Claudius' Crime

English Lit: OCR A Level - Hamlet, topic 3.2.1

Claudius' Crime in Hamlet

Claudius commits the crime which overshadows the whole play: the murder of King Hamlet.

The crime is not simply fratricide – the murder of one’s brother – but regicide – the murder of a king.
The crime is of such a magnitude that it pollutes the whole world of the play.
The whole state of Denmark has become “rotten” by Claudius’ “rank” offence against nature, family and God.

The motives for the crime are revealed when he is at prayer in A3S3.
Claudius lists them in a single line: “My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen”.
But his motives are never fully explained. We never learn of when ambition for the crown first stirred within him or exactly what his true feelings towards Gertrude are.
Whether Claudius was motivated by sexual desire for Gertrude or whether he simply used her as a way of securing the crown for himself is never settled in the play.