Caitlyn Dille

Period 3

Jewell

17 March 2022

Claudius Vs. Hamlet

In Shakespeare's tragedy ‘Hamlet’ Claudius was placed in the play to replace late King

Hamlet. In the first two opening acts of the tragedy Cladius has quite an impression on Hamlet

and it is not a great one. Originally Cladius was Hamlet's uncle, also King Hamlet’s brother.

Cladius now wants Hamlet to treat Claudius with the respect he gave his own father and late

king. While Cladius wants to take over the kingdom young Hamlet sees how this is wrong and

this action makes young Hamlet dislike his Uncle Cladius.

After King Hamlet died young Hamlet's mom replaces him immediately and this does not

sit well with Hamlet. “A little more than kin and less than kind” (1.2.67). Moreover this is young

Hamlet stating how he is related to him twice being his uncle and his father. Hamlet absolutely

dislikes this idea and wants nothing to do with it. He also thinks this situation is extremely odd

and weird how his mom is ok with her husband being replaced so quickly. Young Hamlet is

against Cladius becoming king because it is not a normal relationship, Cladius also does not want

the best for the kingdom he just wants to be head royalty. Hamlet also knows Cladius just wants

the best for himself and not the kingdom.

In the first two acts of the tragedy Cladius tries to express sympathy to the kingdom,

however young Hamlet can see through him. Cladius does not care at all about the kingdom, he

just puts on a front that he does and portrays fake sympathy. “Though yet of Hamlet our dear

brother's death/The memory be green, and that it us befitted”(1.2.1-2). In addition he is saying

how he had a good memory and life with King Hamlet. However he is trying to secretly tell the

people that he is now in charge and everyone needs to get over his brother's death. Cladius wants

them to know that because they have a new King, they can forget about King Hamlet.

Cladius majorly influenced the trajectory of young Hamlet when he tried to tell him to

get over his own fathers death. This makes young Hamlet extremely dislike the new King

Cladius, young Hamlet also does not respect him the way he respected his father . “But two

months dead-nay, not so much, not two./So excellent a king, that was to this' '(1.2.142-143). In

addition, young Hamlet was telling Claudius only two months is not enough time to grieve your

fathers death. Cladius’s character is really influencing Hamlet away from him and trying to tell

young Hamlet this did not help his case. Young Hamlet now does not have a good relationship

with Cladius which could be bad for the kingdom, because the two most important royals have a

lot of built up tension. This will eventually break the kingdom.

The role of Cladius in Shakespeare's tragedy is to try to control Hamlet and take over the

kingdom. This then makes the trajectory for the rest of the play for Hamlet to dislike Cladius.

These quotes proved that there was a lot of tension between Cladius and young Hamlet. Hamlet

will not like Cladius for the rest of the tragedy. Overall Cladius had a large influence on Hamlet

and how the rest of Shakespeare's tragedy ‘Hamlet’ will go.

 Work Cited

● Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2012.

Commentary Summary (avoid!)-when writing commentary

What is Commentary? What is Summary?

● Thorough interpretation of text
● Connects evidence back to support
argument and claim
● Provides depth of evidence
● Provides insight into characters, plot,
theme, setting conflict
● Opinions based on evidence provided
● Explanation of characters' emotions and
how they affect other characters, plot,
etc…
Key:
THESIS/RESTATE
SUPPORT ARGUMENTS/TOPIC SENTENCES
DIRECTLY QUOTED EVIDENCE
TRANSITIONS
● Concise explanation of plot
● Key details of story or characters
● Details of authors story
● Not original thought
● Repeating in your own words
Where does Summary belong?
● Intro-background
● Context/Lead in
● Paraphrase/evidence