Juxtaposition of the use of regicide in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth. "Crowing achievements are best made in cold blood"

Regicide is defined by the Webster's Dictionary as "The killing of a king". Webster could not have oversimplified this representation more. The ancient art of king killing has existed in a myriad of different forms; stealthy, barbarian, and honorable regicides have been recorded liberally in both literature and the annals of history. Regicide is an act of enormous weight - it takes an extraordinary stimulus to move a man to commit such an act. In Hamlet and Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses four acts of regicide to bring to light the important motives of the killers, and through the motives showcase the protagonists' tragic flaws.

There are two instances of regicide in both "Hamlet" and "Macbeth". In both stories, ambition and power-lust bring about the first set of regicide. Claudius killed King Hamlet, his brother, because he wants the power of the throne. The two characters, antagonist and victim, are clearly juxtaposed in personality by Shakespeare to create a contrast between the two figures that Prince Hamlet later draws on to motivate his own act of regicide. Claudius is a political figure. He schemed, lied, and spied on others. Indeed, he killed King Hamlet by pouring poison into the King's ear. This act was a symbol of not only Claudius' scheming nature, but also how Claudius took advantage of others by poisoning their ears and thus making his set of ears more powerful. His ear poisoning also foreshadowed his use of eavesdropping later, as well as the poisoning (killing) of one of Claudius' surrogate ears, Polonius.

King Hamlet's personality is entirely different from Claudius'. Hamlet Sr. was not political. He did not scheme, but in fact dealt with things directly. He was a warrior-king, and deals with problems as if they were an opposing army on the battlefield. Seen in the play as a ghost, King Hamlet encouraged his living son to avenge his wrongful death by killing Claudius. This presented a strong motive for Hamlet to commit regicide himself.

Because Hamlet eventually does kill Claudius, we can tell that Hamlet is a weak-willed character. He was incensed by the thought of his mother's quick marriage to the manipulative Claudius. He was spurned on even more by the image of his father's ghost and its eerie words that King Hamlet was a victim of a "foul and most unnatural murder"(Act 1, Scene 5, Line 25). Hamlet proved himself to be weak-willed several times throughout the play, throwing his ability to commit regicide into question. First, he battled with a notion to commit suicide "To be, or not to be: that is the question... To die - To sleep..." (Act 3, Scene 1, Line 58). He later failed to kill Claudius when Claudius was praying, and justified his cowardly actions by telling himself that Claudius would have gone to heaven at the time.

Prince Hamlet only killed Claudius at the last possible moment, when the poisoned wound he received from Laertes proved his death concrete. The act showed Hamlet's true dilemma - his weak will could not decide whether he was more like his King Uncle or his King Father. Prince Hamlet ran Claudius through with a poisoned sword. The regicide was committed in two equal ways, the warrior way of King Hamlet, as well as the scheming poisonous way of King Claudius.

Instead of the antagonist having ambition in "Hamlet", "Macbeth"'s ambitious character is found in the protagonist, Macbeth. Macbeth committed regicide because the witches riled his ambitions up, "All hail, Macbeth! That shalt be king hereafter!"(Act 1, Scene 3, Line 51) However, Macbeth allowed his ambition to override his moral constraints, and much like Claudius in "Hamlet", he killed King Duncan in the middle of the night while Duncan was asleep. This sort of treacherous regicide shows the true character of Macbeth. The weak-willed Prince Hamlet started off unsure of himself, pretending to be mad, and listening to his uncle and mother but later acted boldly in front of the court to duel with Laertes and kill Claudius. Macbeth started off compulsive, taking the words of mere apparitions to justify regicide, an act of extreme gravity.

The final act of regicide in "Macbeth" is committed an army of more than one person. However, both this case of regicide as well as Prince Hamlet's killing of King Claudius had another major motive - revenge. Both Prince Hamlet as well as Macduff (who had his wife and children killed) and Malcolm (whose father was killed by Macbeth) had a filial justification for vengeance. This preoccupation with vengeance shows that Shakespeare valued the virtue of honor in his characters highly. To avenge a father or a wife and children is an honorable thing to do. To fight a duel with a more resourceful opponent is an honorable thing to do.

Shakespeare used regicide as a tool to better define his characters. Prince Hamlet was seen as a falsely resolute and frustrated son avenging his father's death. Macbeth was seen as a power-hungry foolhardy man who could not place his own morals over his ambition. Other minor characters were also defined by acts of regicide. Macduff and Malcolm were seen as characters that would beg a nation's mortal enemy for help (England) to defeat and ultimately to avenge their family deaths.