Kingship in Hamlet

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  • Created by: kclark_23
  • Created on: 11-06-20 15:50
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  • Kingship in 'Hamlet'
    • political power is concentrated on the throne
      • remnant of previous political state
    • Claudius as a pragmatist
      • an archetypal Machiavellian king
      • astute politician
      • morally inept
      • devoid of spirit of right rule
      • 'a king of shreds and patches'
    • kingship is built in terms of abstractions and contradictions
    • 'have proved most royally'
    • theories of sacred kingship made the monarch the sovereign reformer and embodiment of the realm's temporal and spiritual heart
    • fraught with classical comparisons
    • King Hamlet as the rightful king
    • Shakespeare is perhaps critiquing the medieval metaphor of body politic and questions the divine right of kings
    • true kingship lies not with Claudius but with the legitimate spirit
      • kings two bodies
    • implicit conflict of authority

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