In likeness to Polonius, Claudius’s morality truly dictates the negative consequences of his actions due partly to the fact that his relied morals are based greatly upon superficial ideals. However, the effects of Claudius’s actions extended far beyond his own downfall; as the initial conflict within the play’s plot-line, Claudius murders his brother, King Hamlet, to obtain the crown for himself. The overwhelming greed and superficiality of Denmark’s new king recognizes within himself as he questions the heavens, “May one be pardon’d and retain th’offense?” (III, iii, 56). By expelling the citizens of their just and powerful ruler through moral indecency and introducing his self as political chief for material gain, Claudius opens the state
