Discussion On Claudius As A Manipulator ..

Discussion on Claudius as a manipulator
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is one of his most renowned tragedies. Many characters
in the play bring about their own demise by falling victim to their tragic flaws and thus
becoming their own worst enemies. The play's antagonist is King Claudius, a character
who serves as an adversary for the titular main character, Hamlet.
In many ways, Claudius' crimes set in motion the tragedy of Hamlet. However, as is
often the case in a Shakespearean tragedy, each character makes their own choices
and succumbs to their own faults. Claudius is a complex character with positive as
well as negative traits. He is at once symbolic of corruption and the product of a royal
court where everyone is seeking to gain an advantage over everyone else.
In the following events are discussed sequentially which will enable to understand the
manipulative nature of Claudius thoroughly.
In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Claudius, brother to the late King Hamlet, secretly
messed with the minds of others to get what he wanted when he wanted it. People
thought of him as a supporter to people’s problems while he was the one behind all of
them along. He will manipulate his wife, Queen Gertrude, who was the wife of King
Hamlet, Hamlet his nephew as well as his son, and lastly the family of Polonius.
Throughout the play, Claudius used his actions to confuse the minds of others to get
what he wants in order to keep the power of being the king and securing his throne of
Denmark.
Using his manipulative skills throughout the play in incidents, lives of others around
him, as well as relationships he has made over the years caused the drama on what is
true and what is actually a lie.
Throughout the book, many saw Claudius as a supporter and someone to go to in

difficult times. For Claudius’s essential goal to gain power, he used manipulation in
both Hamlet’s life as well as making an effort to kill Hamlet. His eagerness and thirst
for power began with the murder of King Hamlet, his brother. Committing this crime
to take the throne of Denmark, Claudius will feel superior to all that faced him, but
had to get Hamlet out of the picture since he was a huge threat to his throne. Claudius
will use his words to twist the minds of others, “From the first coarse till he that died
to-day”, “this must be so, we pray you, throw to earth. This unrevealing woe, and think
of us. As of a father” (Act 1, Scene 3).
Claudius’ manipulation is a very complex and methodical one, and you will see how
everyone around him is constantly being manipulated so everything goes just his way.
We can first observe one of the tactics that Claudius uses to manipulate those around
him, which is telling them what to think about what troubles they may be facing. By
telling them how to feel in every situation, without thinking too much about it
everyone will begin believe his side of the story if he becomes more involved in the
situation; the more involved he becomes in the situation, the more reliable of an
informational source he will become, he will come off as more trustworthy, even.
Claudius consoles Hamlet with his soft comforting words, while deep inside he
actually wants to get in his head. He uses remorseful and sincere tones to express to
Hamlet the whole process of life and death. Claudius adds on to say that, one who
lived must go and accepted the inevitability of death. Since Claudius’s plan did not
following through the way he arranged it to go because Hamlet’s suspicions raised on
him, he decided to send Hamlet’s friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern on an
assignment to spy on what Hamlet was up to plan on him. Having the opportunity to
carrying the power of Denmark instead of Hamlet, resulted to Claudius’s manipulative
ways to elevate higher. Unfortunately for Claudius, he discovered that Hamlet is aware
of his crime and will plan as much as possible to dethrone him.
Manipulation of others emotions and relationships were skilfully used by Claudius in

his agenda of gaining power and authority as king. Putting Gertrude, The Queen in
total deception was the kind of manipulation Claudius used to get closer to his power.
As a strategic move to help him seize the throne away from Hamlet after the death of
the King, he decided to marry Gertrude. Without Gertrude knowing the crime
Claudius committed of murdering her late husband, she put all her trust into
Claudius’s false motive of saving the nation as well as agrees to marry him. On top of
that, he identifies himself as a loving and caring stepfather to Hamlet in order to
gaining Gertrude’s love and trust. For instance, Claudius shows his fake love for
Hamlet in front of the Queen, “This mad young man but so much our love”...(Act 4
Scene 1). Claudius shows his concern for Hamlet’s mental illness, but in reality, he has
lost his patient with Hamlet and him having the intentions to kill him. In an article,
critics overall felt that regarding Gertrude in the play was seen as a weak willed, highly
dependent on Claudius and easily manipulated by Claudius (Shakespeare for
Students). Claudius considers Ophelia as a weakness of Hamlet that will tempt him to
reveals the reason for his madness. After all, Polonius is the father of Ophelia which
gives him the ability to restrains his daughter to accept Prince Hamlet’s love. By doing
that to Hamlet, Claudius can easily cause Hamlet breakdown and lose his sanity.
Manipulating both Ophelia’s and Hamlet’s emotion through his inferior,Polonius’s
power. Using this same method also applied on Laertes. Claudius does this to Laertes
by convincing him that Hamlet is responsible for his father’s death and that Hamlet is
their common enemy. Claudius starts by challenging Laertes’s loyalty to his father,
Polonius, “Laertes, was your father dear to you? Or are you like the painting of a
sorrow, As face without heart?(Act 4 Scene 1).
Claudius is concluding that if Laertes has the loyalty to his father, he would defend his
honor in action. As a result, Laertes states his passion and his plan of revenge on
Hamlet, “To cut his throat in the church” (Act 4 Scene 2).
This shows that Claudius successfully has taken advantage of Laertes anger and hatred
of Hamlet in helping himself achieve the goal of killing Hamlet. According to the
criticism on Claudius in Hamlet Outline, it states that “Claudius is clearly a clever
politician and manipulator of people and he skilfully turns Laertes’ sorrow and anger
to his own purposes”. Having control of his power, Claudius takes full advantage of
people’s loyalty by take control over the event in the play. Polonius dutifully serves for
King Claudius,he is willing to use his own daughter to spy on Hamlet. Later Polonius
voluntarily devoted himself to eavesdrop on the conversation between Hamlet and the
Queen. However, he has only put himself in danger and eventually is slain by Hamlet.
Polonius’s death leads to Ophelia’s madness and later drowning brought on by grief
and also to Laertes’ alliance with King Claudius to kill Hamlet, to avenge his father’s
death. Overall, Claudius has not only take advantage of Polonius’s loyalty and makes
him willing to sacrifice his own daughter to achieve Claudius’s goal, but also used
Laertes as a tool to assist him in killing of Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are
courtiers to King Claudius, both of them grow up with Hamlet. When Claudius assign
them to send Hamlet to England, neither of men has a problem trading their
friendship to betray Hamlet, and choose to obey the King’s order. “Most holy and
religious fear it is, To keep those many, many bodies safe. That live and feed upon
your majesty”(Act 3 Scene 1).
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern express their respect and devotion to Claudius in this
particular speech, saying that it’s a sacred duty to protect the lives of all those who
depend on highness of Claudius.
In conclusion, Claudius portrays as a crafty manipulator of people, his lies and deceit
put all others at risk but himself. Claudius’ strength is not physical strength, but his
mental ability to persuade the people around him to do things for his benefit. His
deceptions cause the deaths of all the people that close to him. Polonius, Laertes,
Ophelia and the Queen all killed under Claudius’s manipulation and scheme. Claudius
uses people’s loyalty and makes them to follow his commands; he also mask his
evilness with sincerity and fooled others’ emotions. Ultimately, Claudius’s scheming
caught up with him and led to not only his downfall, but also the downfall of
Denmark. Like “The Manipulative Nature of Claudius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet” article
says, “King Claudius, as seen in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is both intelligent and
well-spoken, two traits that, put together, complement his manipulative and
dangerous nature”.

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Discussion on Claudius as a manipulator

Throughout the book, many saw Claudius as a supporter and someone to go to in

Manipulation of others emotions and relationships were skilfully used by Claudius in

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