William Shakespeares Hamlet is a play full of sorrow and excitement, its fullof gore and incest. The play has a large amount of betrayal and the personsupplying most of that is Claudius, the king and Hamlets uncle. Claudius iscold-hearted, full of hate, and a coward. He is the king but, the ironic thingabout that is he should not be and as Hamlet is the prince, the death of hisfather should put him at the throne. The play starts off with a tense setting,as the guards have seen a ghost that looks like the old king or Hamlets fatherwho they believed had died of a snake bite. This is the showing of the firstcruel deed Claudius has done, the reader does not know yet but Claudius is thereason that King Hamlet dies. The reader knows that it is Claudius when Hamletencounters the ghost and the ghost tells Hamlet, “Thus I was sleeping, by abrothers hand, of life, at crown, of queen, at once dispatchd.” The meaningof the ghosts quote is that he is telling Hamlet that Claudius killed himwhen he was asleep and that he took his crown and his queen. This is the firsttime the reader really knows that Claudius is cold-hearted and ruthless. AfterHamlet heard this, he held a play where the murder of his father is reacted in ascene, that Hamlet himself designed. The purpose of this was to see Claudiussreaction to the scene to prove if Claudius is the real murderer or not. AfterClaudius sees the play he storms out of the stage scared and surprised. Claudiusthen prays to heaven for forgiveness of his sins since he knows that Hamlet hasfigured out what he has done, he does this so he will not get sent to hell.
Claudius says, “My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words withoutthoughts never to heaven go.” He is praying for forgiveness but he is notsorry, he just doesnt want to get sent to hell and that is what the quote issaying, since he is not sorry his words remain below, or on Earth. This furtherproves how cold-hearted Claudius is, he has killed his brother, taken his crown,taken his wife, has been discovered, and he still does not feel guilty at allabout what he has done. Claudius now knows that Hamlet has figured him out andwhat he has done, so Claudius plans to send Hamlet away to England with a notefor the king of England to have Hamlet killed. Hamlet on the way to England alsofigures out this plan of Claudiuss and he returns to Holland on a pirate shipand Rosencratz and Guilldenstern are the ones that are killed in England.
Claudius again showing his hatred wants Hamlet dead badly and he tells Laertes,the son of Polonius a man that Hamlet killed earlier in the play, that he andHamlet will have a jousting match. He then said, “When in your motion you arehot and dry, -As make your bouts more violent to have prepard him a chalicefort the nonce, escape your venomd struck, our purpose may hold there” Herethere is more of Claudiuss ruthless personality, he is going to have Laertesvenom his sword and if by any chance he does not get Hamlet Claudius will have acup with poison for Hamlet to drink. The end is the tragedy of the play, afterGertrude, Hamlets mother, drinks the poison instead of Hamlet she dies. ThenLaertes hits Hamlet with the poisoned swords, both of their swords fall andHamlet picks up Laertess sword and he hits Laertes with it. Laertes the dies,but before he dies he tells Hamlet that Claudius is the one behind all this. Soin the end it is Claudiuss fault that everyone is dead and he gets what herichly deserved, a sword in the stomach.
