Essay Example on The paper, therefore, is an attempt to view Claudius through the Althusserian lense arguing that Claudius has brainwashed

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It is noteworthy that Claudius observes merrymaking to interpellate the people of the country, which is his ISA so that the people cannot perceive the vulnerability of the state and the criminality of the usurper. However, in reply to Horatio Hamlet says it is a custom. More honored in the breach than the observance 1 4 15 16 5 4 False Representation vs the Representation of Reality. Though Claudius applies false representation to mask reality. the reality is revealed to Prince Hamlet for his interview with the ghost of his father which can be considered here to be the representation of reality in a dramatic and allegorical way. The ghost exposes Claudius' reality that he is an incestuous, adulterate beast who has used his witty discourse and fancy gifts to seduce virtuous queen for fulfilling his shameful lust 1 5 42 6. Very comfortable we can view his witty discourse and fancy gifts as ideological apparatuses through the Althusserian lens 5 5. Claudius Panoptic Surveillance.

The ghost instructs young Hamlet to take revenge upon the murderer Claudius. Let not the royal bed of Denmark be A couch for luxury and damnèd incest 1 5 82 3 Noam Chomskyan Prince Hamlet is committed to keeping it in his Language Acquisition Device LAD. And thy commandment all alone shall live Within the book and volume of my brain 1 5 102 3. Ultimately he becomes obsessed with the sense of revenge and Hamlet’s physical and psychological transformation 2 2 5 becomes noticeable to Claudius whose panoptic surveillance, the term propounded by Michel Foucault 1926 1984 a French Philosopher and social theorist is effective on Prince Hamlet always.

 In other words, Hamlet remains under the close and constant observation of the present king who always feels threat by the nephew. He has also not been allowed to return to the University of Wittenberg. For your intent In going back to school in Wittenberg, It is most retrograde to our desire 1 2 12 14. So he appoints Hamlet’s school mates Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 2 2 to spy on him. He very intellectually and metaphorically asks them What have you my good friends deserved at the hands of fortune that she sends you to prison hither 2 2 230 31. Prior to them, Polonius has started spying on him 2 2 155 7. For the constant surveillance, he shows his conviction to the two spies is that Denmark’s prison 2 2 234. Besides like a deconstructionist who challenges conventional meaning and discourses he asserts thus. Why then tis none to you for there is anything either good or bad but thinking makes it so. To me it is a prison 2 2 239 40 5 6.

The Murder of Gonzago. Not only do Rosencrantz and Guildenstern spy upon him they also try to hegemonize him with the players of drama. They inform him. We coted them on the way and hither are they coming to offer you service 2 2 301 2. But Hamlet being free from hegemony takes the opportunity to stage a slightly modified opera by him. The Murder of Gonzago as twere the mirror up to nature 3 2 18 to unmask the reality of the hardened criminal’s regicide and his mother’s betrayal of his father 5 7.  Apparatuses perceived by Hamlet Like an unconventional intellectual Hamlet can also identify ideological repressive apparatuses and their consequences. They are the oppression of the empowered upon the disempowered the insults of the proud empowered the pangs of unrequited love, the inefficiency of the legal system, the rudeness of people in office and the mistreatment of good people. To quote Hamlet. Th oppressor’s wrong the proud man’s contumely. The pangs of despised love the law’s delay. The insolence of office and the spurns. That patient merit of the unworthy takes 3 2 72 4. And these make individuals stretch out their sufferings so long As Hamlet says That makes calamity of so long life. For who would bear the whips and scorns of time 3 1 70 1. He himself is victimized by these apparatuses and falls in dilemmas. To be or not to be 56 3 i is it better to be alive or dead 5 8 RSA for Hamlet and ISA for Laertes Claudius also applies RSA to send Hamlet to England after he has killed Polonius 3 3. He has apprehension that His Hamlet’s liberty is full of threats to all 4 115. But he is not ready to punish Hamlet in Denmark for the cause of Gertrude and Hamlet’s popularity. He does not want to break her ties with him. As he says to Laertes who wants the immediate punishment for his father’s murderer.

 The queen his mother Lives almost by his looks and for myself. My virtue or my plague be it either. She’s so conjunctive to my life and soul 4 7 11 14. He not only hegemonizes Gertrude in this regard but he also hegemonizes countrymen. He plans to hegemonize countrymen by applying his majesty and skill or diplomatic know-how as an ISA to control the masses. But we will ship him hence and this vile deed. We must with all our majesty and skill Both countenance and excuse 4 1 30. He declares Hamlet in madness hath. Polonius slain 4 1 35 Having applied ISA upon Gertrude effectively. Claudius plans to murder Hamlet at England 4 1 39 41. Very successfully he also hegemonizes furious Laertes saying to him that he will prove to him as clearly as daylight that he is innocent of his father’s death and is saddened by it.

 To quote Claudius. That I am guiltless of your father’s death. And am most sensibly in grief for it. It shall as a level to your judgment pierce. As day does to your eye 4 5 48 51 6 0 Claudius Conscience. It would be inappropriate however to suggest that Claudius does not suffer from the pangs of his conscience. He realizes Pray can I not Though inclination be as sharp as will. My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent 3 3 38 40. Further, he soliloquizes. What if this cursèd hand Were thicker than itself with brother’s blood Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens. To wash it white as snow 3 3 43 45. Like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, he cannot remove his guilt feeling Macbeth’s inner voice asks. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood. Clean from my hand 2 2 61 2. Also, Lady Macbeth cries. Here s the smell of the blood still All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand Oh Oh Oh 5 1 33 34 7 0.


Claudius and Conspiracy Synonymous. Nevertheless, Claudius does not stop to devise conspiracy against Hamlet. Not metaphorically but in the literal sense. Claudius and conspiracy become synonymous In the name of the friendly fencing match by Hamlet and Laertes he wants the latter to kill the former. During the match, there is a scuffle and both young men are cut with the poisoned sword. Gertrude drinks the wine that has been intended for Hamlet and dies almost immediately. At this point, Laertes confesses that he and Claudius have plotted to murder him and he uses the poisoned sword to pierce Claudius. Thus the conspirator pays his penalty by being slain for his transgressions like regicide fratricide incest and usurpation and the apparatuses what he manipulates to camouflage reality and to interpellate countrymen as we find in the last scene of the concluding act 8 0. 

Hamlet’s Ideological Notions. It is interesting that Claudius is trying to hegemonize Prince Hamlet with ISA, but the Prince’s notion about Ophelia is ideological. For his own obsession and perception, he cannot love her and harshly tells her Get thee to a nunnery. Why wouldn't you be a breeder of sinners 3 1 119. Hamlet moreover is ideological by Religion when he gets the opportunity to kill Claudius at pray because he believes. And now a is a praying. And now I ll do t and so a goes to heaven 3 3 74. He is also ideological when generalizing frailty thy name is women 1 2 246. to observes his mother s haste marriage with his uncle Claudius.

 Is Hamlet denying his mother’s will power to choose her husband The answer is affirmative though she has been in the grip of Claudius ISA. We also observe that Hamlet manages to return to Denmark from the ship bound for England and arranges the capital punishment for Guildenstern and Rosencrantz by the English monarch, thus proving he is not insane rather capable of confronting the challenges and conspiracies against him 9 0.


Conclusion. Martin Lings attempts to interpret Hamlet as an allegory of the Garden of Eden in Shakespeare’s Window into the Soul as he finds the analogy that Claudius represents a serpent the orchard the Garden of Eden poison the forbidden fruit and the murder of King Hamlet the Fall his Purgatory also Biblically The King and the Queen moreover correspond Adam and Eve. But the text represents the conspicuous political analogy between Claudius manipulating strategies ISA. RSA and panoptic surveillance and the strategies adopted by the politically empowered State. The paper, therefore, is my modest attempt to view Claudius through the Althusserian lense arguing that Claudius has brainwashed interpellated tied harmonized. Gertrude courtiers and countrymen so that they cannot deduce that he is an adulterous seducer an incestuous husband and a usurper king. He also manipulates his ISA and RSA against Hamlet and contrives his Hamlet death. He moreover interpellates fuming Laertes and his followers. However, the characters in the world depicted in the play Hamlet feel free but they are in the clutch of ideology except Hamlet the character.

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