The Deception Behind Power Machiavellian Villains will go to drastic extents to maintain power, it can be used for selfish acts. Power can be dangerous, this is evident in the characters of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Polonius, Hamlet, and Claudius use their influence for evil in hopes of it benefiting themselves despite other lives being put at risk. Polonius had power in his role with the royals as well as power over his children as their father. He used this power to control and spy in a deceptive manner. Hamlet had power as a royal who is beloved by many. He went to great lengths to pursue his revenge which cost lives. Claudius had power as the king who is trusted to lead. He used power to his advantage in many risky scenarios. The varying …show more content…
Polonius’s power not only comes from his profession but his role as a father over his children. Polonius uses his role as a superior to Reynaldo. Reynaldo is a servant and obeys commands by those above him. Polonius deceives his son by spying on him through Reynaldo. See you now, Your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth, And thus do we of wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of bias, By indirections find directions out. (Hamlet II.i.61-67). Polonius’s power over Reynaldo gave him no choice as to whether he actually wanted to do this task. Reynaldo was told to say rumours about Laertes to his peers to discover if they are true. Laertes’ trust was betrayed by his father when he decided to spy on him. Polonius more than once has sent out spies. At one point, he uses his power over his daughter to …show more content…
592-593). Hamlet clearly states he plans the whole play to trap the king. He deceived Claudius when he found the letter calling for his execution, and he rewrote it to call for the execution of those who carried the letter. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern ended up dead because of his actions, that would not have been possible without power, “I had my father's signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal. Folded the writ up in the form of the other, Subscribed it, gave't th' impression, placed it safely —The changeling never known” (Hamlet V.II.49-53). Hamlet devised this plan to take Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s lives through a letter he pretends is written by the king. He uses tools accessible to him to recreate a letter perfectly as if from the king. He schemed this well thought out using the king's power in giving orders to deceive everyone involved. Therefore, actions taken by Prince Hamlet have required his power and been used for his selfish
For Claudius in Hamlet, his power is mainly used as manipulation, while Rex Walls in The Glass Castle abused his power in various ways, including physical force. The abuse of power is truly demonstrated in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, when Claudius’s true character as a man is tested while being given excessive amounts of power. Claudius is the main
He is the boss's father which he takes advantage of in order to show his strength as a aggressive male. This behavior affects his wife into thinking she needs
He tells Gertrude, “Her father and myself, we’ll so bestow ourselves that, seeing unseen, we may of their encounter frankly judge, and gather by him, as he is behaved, if’t be th’ affliction of his love or no that thus he suffers for.” His actions here show his antipathy for Hamlet in that he does not care what could be wrong with Hamlet, he is only trying to find an excuse to send him away. Claudius even goes on to convince Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to go with Hamlet to England simply just to spy on him. In an attempt to trick Hamlet into confessing his ambition to take the throne from Claudius, Guildenstern mentions that “dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream,” (44) but Hamlet
Turning now to the absurd world of the two plays. To begin with, Hamlet finds himself in a world of actors where no one is who they seem. Claudius is playing the role of the king though his betrayal would suggest he is not meant to be king. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are playing the role of Hamlet 's friends while secretly working for Claudius. Even fair Ophelia, who Hamlet thought honest deceives him in Act 3 scene 1.
Yes sir, I would like to know. Polonius Well, here’s what I’m thinking. As you talk with someone and hint about my son’s faults and little sins, you’ll watch his reaction, and if he’s ever seen Laertes do any of these things, it will only be natural for him to agree with you, at that point you would be able to accurately report my son’s behaviour.
Additionally, in scene two act III the scene that may have any effect on the direction of the play is the introduction of the Ghost appearing to Hamlet and telling him that Claudius his uncle and brother to his father killed the king father to Hamlet and asks him to revenge his death. This makes Hamlet to distrust almost everybody around him except Horatio his close friend. From the scene, Rosencrantz asks “Good my lord, what is your cause of distemper? you 338 do, surely, bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny your griefs to your friend.”. Hamlet “340 Sir, I lack advancement.”
Firstly, Hamlet is a play of a man by the name of Hamlet, whose father was murdered by Claudius, his uncle. Claudius murdered the king by pouring poison in his ear to claim the throne for himself. Hamlet is then told by a ghost to murder Claudius for revenge, and he struggles within himself for the length of play whether to do it or not. When Hamlet begins to hesitate it does more damage than good and causes a chain reaction of tragic events, and makes the readers question whether Hamlet is truly sane or not. Claudius’s corruptness begins to show when he uses his authority to order those around him to rid of Hamlet.
Lying to other people makes it impossible to be self-aware. In Act II of Hamlet, Shakespeare implies that people who tell lies to others end up lying to themselves. They are no longer honest to themselves or cognizant of their limits. Shakespeare portrays Polonius as a pompous hypocrite who doesn’t realise when he’s making a fool out of himself. In the second scene of Act II, Polonius gives a flowery and lengthy speech on the virtue of succinctness.
After the ghost and Hamlet come into contact, the spirit tells Hamlet the truth behind his suspicious death. Overcome by greed, Claudius wanted the throne for himself to sulk up the riches and treasures, which is what makes him act out on a plan to take over the throne by going into King Hamlet's quarters while he sleeps and then dripping poisonous fluid down his ear which then kills the king. After the Death of King Hamlet, Claudius then takes Hamlet's rightful spot on the throne and marries his brother's spouse Queen Gertrude. This information is critical to understanding how the events of greed and corruption came to be at the beginning of the story and how they unfold to affect the royal family and the royal court of Denmark. After hearing this information, Hamlet is distraught and panics; he recollects his thoughts, then decides to plan a way to avenge his father by pretending to be mad in front of the people around him, effectively fooling them.
He murdered the first King of Denmark in secrecy so he could usurp the throne and make the Queen his own. No one would suspect Claudius as the murderer due to his relation as the brother to the late King. Later on in the story, Claudius is suspecting Hamlet of not only being crazy, but possibly learning of the murder. With his words and power as King, he sent Hamlet to England to “get better” from his illness. Along with that he sent Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two of Hamlet’s old friends, to supervise Hamlet and confirm he would meet his doom.
After Proving Claudius’s guilt he wants nothing more than to kill him but when he finds what Hamlet has planned he begins throwing many obstacles in his way. One day after Hamlet had recently reacted harshly and killed Polonius after thinking it was the King he was sent to England with an order to be killed. This made Hamlet think fast as he tries to find a way to reverse the order in order to fulfill his destiny. “I had my father’s signet in my purse, Which was the model of that Danish seal: Folded the writ up in the form of the other, Subscrib’d it: gave’t th’impression; plac’d it safely, The changeling never known”
So this pushes Hamlet to lead his friends to their death. As a result,Hamlet was betrayed by his comrades who works for a king that is a murderer who took another king’s
Hamlet's mother Gertrude and the King plan to have two of Hamlet's friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, from school spy on him and see if he is actually going crazy. Hamlet knows the whole time that his “friends” are working for Claudius. They threw away their friendship with Hamlet just to secure some coin from the King. Later on in the play it is found out that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead and its is to be interpreted that they were killed by the King Claudius. Shakespeare used Rosencrantz and Guildenstern deaths to show that there is nothing to gain from betraying your
When he learns Claudius is responsible for the death of his father, he intends to reveal this newfound information to not only Gertrude, but the rest of the characters. He is smart enough to know that she will not believe him based solely on his encounter with the ghost, and must create a trap where Claudius will reveal his guilt on his own. When the players arrive at the castle, he alters their script to mimic the king’s murder and “catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.567). During the performance, Claudius shows signs of guilt and worry, making Hamlet’s plan a success and proving his
The story of a young man by the name of Hamlet has been told since it was first written in the early 1600s. The timeless classic tells the tale of Prince Hamlet, who discovers that his mother had wed his uncle, two months prior to his father’s passing. He visits the throne in Denmark because he is disgusted at the act of incest, where the ghost of his deceased father confronts him, insisting that he was murdered by Claudius, the new king. Hamlet is enraged, and he becomes obsessed with the idea of proving the crime so that he can obtain revenge against Claudius (Crowther). Despite the myriad of themes that circulate throughout the Shakespearean play, many do not realize one hidden yet extensive theme: actions and their consequences.