Hamlet Vs Prince

Introduction

The book "Hamlet" by Shakespeare explains a play of a young man, Hamlet. He is the son of king Hamlet and Queen Gertrude. His uncle murders his father in order to acquire power in Denmark kingdom. King Claudius after murdering his father also marries his mother. After realizing that his uncle murdered his father, he decides to revenge. On the other hand, the book "prince" by Machiavelli explain how rulers uses strategies that are not morally good in order to gain power and dictate their subject. The author explains how Caesar Bolgia used forced and tricks in order to attain power and rule over his subjects. This paper compares and contrasts the two books on concepts such as lies and deceit, warfare and use of symbolism.

Contrast and comparison between the "prince" by Machiavelli and "Hamlet" by Shakespeare

Both the book "prince" and ‘Hamlet' uses lies and deceit. Both Caesar Bolgia and King Claudius use lies and deceit in order to attain and retain power in their government. However, his enemies do not realize Caesar Bolgia lies and deceit, while king Hamlet is not successful with use of his lies as his enemies catch them. In the book prince, the author explains that it is good to lie provided you are not caught. The author endorses the strategy of using lies in order to gain power. Caesar Bolgia in ‘prince' use lies and deceit to keep their lies so that they are not caught. For instance, " and not needing to have to put French loyalty or anybody else to the rest, Caesar Bolgia turned to trickery. He was very successful in disguising what he wanted and even Orsini made peace with him, sending Paulo Orsini as mediator". (Machiavelli, 2525) the author praises the character Caesar Bolgia for using lies in order to gain power. He claims that it is necessary to turn to trickery. The author says that it is important for the rulers to imitate Caesar Bolgia. He explain that it is more important to use lies and deceit provided that nobody realizes that you have actually used it to gain power. Bolgia used trickery and deceit to gain what he want because this is the best strategy rulers should use. He used Paulo orsini as mediator to gain peace with Orsini. Bolgia also explains that you need to entice the enemies with gifts and money, then when they are unaware of your intentions you should attack them and kill each one of them. He killed the Orsinis in order to lay a foundation of his leadership and to strengthen his kingdom. On the other hand, King Claudius uses trickery and deceits to kill his own brother to gain power. In addition, the king in "Hamlet" uses lies and deceit in order to gain political survival. King Claudius says, "oh, it's true, how mart a lash that speech doth give my conscience, the harlot's cheek, beatified with plastering art, is not more ugly to the thing that helps it , than is my deed to my most painted word" (Shakespeare, 15). King Claudius says that he understands that all his strategies might catch up with him one day. He uses deceptive means to compare his painted word (lies) to the way a harlot beatifies her face with makeup. This shows that he compares himself with deceptive women who apply make ups to look beautiful when they actually want to deceit for political gain.

Both Caesar Bolgia and Hamlet uses the instances of war in order to gain or retain their power. However, Bolgia uses war to maintain power while Hamlet uses war to revenge for the death of his father. In "prince," Caesar Bolgia uses massacres and murder as a tool to gain and retain power. The author in the book "Hamlet" explains the concept of warfare in the rulers that enables them to retain the power. The author uses disturbing words such as massacre, and murder where rulers use them to retain power. Machiavelli uses the words like ‘eliminate them' (Machiavelli, 2524) which shows that killing and murder is normal to everybody because killings are normal and natural. He explains that wars are necessary for the maintenance of power by the rulers. Machiavelli claims that war is a tool that rulers should use to gain power. The author says ‘…this is normal, and natural way of things, a leader is bound to upset the people in his country through his army and then using injustices consequent on any invasion' (Machiavelli, 2526). He uses the words normal and natural to show that war is normal to all rulers. The also says that endless injustices is a common tool that rulers should use to protect their leadership. On the other hand, Hamlet gears up to start war with Claudius in order to revenge for his father. He succeeds in killing Claudius at the end of the play. Hamlet says, ‘…haste me to know who killed you and I will wing as shift as meditation or the thought of love may sweep to my revenge" (Shakespeare, 5). At this point Hamlet is eager to revenge for his father. He is asking the ghost (his father's spirit) to tell him who murdered him so that he can revenge. When the ghost tells him that it was Claudius, he decides to kill him so that he can satisfy his father. Hamlet thinks that his father is suffering in hell and must revenge so that his uncle can also suffer in the same place. He says "…this villain killed my father and because of that, I his only son, I will do this villain to send him to….," (Shakespeare, 16). Hamlet is convinced that Claudius killed his