Claudius: I KILLED MY OWN BROTHER! (3.3.36-43) #InkyCloak #SlowShakespeare

CLAUDIUS      O, my offence is rank: it smells to heaven;

It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t –

A brother’s murder. Pray can I not:

Though inclination be as sharp as will,

My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent

And like a man to double business bound

I stand in pause where I shall first begin

And both neglect.      (3.3.36-43)

Claudius has barely been holding it together, it seems, and now that he is finally alone—just as happens with his nephew—it all comes pouring out. He’s in a bad, bad way. O, my offence is rank: it smells to heaven. I’m rotten, I reek of my crime, stink of my sin, and that crime hath the primal eldest curse upon’t—a brother’s murder. I’m a marked man, marked with the ultimate, original stigma, fratricide, like Cain. Almost he forces himself to articulate it in those stark terms. I am the killer of my brother. I am lost, and damned. Pray can I not, I can’t, I can’t (and this scene is very often set in a chapel, or imagined to be so)—but I really want to pray, I’m desperate, and I CAN’T, though inclination be as sharp as will. (Macbeth tries and fails to say Amen.) My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent—even though I really want to pray, really mean to pray, honestly, I do, I do—my guilt prevents me, a lump in the throat, dry-mouthed, dumb and numb. I can’t. And like a man to double business bound—caught between wanting to do it and not being able to do it—I stand in pause where I shall first begin and both neglect. I’m paralysed; I can’t DO anything. (Not unlike Hamlet.)

View 2 comments on “Claudius: I KILLED MY OWN BROTHER! (3.3.36-43) #InkyCloak #SlowShakespeare

  1. Claudius’ soliloquy is one of my favorite parts of the play. I was intrigued to learn that Abraham Lincoln valued this one over all other soliloquies and speeches in Hamlet- something about brother’s blood must have struck a deep chord in the man who presided over America’s Civil War.
    This is a remarkably honest speech that really does change how we see this character. Until this point, Claudius does not do anything really villainous and even killing his brother could be justified if Hamlet Sr was a war-mongering abusive king (there is nothing in the text that either suggests this or prohibits this reading, other than Gertrude’s wariness in how she deals with her son who reminds her too much of the late king). Yet, after allowing for some sympathy for Claudius, his actions going forward are truly villainous and by the end, unforgivable.

    1. Interesting re Lincoln! it’s a great speech, and one assumes that it was very popular on C19 variety bills? I’ve really been struck by the similarities with Hamlet’s soliloquies – and it’s brilliant that this speech is held off until so late in the play.

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