DRJ #1- Hamlet, Act 1

Initial reaction: Claudius’ character certainly reminds me of an actual true story of a man I knew some years ago who married his brother’s wife. In my story, the other brother was not dead, but I would think he almost felt dead with what happened. The one brother I compare to Claudius virtually stole away his brother’s wife and ironically and almost tragically went from being uncle to two boys to being their step-father. The Claudius-like brother knew he was tearing apart a family and still went forward with his misdeeds. The two boys soon learned to hate the step-father for what he did to their family. To this day, some 15 years later, it still reverberates in their family and they are a broken and distant family. I could see this Claudius-like brother telling the two boys to stop mourning their father being out of the house and start thinking of him as their new father. These real life dramas play out every day I would imagine, not in a play.
Character Analysis: Hamlet is the protagonist in this story and his fatal flaw is his rage of anger toward Claudius. He was already furious about Claudius marrying his mother only a month after the King’s death and then adds to that wrath after his encounter with the Ghost who claims to be his father and tells of how Claudius killed him. Even though he tells his friends that he is in control and for them to not worry, inside his rage is burning and no man can think straight when he hears of such an act which Claudius did. At this point of the play Hamlet meets Aristotle’s depiction of a tragic hero wherein Hamlet is of noble birth and we feel a pity for him in his situation.
Theme Analysis: There is a clear theme in the first act of Evil versus Goodness. It is clear that the King was admired and a good man signifying Goodness and his brother Claudius is the complete opposite, a murderer, a manipulator, a liar, someone with a cold and unfeeling heart representing Evil. These two elements in the theme are not hidden within the scenes; we immediately realize that Claudius is trying to manipulate Hamlet when he tells Hamlet that it is useless for him to mourn his father any longer. His father was dead for only two months. When we read how the Ghost tells his side of his own murder by his brother, it sets the scene for what is to come which will be a battle between what is good and what is evil. Hamlet lets it be known that “Foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes”, or translated to men’s deeds will be revealed even if they try to hide them. Marcellus’s famous statement of “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” sets the tone of what is to come.