In William Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince Hamlet believes that his Uncle Claudius murdered his father to marry his mother and take the throne; based on the advice of his father's ghost, he decides to kill his uncle for the betrayal. In order to understand how a comparison of the two men highlights Hamlet's character, one must consider how the similarities and differences make Hamlet himself appear. Ultimately, comparing and contrasting Claudius with Hamlet serves to better illustrate what kind of man Hamlet is and why the play ends as it does.
Both Hamlet and Claudius are driven, dedicated men. Claudius is driven to become the king and amass power, while Hamlet is driven to avenge his father. The two men's conflicting goals don't take away from the similar single-minded focus they have on achieving them. From the moment Hamlet meets his father's ghost, his entire personality changes; he decides to act crazy so that he can investigate what Claudius did to his father. Similarly, Claudius decided he wanted power and used the same single-minded focus to kill his brother, quickly marry his widow, and take the throne himself.
Despite their similar natures, the two men are driven by different goals. Claudius works to gain and keep power, while Hamlet is working to seek revenge for his father. While few people could understand killing a family member for power, it's easier to relate to the desire to avenge a murdered parent. This difference of motivation is a major character aspect that separates Hamlet from Claudius and helps the reader relate to the prince, even as he descends into a kind of madness.
These two characteristics serve to show what kind of man Hamlet is. Though he's driven like his uncle, he's motivated by a different, less selfish force. There is no sense that King Hamlet was a bad king; Claudius killed him for personal gain. Hamlet has no obvious interest in the throne—so his single-minded pursuit of justice on behalf of his father is clearer when viewed through the lens of Claudius's desire for the throne. It defines him as a more moral person than Claudius, at least in his goals.
Both Hamlet and Claudius hurt other people to achieve their own ends. Claudius kills his own brother and plots Hamlet's death at the hands of Laertes. Hamlet accidentally kills Polonius, rejects Ophelia cruelly, and sets up Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, his former friends, to be killed. When Ophelia dies, Hamlet tells her brother Laertes that "I loved Ophelia. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum." Yet he still rejected her and chose his revenge over her affection.
Claudius's initial murder is direct and gains him the power he was seeking. Viewing Hamlet's destruction and murder in opposition to what Claudius did makes a reader wonder whether Hamlet is any kind of hero. After all, he caused more death to achieve his goals than Claudius did to achieve his. He's a complex character, driven to cause terrible things by an understandable need for revenge.
Another difference between the two characters is that Claudius is a more active participant in his scheme than Hamlet is as he tries to get revenge. Claudius even admits that he can't be forgiven by God because he did kill his brother, he did it to gain power, and he has no intention of giving up the things he gained. He says:
My fault is past. But O, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder?
That cannot be, since I am still possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.
When he decides to have Hamlet killed, he even tells Laertes that "No place indeed should murder sanctuarize; Revenge should have no bounds." He's willing to place his own need to kill Hamlet above the sanctity of the church immediately with no hesitation.
Hamlet, on the other hand, frets and worries over whether the words of his father's ghost are true; while he immediately plans to find out, he is worried that the ghost isn't being entirely forthright. Hamlet's hesitation, when contrasted with Claudius's tendency to immediately set events in motion, clearly becomes one of the reasons why the end of the play is such a tragedy. If Hamlet had been straightforward and direct instead of lying and sneaking around, things might have taken a different path. That said, Hamlet's determination to verify the ghost's claims is also a noble one. His indecision causes both sympathy and frustration in the reader.
Ultimately, Hamlet's character and actions can be understood more clearly when they're compared to what Claudius has done. Though Hamlet is like his uncle in some ways, his motivation and hesitation make him a more sympathetic character—even as his plans collide with Claudius's and result in the death of almost everyone the two men care about.
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