Hamlet and Macbeth and the New King of England

Hamlet and Macbeth and the new King of England

The Kings in both Hamlet and Macbeth represents good and the men that want to destroy the monarchy, are evil. Hamlet's father, King Hamlet, and Duncan, King of Scotland in Macbeth, are both killed, but avenged for the good of country. King Hamlet was a good, brave ruler, yet Claudius is a shrewd politician and manipulator, only interested in the throne. Just like Hamlet, we are somewhat uncertain as to whether or not Claudius has killed the King. The character Macbeth's only greedy concern is in the throne as well, and we know for sure that he definitely kills the King for his own covetous interests.

Shakespeare's most violent tragedy, Macbeth is about a brave Scottish general who receives a prophecy that one day he would become the king of Scotland. Obsessed by ambition and encouraged by his wife, Macbeth invites the King to his home and murders good King Duncan and takes the throne of the King of Scotland. "Throughout, [Macbeth] the defenders of righteousness are associated with positive images of natural order and with patriarchal control. Duncan rewards his subjects by saying 'I have begun to plant thee, and will labor/To make thee full of growing' (1.4. 28-29)" (Bevington 713). Because Macbeth is filled with thoughts of guilt and fear, he quickly becomes a vicious, brutal tyrant, who commits more and more murders to protect himself from the hostility and distrust of the people.

Hamlet is the story of a young prince whose uncle has married his mother shortly after his father, the King of Denmark's, death. Hamlet presumes, but is never clear as to whether or not Claudius has killed the king. It is also uncertain if Hamlet's mother, Gertrude is involved because of how quickly she married Claudius, and how deep their relationship appears to be. Hamlet's uncertainties about the events that surround his father's death delay any action of revenge that he wants to take against his uncle. This delay in action causes a series of tragic events, yet Hamlet is uncertain whether or not he is morally justified in revenge against Claudius.

Hamlet is more a play about the thoughts of a man, rather than his actions. Hamlet thinks about the death of the King, and whether or not Claudius is responsible. However, it is never quite clear as to whether or not Hamlet is actually insane or just pretending. Because of his ambivalence he doesn't actually take revenge until the very end of the play. According to Greenblatt, Shakespeare's writing took a turn by a discovery of the "intense representation of inwardness called forth by a new technique of radical excision." (Greenblatt 323). It should be noted that the movement now known as humanism, began during the Renaissance and people began taking an interest in others and how they think. Hamlet's famous speech in Act II, "What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god--the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!" (2.2.293-297), is a result of that new humanist morality.

When Queen Elizabeth died Shakespeare and the acting company became the favorites of the new King and had achieved affluence and great success. In fact, King James I named the acting company