Monday, May 9, 2011

What does Claudius reveal in his asides to the audience in Shakespeare's Hamlet?

Claudius' aside to the audience? You really need to be more specific in your question. An aside is a small remark made to no one in particular, for no one is on stage to hear it. A soliloquy is a major speech made alone by a character that expresses his innermost, and mostly private and hidden, feelings.


That said, I assume you mean an actual aside. Well, there is a rather telling aside by Claudius that is muttered early in the play (Act 1, scene 3). Polonius speaks to Ophelia first, and then Claudius, left alone, speaks briefly to himself (and, if you will, to the audience):



POLONIUS:


Ophelia, walk you here. Gracious, so please you,


We will bestow ourselves. Read on this book,


That show of such an exercise may colour


Your loneliness. We are oft to blame in this—


'tis too much proved—that with devotion's visage


And pious action we do sugar o'er


The Devil himself.



KING:


O, 'tis too true!


How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience!


The harlot's cheek, beautied with plastering art,


Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it


Than is my deed to my most painted word.


O heavy burden!



What The King says here, echos Polonius' remarks: we may try to cover up the evil we do, but the truth is still the truth no matter how we try to hide it.

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