King Claudius within Hamlet Essay -- Shakespeare Hamlet Essays

fairy Claudius indoors Hamlet William Shakespeare produced in Hamlet a pair of quite stately spirits One is the protagonist and the other, the antagonist. King Claudius is a close second to the submarine sandwich in many ways, even superior to him in some. This essay go forth consider the truly fantastic creation of the character of King Claudius. Salvador de Madariaga in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discusses Claudius relationship with the two emissaries and former friends of Hamlet, who were escorting the prince to his execution in England The two childly men receive from the King a commission which, whatever the Kings secret intentions may be, is honorable. Hamlet, the King in fact tells them, is non what he was. The cause of the change I can non dream of. Therefore, I wiretap you so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather So some(prenominal) as from occasion you may glean Whether aught to us incomprehensible afflicts him thus That opened lie s within our remedy (n. pag.). Like everyone else in the realm of Denmark, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are deceived by the king and it costs them their lives. Just what sort of character do we find in the person of Claudius? Does the following critic misconstrue him? G. Wilson Knight in The Embassy of Death interprets him Claudius, as he appears in the play, is not a criminal. He is - strange as it may seem - a good and gentle king, enmeshed by the drawing string of causality linking him with his crime. And this chain he might, perhaps, have broken except for Hamlet, and all would have been well. (n. pag.) The swordplay opens after Hamlet has just returned from Wittenberg, England, upon hearing the news of his fa... ..., Helena (Lady Martin). On Some of Shakespeares Female Characters. 6th ed. capital of the United Kingdom William Blackwood and Sons, 1899. Knight, G. Wilson. The Embassy of Death. The Wheel of Fire. London Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1954. p. 38-39. http//server 1.hypermart.net/hamlet/wheefire.html N. pag. Mack, Maynard. The World of Hamlet. Yale Review. vol. 41 (1952) p. 502-23. Rpt. in Readings on The Tragedies. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego Greenhaven Press, 1996. Madariaga, Salvador de. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. On Hamlet. second ed. London Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 1964. p.14-16. http//www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/essayson.htmdemag-ess N. pag. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts get of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.