Claudius

Claudius, usurping king of Denmark, uncle-stepfather of Hamlet, and second husband to Gertrude in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The play is a tragedy in five acts, written about 1599–1601 and published in a quarto edition in 1603 from an unauthorized text, with reference to an earlier play. The First Folio version was taken from a second quarto of 1604 that was based on Shakespeare’s own papers with some annotations by the bookkeeper. A power-hungry antagonist, Claudius has ascended the throne by killing his brother (fratricide) and marrying the widowed queen, and he seeks to gain complete control of the kingdom through political acumen and conniving plans.

Role in Hamlet

Claiming the kingdom and the queen (Acts I & II)

On a sinister dark night with “not a mouse stirring,” the ghost of Denmark’s dead king, Old Hamlet, appears clad in full armor. The first scene of Hamlet lays down the tone for the tale, creates a mystery, and makes it clear that something is gravely wrong in Denmark. With the stage thus set, Claudius’s entry in the second scene is clouded under the shadow of unease. Claudius, who is Old Hamlet’s brother and the new king of Denmark, gives a politically savvy opening speech as he addresses the court. He mourns his brother’s death while justifying his hasty marriage to the widowed queen and his “sometime sister” Gertrude within a month of Old Hamlet’s demise, asserting that he has taken her as his wife:

With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage,
In equal scale weighing delight and dole

He delves immediately into state affairs, sending a diplomatic envoy to Norway to stop an outbreak of war with Prince Fortinbras. His attention, however, soon turns to more familial matters. He tries to placate his nephew Hamlet, who is distressed not only by his father’s sudden death but also by his mother’s remarriage. Claudius requests Hamlet to think of him as a father, claiming his love for Hamlet is as dear as any father’s toward a son. Although Claudius expresses sympathy for Hamlet’s bereavement, he loses patience, telling the young prince that his continued mourning is “unmanly grief.”

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Hamlet is not pacified, making his discontent evident. The young prince’s odd behavior seeds doubt and concern in Claudius. In Act II, scene 2, Claudius asks Hamlet’s childhood friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the prince and uncover the true reason behind his strange demeanor. Meanwhile, Claudius’s political acumen has paid off, with the ambassadors returning from Norway bringing news that Fortinbras’s rebellion has been quelled.

The conspirator (Acts III & IV)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern fail to identify the cause behind Hamlet’s state of mind. The shrewd Claudius has another move up his sleeve. He arranges for Ophelia, the counselor Polonius’s daughter, to meet Hamlet in the hope that the prince’s love for her might make him reveal his thoughts to her. As Claudius and Polonius eavesdrop on the conversation, the king senses a threat:

There’s something in his soul
O’er which his melancholy sits on brood,
And I do doubt the hatch and the disclose
Will be some danger;

Under the garb of a solution, Claudius lays out a plan. He shall send Hamlet to England on a political errand; however, the true motive behind the mission, which Claudius reveals later, is to have Hamlet executed once he arrives there. Meanwhile, Hamlet devises his own ploy to catch Claudius out. In a play titled The Mousetrap to be performed at court, he includes a scene that mimics the circumstances of Old Hamlet’s murder, anticipating that Claudius’s reaction to it will give away his guilt in perpetrating the real crime. Claudius’s conscience betrays him when he abruptly flees the performance.

In a soliloquy in Act III, scene 3, Claudius attempts to pray for forgiveness, confessing his sin:

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O, my offense is rank, it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon ’t,
A brother’s murder.

He admits, however, that true repentance would mean forfeiting the crown and queen, which he is unwilling to relinquish. This momentary softening soon passes, and he intensifies his efforts to get rid of Hamlet when the prince kills Polonius, mistaking the counselor for the king. When the mission in England fails, Claudius asks Polonius’s son, Laertes, to challenge Hamlet to a duel to death and even has a sinister plan in mind as a fallback.

Character appraisal

Claudius is among Shakespeare’s most intricately drawn antagonists. Possessing depth and complexity, he is, in the words of British critic A.C. Bradley, “very interesting, both psychologically and dramatically.” Eloquent, dignified, and charming, he fits the role of the statesman, a position he has wrested through wrongdoing. Though aware that his rise to power is tainted by regicide, Claudius assumes the throne with ease, hiding his guilt beneath a regal demeanor and a carefully orchestrated speech that helps him settle seamlessly into kingship. Whether mourning his brother or justifying his marriage, he is courteous and convincing. His swift and efficient transition to the matters of the state speaks to his cunning—he not only performs his duties efficiently, presenting a picture of stability and control, but also deflects attention away from suspicion. He is diplomatic in his dealings with Polonius, deliberately showering praise and favors on the counselor’s son. This is also seen in his conciliatory approach toward Hamlet, who sees through the facade and calls Claudius a “smiling damned villain.”

A manipulative man, Claudius uses his powers of persuasion to convince Gertrude to marry him soon after her husband dies. He exploits Hamlet’s friends, under the guise of concern for the prince, in a covert mission, and, when Laertes returns to Denmark following the deaths of his father and sister, Claudius easily sways him to take part in a direct plot to murder Hamlet, a decision that reveals Claudius’s cold-blooded pragmatism. Even the ghost of the dead king acknowledges Claudius’s ability to use his influence:

With witchcraft of his wits, with traitorous gifts—
O wicked wit and gifts, that have the power
So to seduce!

The moral ambiguity that Claudius grapples with reveals a nuanced dimension to his otherwise outright villainy. There is a glimpse of Claudius’s pricked conscience in Act III, scene 1, when he compares his “ugly” deed and hypocrisy to a “harlot’s cheek beautied with plast’ring art,” drawing a parallel between makeup that conceals the face and words that mask the truth. The famous prayer scene (Act III, scene 3) crystallizes his inner conflict. His prayer for forgiveness shows he is not devoid of conscience, but ultimately his ambitions outweigh his morality and remorse. He refuses to relinquish his crown, consumed by power and ambition. Until the very end, his main concern is his own position, safety, and survival, and he dies crying, “O, yet defend me, friends! I am but hurt.”