Mirabelli, 1 Hamlet Tragedy reveals the true identity of a person as it draws out one’s deepest inner emotions; this is evident in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. In the play, the newly appointed King and brother of the late King Hamlet, is responsible for the murder of his own brother and Denmark’s beloved ruler. The new King, Claudius, displays several different sides of himself to his audience when all begins to go awry. He now knows that the former King’s son, Hamlet, knows of his murder, his friend Polonius was killed by a seemingly insane Hamlet, and Polonius’ children are losing their sense of sanity and are blaming Claudius for their father’s murder. Within his speech, Claudius shows his true inner guilt over murdering his brother now that everything seems to be falling apart. Also, his sensitive side is portrayed for Polonius’ children and the loss of their beloved father. Finally, the King is shown to be deceiving and manipulative with others, showing himself as innocent and hurt when he is far from innocent. In Shakespeare’s original version of Hamlet, Claudius’ speech in Act IV, scene v, effectively captures the attention of not only the Elizabethan audience of the play, but also his wife Gertrude. Just like any villain, Claudius has a very guilty conscience that slowly comes out during the play. Firstly, he mentions that everything is going horribly, and the audience can identify a sense of guilt when Claudius brings up this point. Within the speech, he says, “When sorrows come, they come not single spies/ But in battalions” (IV, v, 83-84). This quotation shows the audience that Claudius feels guilt for starting a chain reaction of bad events. Hamlet’s madness,

Mirabelli, 2 the death of Polonius and the insanity of his children would not have happened had he not murdered the former King. Moreover, Claudius worries that he will be