Kingship & Denmark Flashcards
Scene 1, Act 1, Horatio on what the Ghost means
‘that fair and warlike form in which the majesty of buried Denmark…This bodes some strange eruption to our state.’
Scene 2, Act 1: Claudius on the State
‘ Claudius says that Fortibras wrongfully thinks ‘our state to be disjoint and out of frame’
Use of collective pronouns shows how CLAUDIUS has assumed his kingship quickly, attempting to assert his control and create a sense of unity in a divided country. This statement is contradicted by the previous scene where it is stated that CLAUDIUS is making the country tirelessly work in preparation for work - shows he LIES & thus doubt is cast on everything he says. Denmark can be seen as ‘disjoint’ as a result of his rule, implying that there is CORRUPTION surrounding him, and that he is TWO-FACED.
Claudius in Act 1, Scene 2 about father & heir
‘You are the most immediate to our throne, and with no less nobility of love than that which dearest father bears his son, do I impart towards you.’ = A statement of political power, false love, disparity between Elizabethan audience’s perception of inheritance and Denmark’s system
LAERTES as Hamlet’ link to Kingdom in Act 1, Scene 3
‘His will is not his own, for he himself is subject to his birth…for on his choice depends the sanctity and health of this whole state’
- Links health of the state with the king, connected to the people, links, domestic and wider, political climate; implies corruption in relationships can extend to the country. ‘Sanctity’ fits the excessive way LAERTES speaks While also playing into the place, broader concern, with the spiritual health of the kingdom, after the death of King Hamlet, and the remarriage of Gertrude.
Hamlet as rightful heir of the people Act 4 Scene 7
‘The great love the general gender bear him’
= HAMLET has popularity of the people
1.5 Hamlet about Claudius
‘There’s ne’er a villain dwelling in all Denmark’
Intercédons ce of king & country - link of Claudius and corruption 1.5
‘a serpent stung me. So the whole ear of Denmark is by a forgèd process of my death rankly abused’
Laertes about duty of Hamlet to state 1.3
‘His will is not his own, for he himself is subject to his birth…for on his choice depends the sanctity and health of this whole state’
3.3 IDEA OF INTERplay of KING AND COUNTRY- divine right of kings in Elizabethan period but Denmark is an electoral monarchy…? King as nourishing force (if he is corrupt, so is everything), paternal role of king.
‘Many many bodies…that live and feed upon your majesty’
Hamlet in 4.2
‘The body is with the King, but the King is not with the body.’
The people are in favour of HAMLET, shows CLAUDIUS’s detachment from STATE - not rightful king, in his madness HAMLET has an odd sort of control that he didn’t have previously
4.3g
‘He’s loved of the distracted multitudes’
