Kara Van Kesteren
Professor Ellens
ENG 104
November 2, 2017
Claudius’ Word’s to Hamlet: Comfort or Threat?
The ending of Shakespeare’s Hamlet is the expected outcome of a tragedy: death and despair. But what make the play a masterpiece of the genre is the way the tragedy is developed from the very beginning of the play. Claudius, the story’s villain, on the surface seems to be the saviour of a king who brings quick stability to the nation after the unexpected death of the monarch. This is what the court and characters believe him to be. In 1.2 of Hamlet, the court is celebrating with Claudius and Gertrude. Hamlet is the only sullen one there, and so his mother tries to console him. When she fails, Claudius swoops in and delivers a speech that the court would have approved as loving and benevolent. On the surface this is what the speech appears to be. But upon examining the text is seems that Claudius had a different purpose in addressing Hamlet. The meter of the poetic speech, the repetitively stressed words, and certain cases of alliteration show that the comfort of Claudius’ speech was only a façade for the benefit of the listening court; Claudius’ real goal was to shame and intimidate Hamlet.
The meter in Claudius’ speech starts out in almost perfect iambic pentameter. An extra syllable now and again can be excused due to the conversational tone the characters speak in. But the speech being in iambic pentameter, the most common type of poetry both for the characters to speak in the play and for poetry outside of the play, calms the audience. It is an expected, safe way of talking. It is soothing to the ear. It signals that all is well. It can be contrasted with Hamlet’s way of speaking when he is acting mad. Prose is used when something is not right, when there is a problem. So when Claudius speaks in perfect iambic pentameter, he is convincing the court that all is well.
The change in meter comes in line six, when instead of having the standard five iambic feet, line six has six. “To do obsequious sorrow; but to persever”. (1.2) Such a correlation is never a coincidence in Shakespeare’s literature. From this point on in the speech the perfect iambic pentameter is broken by four double accented feet. The words these double accents are placed on are evidence that Claudius is attempting to shame Hamlet into giving up his mourning. The first is in line eight, where a double accent is placed on the first two syllables in the word “unmanly”. Claudius is pointedly emasculating Hamlet. Next in line ten, the double accent is put on the first two syllables in the word “impatient”. It seems that the last syllable is not accented because Claudius still had the court listening and had to keep a bit on the iambic pentameter going. In line eleven, “An understanding simple and unschool’d:” both the words “simple” and “unschool’d” are double stressed. This would have been especially hurtful to Hamlet because he had been through schooling in Wittenberg. These stressed insults are meant to hurt Hamlet’s self-esteem and make him more pliable to Claudius’ command to forget his father.
Claudius also stresses the world “fault” three times in his speech. This happens within two lines without breaking iambic pentameter. “Take it to heart? Fie! ‘Tis a fault to heaven,/
A fault against the dead, a fault to nature,” (1.2) Here we get the proof that Claudius is stressing Hamlet’s faults; even making up faults that aren’t there. Hearing to the world “fault” emphasised to him would have made Hamlet feel even worse, especially after being told what faults his behaviour was allegedly exhibiting.
In the final part of the speech there are two cases of alliteration that are especially key to Claudius’ controlling tone over Hamlet. First are the ‘b’ sounds in “And we beseech you, bend you to remain”. This is a summary of the entire speech. Claudius beseeches Hamlet in a kind fatherly way; this is mainly for the benefit of the court. Claudius’ real aim is to bend Hamlet’s actions to his own will for his own ends. The other case of alliteration is in the last line of the speech, “Our chiefest courtier, cousin, and our son.” This emphasizes that the speech has come full circle. Claudius is back to complimenting Hamlet like he did in the first line “’Tis sweet and commendable in your nature,”. Again, Hamlet is getting the insulting, controlling side of the speech. The kind, benevolent part of the speech is to protect the court’s positive view of Claudius.
When read correctly this passage is a turning point of the play. The meter is split between the “good guy Claudius” type of reassuring, conventional meter and the “bad guy Claudius” type of intermittent, threating meter. It is at this point in the play that we can begin questioning Claudius and his true role in the death of the king and transfer of the stewardship of the kingdom. Claudius’ language shows that he is playing two sides, both staying on the court’s good side and trying to bend Hamlet to his will. Here, early on in the plot of the play, Shakespeare is already casting doubt on the most tragic figure in the play.
Works Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Penguin Random House, 2015