Claudius – Hamlet: ENTJ

Arvid Walton 3 Comments

Hamlet, William Shakespeare

Claudius - Hamlet #ENTJ #MBTI

Dominant Extraverted Thinking (Te): Claudius is intelligent, manipulative and conniving. He’s power hungry and though he loves Gertrude, it’s also fairly likely that he married her strategically in order to usurp the throne from Hamlet post Hamlet the elder’s death. Claudius is a great public speaker and maintains the majority of his power via communication. He uses logic and speaking skills to manipulate people. He’s good at organising people and he values people primarily for their use. Claudius calls Rozencrantz and Guildenstern to try to fix Hamlet.

Claudius - Hamlet ENTJ MBTI

Auxiliary Introverted Intuition (Ni): Claudius is diplomatic, ambitious and strategic. He can easily look ahead to predict potential issues with his strategies. He foresees changes in government and acts to prevent danger to himself.  He plans ahead long before events occur and covers all his bases, making sure to have a back up plan in case his initial strategies fail. People Claudius cares about are same from his schemes.

Claudius - Hamlet ENTJ MBTI

Tertiary Extraverted Sensing (Se): Claudius is described by Hamlet (the Ghost Hamlet) as “that incestuous, that adulterate beast.” He’s lustful and sensually indulgent –enough to marry his brother’s wife a month after he dies. Claudius is what’s “rotten in the state of Denmark.” He is given to impulsive lust and profligate living.

Claudius - Hamlet ENTJ MBTI

Inferior Introverted Feeling (Fi): Claudius is briefly introspective, but quickly gives up his moral musings in favour if his usual apathy towards moral codes. He doesn’t really have much of a defined moral code, but rather, relies on a “negative liberty” I-do-what-I-want attitude. With people he loves, he can be kind and gentle. He genuinely likes Ophelia, treats her with kindness and is sincerely remorseful towards Polonius’s death.

3 thoughts on “Claudius – Hamlet: ENTJ”

  2. I believed he was an ENFJ because of the emotional manipulation he used to achieve his goals, or at least it seemed emotional to me as he pretended to meet the needs of others, obviously lying. But I think of my brother (an ENTJ) and he does the exact same thing in his modest way. Do you know an example of a manipulative ENFJ so I can tell the difference? Because as ENTJs try to present their arguments as logic when they’re manipulating someone else, they’re able to use emotional appeals when they need to. I can picture ENFJs manipulating someone through faux logic when it’s needed, and it’d seem much more refined because of Fe charm, which way can you tell the difference?

    Like

    • You can’t always tell type based purely on the way someone manipulates people. There are a lot of variables (how healthy the person is, how mature they are, who they’re talking to, how intelligent they are etc).

      What I was pointing out with Claudius was simply this:

      He is consciously aware that he’s manipulating people and knows that it’s wrong (Fi), but still does it because his need for control is central to his character and social standing (Te). He logically figures out which rhetorical strategies will work best to manipulate each individual person (TeFi).

      He knows how vulnerable Laertes is, and so pulls at his heartstrings regarding Polonius’ death.

      On the other hand…

      He’s perfectly aware that he can’t reason with Hamlet, so the obvious solution is to not bother manipulating him and simply send him to England. Check mark. Te.

      Like

Comments are closed.