denmark and as the main power within Elsinore Castle The word love analysis you want to do for this quotation is firstly the adjective dare, which of course is a little bit duplicitous It's a bit fake because here he's saying oh dear brother Hamlet, but he knows he's one that actually killed his own brother He's the cause of his brother's death. Okay, and also you want to focus on the alliteration of D in dare and death and finally the Ascendance of E in dare brother's death the memory be green. Okay, so here he's very very melodious almost when he's talking He's very controlled. He wants to present himself as a statesman, but unbeknownst of course to The audience at this stage and also of course to the characters We don't realize he is the cause of his own brother's death Okay, he's killed him in order to usurp him the next quotation which illustrates the character of Claudius And of course here again, we can see that is very treacherous and we're now seeing bits of his real character emerge Okay, so he and Gertrude find it almost exhausting Exasperating that Hamlet is so melancholic. Okay, so Hamlet is still dressed in black Even if Claudius Gertrude and everybody else is dressed in kind of nice pretty attire To celebrate also the recent marriage between Queen Gertrude and King Claudius. So Hamlet is really melancholic He's really sad. He's despondent He doesn't really want to mix in and act like everything's okay because it's not however Claudius is a little bit confused He's wondering why you're not moving on. How is it that clouds still hang on you? So basically he's selling Hamlet. Oh, why are you looking so sad? Okay, and of course that is a very inappropriate question to ask somebody who's just lost their father, but also He's just lost his brother. So he should also still have these clouds hanging on him But he's someone moved on okay, and the one level analysis you could you can highlight here is the metaphor clouds Of course what this illustrates is Claudius is treacherous the next quotation again Which ties into how Claudius is a very very Critical of how Hamlet is grieving his dad So this is really early on before Hamlet realizes and he speaks to the ghost of realizes that Claudius Was the cause of his father's death However at the beginning Claudius just finds it really weird that Hamlet is mourning so much He states that his unmanly grief it shows the wall most incorrects to heaven So he's basically saying oh, this is embarrassing. Look at how much Hamlet is sad and he's moping and moaning over his dad It's so unmasculine. It's so unmanly. It's not real men don't cry this much over the deaths of their fathers Okay, again, we as the audience even if at this stage you don't quite realize that Claudius actually killed his own brother We as the audience will probably also find this a little bit strange. You'd wonder hmm. You're talking like this about your own brother's death It's so bizarre. Okay, and of course what this is again illustrating is Claudius is very duplicitous And he is very keen to establish himself as the power and authority Okay, now the word love analysis you want to focus on firstly is the adjective unmanly Okay, and here he is criticizing Hamlet of being effeminate in his emotions Also, the other word love analysis you want to focus on is the hyperbole most incorrect to heaven Here what he is basically saying is that it's almost offensive even to God's eyes that Hamlet is so sad about his father's passing The next quotation which illustrates Claudius's character is now. This is when Hamlet has learnt the Real story about his father's death and he has told Horatio. I'm going to act like I'm mad Okay, I'm going to feign an antique disposition and Polonius notes. Hmm. There's method in his madness Okay, and of course Polonius consults with Claudius and Claudius decides to use his network of people to spy on Hamlet Because he also is not entirely convinced that Hamlet is mad. Okay, so this is now where we find the spy side of Claudius Okay, and of course he enlists the help of Polonius He enlists the hope of the help of Guildenstern Rosenkrantz and so on to spy on Hamlet because he doesn't quite trust him Okay, now he states when he's talking to Polonius and telling Polonius Hey, make sure you keep an eye on Hamlet madness and great ones must not Unwatched go so here especially when he mentions great ones. He's been really sarcastic He's saying oh, yeah people who are really powerful and great if they go mad You know, we should we should witness and monitor them. Okay, so of course here He's mocking Hamlet a little bit because he believes the opposite of Hamlet. He actually doesn't really respect Hamlet Okay, and also the other word of analysis is Assenance of you in must and unmatched. Okay, or rather unwatched. Okay, so here he again He's spying. He's getting people to spy on Hamlet. Okay, and finally, of course the verb unwatched Which is he's basically instructing Polonius. Please spy on Hamlet Let me know if he's actually mad because he is very keen on maintaining his power and eliminating any threats And now he's starting to get a little bit threatened by Hamlet's behavior The next quotation which I can tie to Claudius's character is once he's watched the reenactment of his own betrayal of his brother He storms out. He then goes to church and prays and he's praying to God This is the first part where we generally see elements of guilt within Claudius. Okay So even if he is power hungry, even if he's really happy that he's king He still grapples and struggles with the idea that what he had to do Which was kill his own brother and don't forget of course He went against the notion of divine right of kings Which is the idea that kings are directly appointed by God in order to carry out God's will so anybody who commits an act of treason Basically killing the king is directly acting against God. Okay, so Claudius has that in the back of his mind It's thinking or I acted against God as well by killing my own brother and he states when he's trying to pray He states this cursed hand ellipsis is there not raining off in the sweet heavens to wash it white as snow. Okay Now here we can see that he is this at the adjective cursed Which is he's talking about his hands which he used to kill his brother. He really can't believe what he did Okay, and he is he realizes that God because he's killed God's own representative God could have cursed him Okay, also he mentions the The similarly white as snow to show that he's stained and tainted by the treachery and the killing of his own brother And of course, this is a rhetorical question. He's wondering will God ever forgive me and the other quotation Which you can bear in mind related again to him grappling with this feeling of guilt, right? He basically states when he's praying to God. Oh my offense is rank It smells to heaven lips is a brother's murder so here again He's basically saying he's a fence of killing the king. It's just overbearing It's like a strong terrible stinking odor that can't escape him and it goes this odor can be smelled everywhere All the way up to heaven again What this is illustrating is Claudius does understand that he went against the divine right of kings by killing King Hamlet And he's wondering can God ever forgive me, okay? And the word love analysis you want to focus on with this quotation here is firstly the words rank and smells Okay, this is to do with especially something that smells rank. It's terrible and this belongs to the semantic field of scent But also this idea of his hit the smell of his terrible actions go all the way up to heaven. This is hyperbole, okay? So here we can see that Claudius is Grappling with the guilt of killing his own brother. Okay, I'm going against God However Hamlet obviously approaches him then decides on and if I killed him now I'm gonna send him directly to heaven and then we realize the irony is that Claudius even if he's praying He's praying he's praying. He just he can't really get into the prayer He can't connect directly with God because he states my words fly up my thoughts remain below So he's basically saying okay, even if I'm praying to God my thoughts are still here And of course also we can see that this shows a disconnect between God and Claudius He knows that he can't really pray to God God doesn't have he's not in God's air because he's not the right person Who's ruling and he's done something which is a terrible act of betrayal both against his brother, but I really against God Okay, the word love analysis you want to focus on here Which obviously emphasizes how evil he is seen even by God to be is firstly the repetition of my in my words My thoughts and also the juxtaposition of up and below which is an oxymoron Now we then find of course Claudius then realizes Hamlet is definitely a threat Then Hamlet ends up killing Polonius and then fleeing However, he then realizes and learns that Hamlet has come back So his plot to have him assassinated in England didn't work So he decides to use Learty's so Claudius decides to use Learty's to do his killing for him And this is when Learty's comes back at first Learty's thinks that Claudius is responsible for killing his own father Polonius And then Claudius turns him quickly against Hamlet says no no no no no no it's Hamlet and actually Learty's was your father dear to you Okay, so you ask this rhetorical question as a way to manipulate Learty's into wanting to kill Hamlet Okay, so we can see Claudius is a very manipulative character He's saying Learty's if your father was dear to you you have to do something about it kill Hamlet Okay, and also the possessive pronoun your father again here Claudius is a wordsmith He's very good with his words and he's very good at manipulating people to do his bidding. Okay, so now here he's decided Okay, I'm gonna rule Learty's in to do my dirty work for me, which is kill Hamlet Okay, the next quotation which ties in to Claudius of course again showing this Manipulative nature and how successful he is in manipulating others around him in order to kind of do his dirty work for him Is when he tells Learty's revenge should have no bounds and this is what we call a declarative sentence Remember declarative sentences a sentence that states a fact feeling a mood here Claudius has now really riled up Learty's and he's telling him when you see Hamlet when you fight him make sure you kill him Okay revenge you should not even show any mercy to him Now the word of analysis you want to focus on is the assonance of Owen should know and bounds Okay, again here we can see that Claudius is using others not only to spy on Hamlet But this time he's using other people to try and kill and assassinate Hamlet The next quotation which obviously again highlights just how two-faced and duplicitous Claudius is is when he's watching the duel Between Learty's and Hamlet and he knows that Learty's has the poison sword if he stabs Hamlet is gonna kill him But also he's got this goblet ready for him Okay, this poison chalice which if Hamlet drinks from it He's also gonna die and he speaks in a very ironic way. Okay, he says Hamlet This pearl is thine. Here's to thy health. Okay, so he's got his own drink He's asked for a drink so that he can watch this duel and he's saying Hamlet cheers to you cheers to your health And of course here he's being ironic. Okay, so this is a really great use by Shakespeare of dramatic irony Which obviously shows how manipulative and duplicitous again, which means two-faced Claudius really is now the word love analysis You want to focus on is firstly the alliteration of tea in this and thine and also the alliteration of H and hairs and health, okay? Finally of course Claudius is killed Okay, so he Hamlet kind of roots him out and ends up killing him at the end before Hamlet dies soon after however when Claudius dies He does quite theatrically. He's forced to drink this poisoned drink so the same poison drink he'd asked To have Hamlet killed this is turned against him. Okay, and he theatrically says the drink the drink I am poisoned. Okay, and of course the drink a drink. This is an exclamatory sentence Remember an exclamatory sentence is a sentence which has an exclamation mark It shows a strong emotion here We can see that Claudius is terrified that he's gonna die soon and also you want to focus on the repetition of drink Okay, so that's really it when it comes to key quotations relating to the character of Claudius in Hamlet