Interpreting the King in Hamlet Essays -- The Tragedy of Hamlet Essays

Interpreting the King in Hamlet Shakespe ars tragedy Hamlet presents in the character of King Claudius an intelligent, cunning, and seemingly selfless ruler. This essay will present a critic-supported, detailed consideration of the truly capable and cunning King Claudius. For the entirety of the drama a life-and-death manpowertal contest ensues between Claudius and the protagonist. John Masefield discusses this mind battle in Hamlet, Prince of Denmark The King is probing Hamlets mind with gross human probes, to find extinct if he is mad. Hamlet is searching the Kings mind with the finest of intellectual probes, to find issue if he is guilty. The probe used by him, the fragment of a tactics within a play, is the work of a man with a acquaintance of the impotence of intellect-- Our wills and fates do so contrary run That our devices still are overthrown-- and a faith in the omnipotence of intellect-- Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. (n. pag.) Salvad or de Madariaga in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern discusses Claudius descent with the two emissaries and former friends of Hamlet, who were escorting the prince to his execution in England The two young 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 not what he was. The cause of the change I cannot dream of. Therefore, I beg you so by your companies To draw him on to pleasures, and to gather So much as from occasion you may glean Whether aught to us unknown afflicts him consequently That opened lies within our remedy (n. pag.). Like everyone els... ...Embassy of Death. The Wheel of Fire. capital of the United Kingdom Methuen and Co., Ltd., 1954. p. 38-39. http//server1.hypermart.net/ small town/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. 2nd ed. London Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 1964. p.14-16. http//www.freehomepages.com/hamlet/other/essayson.htmdemag-ess N. pag. Masefield, John. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. N. p. n. p., 1911. http//www.mwsc.edu/eng368/summer97/public/7.24.97-16.23.59.html N. Pag. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Massachusetts install of Technology. 1995. http//www.chemicool.com/Shakespeare/hamlet/full.html No line nos.