Appearance vs. Reality in Hamlet

In this way, the two courtiers are nothing more than puppets for Claudius to use. Hamlet recognizes this inability to act as good friends and confronts them in the The Mousetrap scene. He discloses, “You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass.” (3.2) Hamlet is cognisant of the true intentions of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern which are not honest at all, but rather, corrupted. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, at this point in the play, have utterly lost their ties to Hamlet as a friend, and only see him as a puzzle that if deciphered, they can return and be praised by Claudius. According to Prof. McKinney, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are like sponges to be soaked up and drained by Claudius and discarded when they are of no more use. Claudius has manipulated the minds of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern by way of desire for royal appeasement, and corrupts their ability to frankly help their childhood friend, Hamlet.

Claudius is a coward when it comes to murder. Claudius finds the most indirect way to kill someone: usually with poison. The King also manages to get Laertes to be the one to fatally injured Hamlet– showing hs manipulative tendencies. “Thou art slain./ No med’cine in the world can do thee good./ In thee there is not half an hour’s life./ The treacherous instrument is in the thy hand,/ Unbated and envenomed… The King, the King is to blame” (5.2.344-51). Here, Laertes is explaining that the king poisoned his fencing sword so he could impart the fatal blow on to Hamlet. It is not Claudius that takes the credit; Hamlet has to find out from Laertes that he is dying. Even as Hamlet is dying, Claudius still chooses to remain a coward. As the antagonist, Claudius is meant to embody evil, condemnable traits that make readers hate him. Shakespeare is

Another thing that sets Hamlet over the edge is the fake friendship Rosencrantz and Guildenstern commence with Hamlet. King Claudius invites Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to the palace with selfish intentions. Claudius requests the men to investigate Hamlet by “get[ing] from him why he puts on this confusion, Grating so harshly all his days of quiet” (III.i.2-3). He wants them to figure out why he’s acting so dazed and confused, as well as ruining his own peace and quiet, while all along Hamlet is well aware of their true endeavors. During their attempts Hamlets says, “Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, yet you cannot play upon me” (III.ii.340-341). Hamlet compares deception to playing a musical instrument by making the comparison that his friends think that it is easier to manipulate him than an

Which then caused Polonius’s death because, he was eavesdropping for Claudius. So, with Hamlet trying disguise his appearance to distract from what was happening in reality causes, chaos to happen. Hamlets characters are all pretending to be someone else to find out why Hamlet is acting differently, they want to know why so they befriend him. Claudius has been pretending to be a great ruler while hiding the dark secret

Hamlet asks the actors to add a dozen or so lines that mirror the events that have occurred in Denmark to the play, The murder of Gonzago. Hamlet wants to determine whether Claudius is guilty, therefore he says to Horatio, “Observe mine uncle. If his occulted guilt Do not itself unkennel in one speech, It is a damnèd ghost that we have seen, And my imaginations are as foul As Vulcan’s stithy” (III, ii, 78-79). When the play is performed, Claudius takes offense and gets up to leave. Hamlet uses his reaction as confirmation that he killed Old Hamlet. Hamlet is successful in proving Claudius guilty but takes too long to do so. However, when Laertes decides to commit to something, he always see’s it through. With the help of Claudius, he devises a full proof plan to eliminate Hamlet. Yet it is not limited to one scheme but rather an array of ways to make certain of Hamlet’s demise. Claudius recalls that Hamlet has been jealous in the past of Laertes’ prowess with a sword, which was recently praised before all the court by a Frenchman who had seen him in combat. The king speculates that if Hamlet could be tempted into a duel with Laertes, it might provide Laertes with the chance to kill him. Laertes agrees, and they settle on a plan. Laertes will use a sharpened sword rather than the customary dull fencing blade. Laertes also proposes to poison his sword, so that even a scratch from it will kill Hamlet. The king concocts a backup plan as well, proposing that if Hamlet succeeds in the duel, Claudius will offer him a poisoned cup of wine to drink from in celebration. He leaves no leaf unturned. As a direct contrast to Hamlet, he lets his moral compass take a back seat to his primary goal, which is to exact

One of the biggest and first deceit is from Claudius. He is jealous of his brothers title of king and so he commits the oldest sin known to man. Fratricide. He kills his brother to gain the title of king and to gain his dead brothers wife queen Gertrude our next deception. You might think that through out this play Claudius loves and cherishes Gertrude and never really harms her.

Polonius played a vital role in Hamlet even though he was not one of the main characters. He continued to reinforce the theme of corruption and displayed the social and ethical collapse of Denmark. His deceitful actions show the reader that he is one of dishonesty and chicanery. In the play, Polonius was portrayed as someone who is a deceiver and pretender that betrays people he is supposed to be devoted to; and who only cares about things that will benefit him. These characteristics of Polonius are seen through his interactions with Ophelia, Hamlet, Laertes, Reynaldo and the King.

He sent his right hand man, Reynaldo, to spy on his son, Laertes, in Paris by ordering him to “put on him What forgeries you please” (Act 2 Scene 1 Lines 21-22). Polonius is fine with discrediting his own son’s reputation if that means he would get what he wants, just to find out what his son is up to. It is interesting because earlier on, before Laertes left for his school in Paris, he gave his son a speech, “This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man” (Act 1 Scene 3 Lines 84-86). He tells Laertes that it is of the utmost important to be truthful to himself and others, no matter what.

Claudius is not the only fraudulent character in the first two scenes where the theme of appearance verses reality is prevalent. When Hamlet’s mother tries to get Hamlet to accept the fact that all things in nature die she asks him, “If it be, Why seems it so particular to thee?” (I, II, 79) Hamlet responds with, “ “Seems,” madam? Nay, it is I know not “seems.” ” (I, II, 79) Hamlet accepts the fact that all things in nature eventually die, yet he refuses to believe the appearance of how his father dies. The queen is again applied to this theme when she addresses Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet:

Specifically, in Act five, scene two, the chain of events is all due to Claudius aiming to murder his nephew. By poisoning

This research paper’s theme is about the characters’ cunningness and deception, which led to the thesis statement: “The Shakespeare play Hamlet, is a story about cunningness and deception.” The reason why I came out with the idea is because throughout the class discussions and personal readings, several instances were perceived how the characters are being untruthful. They play their roles cunningly and deceptively to stay in their own games for personal gain. The root of conflict in the play and the series of events that took place in the kingdom of Denmark, are reactionary to the cunning and deceptive deed of Claudius. Whereupon, the following characters that will be subject of discussion about these behaviors are: King Claudius, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Young Fortinbras, King Norway, and Queen Gertrude.

Lies and deception are some of the many actions that have disastrous consequences. For the most part, they destroy trust and leave the people closest to us feeling vulnerable. In Hamlet, one of Shakespeare's many plays, the theme of lies and deception is very significant. This play shows that every character that lies and practices the act of deception is ultimately punished for doing so by their treacherous deaths. Hamlet has lied and practiced deception several times which has prolonged his primary goal and also causes his death. Additionally, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern’s unskilled acts of dishonesty and disloyalty towards Hamlet have all backfired; as a

In this speech commemorating King Hamlet’s death, Claudius plays the part of the mournful brother for the audience. This display of feigned emotion is the first notable occurrence of deception within the play as we soon learn Claudius himself killed his brother. Claudius’s true colours reemerge frequently throughout the play. One case of this is when Claudius attempts to pray for redemption from his crime of fratricide.

While Hamlet believes that “[to] be or not to be,” (Shakespeare 3.1. 64), is the question, I would argue that a larger question exists that remains unanswered: what is? How does one differentiate between what is real, and what is an illusion created by the depths of the mind? In The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare, the characters are challenged to constantly distinguish between what is and what seems -- the presence of reality or appearance. Reality, in a literal sense, is “the state of things as they actually exist,” (Fowler); however, it’s possible that existing -- or not existing -- is subjective. Hamlet, the protagonist and tragic hero of the play, interprets a much different reality than the surrounding characters and devises appearances that drive others away from understanding his truth; in turn, he is made a pawn in the illusions of others, specifically Gertrude, Claudius, and Laertes, to the point

The character Claudius is the most fitting example of the theme appearance vs. reality. In the play, Claudius murders young Hamlet’s father who was also the king of Denmark at the time. To the public, Claudius appears to be depressed about the king’s death. He then portrays himself as being honorable and trustworthy because he has taken on the duty as king. This false persona is shown when he addresses the public about his feelings about the death of his brother. “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death the memory be green, and that it us befitted to bear our hearts in grief, and our whole kingdom to be concentrated in one brow of woe” (I.ii.1-4). In Act 1, scene 5, Hamlet’s dead father appears to him as a ghost and reveals the reality