Carrie Smith
Common and Uncommon Villainy
Villain is a word easily overlooked in Hamlet. It seems to be a simple word to throw about in a story where the villainy is already set, especially in its modern usage. However, there is more to this definition of villain than the antagonist of the story. The Oxford English Dictionary defines villain as “Originally, a low-born base-minded rustic; a man of ignoble ideas or instincts; in later use, an unprincipled or depraved scoundrel; a man naturally disposed to base or criminal actions, or deeply involved in the commission of disgraceful crimes” (s.v. “villain,” 1). As Hamlet is the only one to use any variant of the word throughout the entire play, it is easy for an audience to follow his conceptions about the nature of the King. This is granted further weight by Hamlet’s strong belief that Claudius is base, common. As a villain, the King almost cannot help what he has caused, being predisposed to such indecorous actions.
The first time Hamlet uses this word is after the ghost of his father has revealed the circumstances of his death as he cries out against the injustice. “O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!” (I.v.106). Never does he indict Claudius of more than mere villainy, though several times he accuses him of less, calling him an “arrant knave” (I.v.123). There was no cunning involved, no meditation on the consequences of his actions, only action. Hamlet is unable to see him as anything more than a lower man who has usurped power that is not rightly his.
Villain is also only used in reference to Claudius. Though there are other characters who perform what would be villainous acts, they are never called such. Hamlet, most especially, performs many crimes in the name of revenge. However, even Laertes does not call him a villain, likely because his actions are far from common in both their execution and motivation. Hamlet, whether pretending to be mad or truly so, is not a villain because he so strongly resists the common.
Interestingly, there is another sense of the “villain” that gives a slightly different meaning to Hamlet’s description of his own madness: “I am but mad north-northwest. When the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw” (II.ii.322-22). In the OED, the second sense of villain is given as “A bird (esp. a hawk) of a common or inferior species.” Though the link is tenuous (this meaning may have become obsolete before Shakespeare wrote Hamlet), this line may serve as another indictment of Claudius, especially given that in this scene, Hamlet is devising a way to use the players to determine if the King is really the villain the ghost lead him to believe he is. He knows a villain from a mere tool, a hawk from a handsaw.
Hamlet’s use of the word villain throughout the play emphasizes his view of Claudius as a common man unfit for the position he has usurped. Since he is the only one to use the word, it shades him somewhat from being regarded as a villain himself, though he also is guilty of criminal acts, and keeps the focus on his revenge against Claudius rather than the acts he himself commits.