How does claudius feel about Hamlet?

Answer 1

Director's call. Claudius seems well-disposed to Hamlet at the start, but faced with Hamlet's insane (but not really insane) behaviour and the murder of Claudius's chief counsellor (a murder in which Claudius correctly identifies himself as the intended victim) his disposition towards him sours. Understandably so. By Act 4 he has decided that Hamlet must be killed because he's too darn dangerous. "Do it, England, for like the hectic in my blood he rages, and thou must cure me."

Answer 2

He does various things. He forbids him from returning to University. He names him heir apparent to the throne. He sends him to England on a diplomatic mission. He plots Hamlet's death three times, but only the second one gets him.

Answer 3

With contempt. He says things to Polonius which insult him in ways Polonius is too thick to pick up. Hamlet knows he uses people as spies and calls him a "fishmonger" which is to say a pimp. After he "looses his daughter" on Hamlet, Hamlet calls him Jeptha, a man who sacrificed his daughter. When Polonius interrupts the player's speech, Hamlet sneers, "He's for a jig or a tale of bawdry, or he sleeps." He makes a point of misunderstanding Polonius when he asks "What is the matter?" He describes the book he is reading as "slanders . . .old men have gray beards, that their faces are wrinkled, their eyes purging thick amber and plumtree gum, and that they have a plentiful lack of wit, together with most weak hams. All which, sir, though I most powerfully and potently believe . . .", enabling him to insult Polonius with impunity, always dodging around the actual insult.

His opinion is frequently given behind Polonius' back. "These tedious old fools", "The great baby you see there is not yet out of his swaddling clouts," "Thou rash intruding fool."

Answer 4

He's pretty cool, actually. When Laertes breaks into the palace, intending to kill Claudius, the king faces him unarmed and calmly talks him out of it.

Our view of Claudius is skewed because we keep listening to Hamlet's perverse views about him. Apart from the murder of his brother (which we know he deeply regrets and for which he feels profound guilt) he shows himself to be an able diplomat, a loving husband, kind and courteous to his servants and advisors and, as we have seen, brave in the face of danger.

Answer 5

Not badly, at least not at the start. In Act I Scene 2, Claudius calls Hamlet "our son", and officially makes him the heir apparent to the kingdom. He insists that Hamlet stay in Denmark and not return to Wittenburg where he has been studying. His motives are unclear; it could be a desire to keep Hamlet where he can see him or a desire to please Gertrude, or a wish that the heir apparent should get to know his people and kingdom better. But Hamlet is unfailingly rude to Claudius and to his chief advisor Polonius, whom Hamlet then kills. Hamlet is a thorn in Claudius's side. Claudius begins to treat him, not as his chosen successor, but as a problem which must be eliminated.

Answer 6

He pours poison in King Hamlet's ear whilst Hamlet is sleeping in the garden.

Answer 7

Claudius stands up during the performance and asks for light so that he can see well enough to leave the court performance. The death of Gonzago has been so very close the Claudius'

Answer 8

King Claudius dies. Hamlet stabs him continuously and makes him drink the wine with poison in it.

Answer 9

He arranges to have him killed, and succeeds, even though four other people die as a result.