How is Claudius presented in Act 1

When I first read the play I got a real cold feel to Claudius. He is presented in this was mostly in Act 1 during his speech to the common folk about his brothers death. I think at this point the reader is meant to feel this lack of compassion toward Claudius. The way he gives his speech and the lines he speaks, tells me that he doesn't really care or respect his brother's death or the fact the he was the one that killed Hamlet's uncle. This portrays Claudius as the tragic villain. Whether he is or not is a different matter.

Claudius is shown as cold because of how he talks to Hamlet without sympathy, there isn't the slightest bit of compassion. My thoughts on this was that maybe he just wants everyone to forget about the death/murder of his brother because his guilt is too much for him to handle that he just needs to forget it and with every ones grieving that won't happen, he can't handle being challenged by Hamlet. This is why he asks Hamlet if he would like Claudius to be his father, too take the death off Hamlet's mind, this alternative would hopefully make Hamlet's mind of the fact that his father is dead or has been murdered and this is his disparate attempt to get Hamlet to forget. This presents Claudius as disparate but at the same time dominating. Claudius makes Hamlet stay because he is scared that Hamlet know the truth and that he will tell people if he leaves.

Claudius is also presented as Powerful in Act 1, he is showed like this by having quite a lot of the lines when there are lots of people around. Like in his opening speech at the start. The Queen, his wife has nearly nothing to say, could this be because he is so dominating and scary. it shows he is scary because people only speak when spoken to in front of him, it does go like this when there is a king but it seems to be a colder atmosphere in the play. This is probably because of the topic in which he is speaking about. Maybe everyone is sad or maybe they are upset with Claudius for telling everyone to move on. Claudius disregards the death like it isn't anything and the people he is talking to are in shock about the death so there is some tension when Claudius talks. This sheds yet more light on how Claudius is presented as a nasty and cold character.

Later on in Act 1 Hamlet comes in contact with the ghost of his father. The audience finds out the truth about his death and so does Hamlet, this confirms Hamlets initial thoughts. The ghost tells Hamlet to kill King Claudius to avenge his death. The ghost repeats what Hamlet has already said and talks about his hour almost being up which hints that he has to go back to purgatory or hell. If it was purgatory that he was going to then it would shock the audience because they didn't believe in purgatory. This is presenting the ghost as being an evil figure and even the tragic villain. This takes some of the light of Claudius, it is because the ghost is pouring poison filled words into Hamlet's ears. 

I think with the switch of the spot light that Claudius is presented as a well respected man, but underneath the surface lays a horrible character. This idea of the spotlight being drawn away from Claudius is left down the audience's own interpretation. I think the three videos showed 2 sides to Claudius, two videos showed him in the same state but different stages of that state. There is the powerful and dominating and then there is the fearful King, the first and last videos show the best emotions of the King. These videos influenced my interpretation of Claudius a great deal. I think they shaped my view all together to the fact that Claudius is much worse than I originally thought. Each video had its own interpretation of Claudius and each actor played him differently so my initial idea of him changed. The way Claudius was presented in the first video was like a typical King, arrogant, feels like he is the greatest thing on the planet, when in fact this resents him as a very dark character and the audience is meant to dislike him. The first video and the way he was presented was the way I thought he would be played but the third was very different, it was like he was doing a very bad job of hiding his feelings about the situation. In the third video he is played closer to the people he is talking to and this shows that he isn't as bad, he doesn't see himself as superior as the other videos showed him to be. The thing that makes him seem like a nasty character in video three is that he is only talking to people who are high up in power, instead of common folk like in video one and two. This made me think that the common people hated him and they would disregard his intention and that he was maybe afraid of their opinion. 

The ghost struck me as very frightening and threatening towards Hamlet, this maybe showing anger in the ghosts speech which portrays him as a nasty character yet again taking the light of Claudius. The anger of the ghost reflects back onto Hamlet and then onto Claudius because Hamlet will become angry at Claudius for killing his father because the ghosts tone will influence Hamlet even more and spark Hamlet up and make him pumped and up for killing the King. This makes Claudius seem a lot less evil because all of this anger is put onto him. It could show that he is more evil because the audience will have sympathy on Hamlet and take his side, then the anger of the audience will be directed from Hamlet onto Claudius. 

The videos are my biggest influenced because I get to see how the actors portray Claudius in their own opinion, the way they act the part makes my opinion change because I see different interpretations of him. Some people may see Claudius as not as bad a character because the play has moved on and the ghost has taken the spotlight of hate of Claudius. Before the videos I saw Claudius as a despicable character and I still do but the videos can be very influencing and other people may have different interpretations of Claudius now. 

The presentation of Claudius in Act 1n is very cold, manipulative and almost emotionless when he delivers his lines. My interpretation may have differed from the play due to the videos but at the start of Claudius' big speech I saw him presented as having no compassion, heartless and very cold. But that is just me.