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He wants the Throne

If you see Hamlet as only a battle between Hamlet and Claudius to kill the other, then the play must be (and always will be) an unsolvable mystery. HOWEVER, if you throw in a third variable the story begins to make sense.

The variable is this: both Hamlet and Claudius want the other dead; however, both of them also want the throne of Denmark.

Need some proof? Look at Hamlet's list of the grievances against him. When the Prince talks about Claudius, he says that the King has "kill'd my king and whored my mother,
Popp'd in between the election and my hopes..." Here the Prince is listing off Claudius' offenses in ascending order. Haven't you ever done this in an argument? "First, you did this to me; now, you did this, which is even worse; and as the icing on the cake, you had the infernal gall to do this to me!" That's exactly what the Prince is doing.

Keep in mind that Claudius is no sadistic tyrant. He's a slick-tongued politician (does this make anyone think of certain highly placed government officials? Wink, wink...) and is probably quite popular with the people. Look at how well he handles the enraged Laertes in Act IV (I think) . Claudius is calm, reasonable, and diplomatic. This man knows how to be a king! Hamlet just can't walk in and kill him and expect to get the throne of Denmark. The Prince would be seen as a usurper, not a conquering hero, and would probably be put to death.

So Hamlet's task is to kill the king, yes, but in order to do so and obtain the throne of Denmark he must first convince the general public that Claudius is a villain. The play is one way that Hamlet tries to do this -- he hopes that seeing Claudius' reaction will make important people start to ask some very probing questions.

Personally, I don't think the Ghost takes this into account. Hamlet Sr.'s ghost is more concerned about getting the pretender off the throne than he is about continuing his dynasty -- which makes sense because he's dead. :)

So now Hamlet becomes not a mystery of why the characters do what they do, but a carefully calculated stalking match between Hamlet and Claudius. The two are circling each other, with the throne of Denmark at the center of the struggle.

Just a layman's ramblings on a play that I've come to love deeply....

Regards,
~R~

Posted by Rogue on March 31, 1997 at 14:18:17
In Reply to "Why did Hamlet hesitate?" posted by Anthony on March 25, 1997 at 19:45:08

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