Hamlet Character Analysis

Within William Shakespeare 's Hamlet, various characters assume unique traits and personalities. The second scene of Hamlet, characterizes the main character, Hamlet, by establishing the polarity of Hamlet and his enemy, King Claudius. Shakespeare’s use of Claudius’ monologue and Hamlet’s aggressive phrases and puns towards his parents, along with a soliloquy, and his meeting with the ghost of his father, creates a detailed catalog of the characterization of Hamlet. King Claudius in scene ii, begins his address to Voltemand and Cornelius, followed by Laertes’ wishes to France, and finally ending with a dramatic monologue criticizing Hamlet. Claudius views Hamlet as a weak and emasculated man, who also sins against God and nature. The various patriarchal judgments referring to Hamlet’s feminine actions as an unnatural occurrence are supported by: “‘Tis sweet and commendable,” “‘Tis unmanly grief,” “heart unfortified,” “mind impatient,” “unschooled,” and “peevish.” Such statements evoke Hamlet as a childish and feminine person, with the addition of: “Impious stubbornness,” “incorrect to heaven,” “fault to heaven,” “fault against the dead,” and “fault to nature.” Hamlet is portrayed as an inhuman being, an abomination towards nature and to God. The brutal tirade concludes by claiming that Hamlet’s grief is “most absurd,” and life’s “common theme / Is death of fathers.” Claudius’ wish for Hamlet to stay with him and Gertrude and become his new “father” insinuates Hamlet as a