Affected by Claudius' Affection Towards Gertrude

Affected by Claudius' Affection Towards Gertrude

It is clear that Hamlet as a character changes as the play progresses, becoming more affected by Claudius’s affection towards Gertrude, and he appears repulsed by the courts relaxed attitude regarding the death of the king. There are different types of corruption within the play; there is the blatant moral corruption of Claudius, having committed a crime that ‘hath the primal eldest curse upon’t’; but there is also the corruption of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in lying to their best friend, the corruption of Gertrude in betraying her husband, of Polonius in spying on Leartes and of the entire court in committing murder in the final pages of the play. However one could argue that in many of the above cases, it is the pursuit of avenge, i.e. the seeking of retaliation and the regaining of honour that leads to this corruption.

When the ghost of old Hamlet instructs his son to ‘take revenge for his horrible murder’, he inflicts upon Hamlet a string of negative emotions, forcing him to commit a crime, and to live with the knowledge of the betrayal of his father. The corruption that Hamlet both suffers and inflicts hereafter could consequently be put down to his obligation of revenge, and to the idea of avenging his father’s honour which becomes the focus of his life. It is clear that Hamlet is an extremely troubled person, and irrespective of whether his madness if feigned, one cannot doubt that he looses starts to loose his faculties. His expostulations of his love for Ophelia, and his bizarre treatment towards her help to demonstrate this. However Polonius encapsulates Hamlet’s state through the quote ‘though this is madness, yet there be method in it’ since thee is a purpose to his façade of insanity.

Hamlet becomes extremely obsessed with the bringing about of revenge that it takes over his life, and on several occasions brings him very close to ending it; ‘to be or not to be?’. In spite of this, he overlooks opportunities where he could have killed King...

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