 Claudius "praying" and nearly avoiding death. | Video of Claudius' soliloquy after watching Hamlet's play. |
Claudius is obviously the bad guy in this play and he admits it in his most important lines of the play which are a soliloquy in Act III, scene iii. The speech portrays Claudius as a villain with a conscience. He is aware of the enormity of his offence. He wants to pray for forgiveness for his “most unnatural crime”, but he is unwilling to give up the merits of his anomalous act; namely “my crown” and “my queen”. This is an important soliloquy because it presents him in a three dimensional manner. He is not the cold-hearted villain readers thought he was. Claudius admits that he will always be “struggling to be free”. |
