Hamlet Deceitful Character Analysis

Hamlet is one of Shakespeare’s many tragedies. Common themes in these works by Shakespeare are murder and deceit. Hamlet is full of each. The protagonist of the play, Prince Hamlet, is a young man whose father was murdered two months before the beginning of the story. Early on in the play Hamlet is approached by the ghost of his father. He explains to Hamlet that his brother, Claudius, murdered him. Before he returns to purgatory, he asks that Hamlet take revenge on Claudius, who, since the murder has taken the Crown of Denmark and taken Hamlet’s mother as a wife. Hamlet then makes a vow that he will avenge his father, but as the play progresses Hamlet passes up multiple opportunities to kill Claudius. This begs the question, Why does

Deception is defined as a misleading falsehood. One is usually deceitful when there is a need to conceal the truth, or create a scheme to reveal the truth. This statement can be applied to the play Hamlet, where Shakespeare creates a society that is built upon deceit. Each character in the play experiences or enacts on some form of deceit in order to expose the truth or obscure the truth. There are no characters in the play that feel the need to be straightforward and seek the truth. As a result, the characters feel the need to continually be deceitful to cover up their past errors. Shakespeare displays various examples of deceit in the play such as dishonesty, antic disposition and betrayal. Through these forms of deceit, Shakespeare

Further evidence of Hamlet's tragic flaw can be found in act III, scene 3. At this point, Hamlet is sure of Claudius' guilt, and has even declared that "Now could I drink hot blood and do such bitter business as the day Would quake to look on." (p. 99 lines 406-408) He comes to find King Claudius alone, and recognizes it as an opportunity to act, but almost immediately talks himself out of action on the bases that the King is praying, and will therefore go to heaven. He decides yet again to delay avenging his father's murder, this time until he can kill the King while he is in a vile condition, such as "When he is drunk asleep; or in his rage; Or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed." (p. 103 lines 89-90) Hamlet has failed to act for so long that the Ghost soon comes back to remind him of his duty.

The final way that Laertes acts as a foil to Hamlet occurs once again when Claudius and Laertes are discussing Laertes’ actions to achieve his vengeance. Claudius gives Laertes advice saying, “That we would do/ we should do when we would; for this ‘would’/ changes” (4.7.134-136). Claudius is warning Laertes that if he waits long enough, he will probably end up not doing anything at all and will not achieve his goal of vengeance. This quote spoken by Claudius is quite similar to when King Hamlet’s ghost meets with Hamlet earlier in the play to warn him about how he was killed by Claudius and that he must get revenge. King Hamlet’s ghost also warns Hamlet saying, “Taint not thy mind” (1.5.92), telling him to not over think his plan because otherwise he will not pursue his vengeance. After Claudius warns Laertes to not get side tracked, the audience is reminded of King Hamlet’s ghost telling Hamlet to not over think because then their plans will not be pursued. This scene acts as a foil towards Hamlet because soon after the conversation, Laertes does pursue his plan of seeking vengeance, whereas Hamlet has been working on his plan the whole play, and has still not started to execute it.

Hamlet proves himself a temperamental, twisted character in William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. The Prince of Denmark conveys his facetious demeanor with his behavior and sharp tongue, especially in scenes with Ophelia and Gertrude. Although Hamlet’s situation is difficult and easily sympathized by viewers, his aggression should ultimately be focused on his murderous uncle.

“Don’t tell me of deception; a lie is a lie, whether it be a lie to the eye or a lie to the ear.”- Samuel Johnson. These words could not be any more perfect to describe Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. The deception showcased in Hamlet destroyed families, and crumbled kingdoms. Three characters that illustrated this are Hamlet, Claudius, and Laertes.

Hamlet is a main character that lies to hide the truth. Hamlet comes up with a lot of lies as a way of life. Hamlet pretended to be crazy because he wanted to be able to investigate the accusations made by his father's ghost against Claudius, without raising any suspicion that he knows the truth about his father's death. Hamlet stages The Murder of Gonzago to uncover the truth of Claudius killing his father. Hamlet is also the victim of his own deception.

Throughout Shakespeare’s plays, deception is used to grant the characters the ability to attain social status and success. Deception comes from the root word “deceive,” which can be defined as, “to mislead by a false appearance or statement,” or “to mislead or falsely persuade others” (“Deceive”). When attempting to deceive another person, the characters must be able to understand the consequences one may face when manipulating another through deceit. Two plays that strongly showcase Shakespeare’s lies and manipulation are Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet. In both, one can see how the characters create plans to spy and lie to one another to either “promote happiness” or “harm” the other (Shmoop Editorial Team). Within both these

He knows this to be too true with his Uncle Claudius. The motive to kill this man is a consequence for Claudius’ actions and the focal point for this tragedy. The entire storyline unfolds after the ghost of King Hamlet reveals the actions of Claudius. This in retrospect develops the entire tragedy and reveals that deceit is the most undesirable character trait, but it is held by everyone from Kings to common people. In order for the kingdom to uphold it virtuous values, Hamlet must deceive his Uncle in order to maintain a respectable ethical standard. Otherwise, the Kingdom of Denmark would no longer have substantial influence over the people because their very own leader is not truthful and held to a standard of accountability. To fulfill his plan and put action to all the words he has spoken about his dear uncle, Hamlet emerges a scheme in order to reveal Claudius’ deceit which he will do by having players reenact his Father’s death scene. He will then have Horatio closely analyze the reaction made by the King. (2.2.606-617 ) By doing this, Hamlet takes a stand against deceit and oppresses the idea even though that is what he lives this new life by. Many close to Hamlet begin to question his sanity to the fullest extent. Polonius concerns himself with the actions of Hamlet

Claudius’ manipulation takes advantage of surrounding characters’ affection for Hamlet. Paired with Hamlet’s apparent madness, he easily sways them into doing his bidding by feeding them incorrect information, thus influencing their decisions and actions. While innocent characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern believe their duty is to simply diagnose the reason for Hamlet’s madness, Claudius uses their care for Hamlet and blind loyalty to plot Hamlet’s death. This along with several other attempts of spying on and murdering Hamlet eventually lead to the deaths of multiple characters including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Not only that, but all the while he is attempting to take Hamlet’s life, he is fearing for his own and desperately

Unlike Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Shakespeare’s Hamlet focuses much more on the theme of deception. The main protagonist, Hamlet, must decide whether or not to act on his feelings towards Claudius. The ghost of Hamlet’s father revealed to Hamlet that Claudius was the person who killed him and he wants Hamlet to avenge his death. Hamlet had a difficult time accepting what the ghost told him because he knew that there was a possibility that the ghost wasn’t real – it was an evil spirit. His wariness is understandable because there wasn’t a way to detect whether or not a ghost was demonic. Nevertheless, Hamlet pretended to go crazy in order to be capable of determining whether or not Claudius was guilty of committing the murder. He knew that he couldn’t act normal because Claudius would suspect that he knew the truth about the origin of his father’s death, so he decided to put on this act. He decides invite Claudius to a play he calls “The Mousetrap” in order to detect his guilt. Hamlet explains that a person with a clean conscience would act normally to this play, and he proceeds to watch the reaction of Claudius to it. Claudius’ reaction proves that the Ghost was telling the truth, and Hamlet must proceed in acting on revenge for his father. At a point in the play, Hamlet is given an opportunity to kill Claudius, but he refuses. Claudius was engaged in prayer, and Hamlet felt that if he killed him, his soul would be clean and he would go straight to heaven. His rationale is reasonable, but it also represents his hesitation on committing the act. Killing a king would be considered a treasonable crime and Hamlet probably worried about all the consequences he would face if he killed Claudius. Furthermore, he was a grieving child who was struggling with his own problems and murdering Claudius would only add to them. Eventually in Act Five, Hamlet did kill Claudius by forcing him to consume a poison drink, but only after he knew he was set to die. Throughout the play, Hamlet was forced to accept multiple scenarios that he didn’t believe were right. He needed to accept Claudius as the new King, he needed to accept Claudius and his mother’s relationship, and he also needed to accept the fact that his father was dead.

Shakespeare's Hamlet is filled with murder, revenge, and betrayal. The way the characters go about their revengeful murder says a lot about them. Claudius is a manipulating coward: he poisoned his own brother in his sleep in order to obtain the throne. Hamlet is completely indecisive: he spends majority of the play debating whether not to kill Claudius, when he would do it, and how he would do it. As soon as Laertes hears of his father’s death, he leaves Paris and marches an angry mob into the castle to demand blood. The methods in which the protagonist, antagonist, and foil murder others reflects back on their true in our character.

The irony about Claudius sending for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet, is that rather than being his “friends” and refusing to go through with it, they follow the orders of the King due to his concerns; believing Hamlet is mad. When in fact, by acting mad, Hamlet is only leading everyone to believe so, then in which he can lead them to a trap.

Secrecy, deception, and duplicity are significant words that express Hamlet’s on-going madness. One of many forms of Hamlet’s madness lies within his deceitful actions that escalate from Claudius’s murderous attempt on Old Hamlet. As the play develops, readers may acknowledge suspicious and wariness atmospheres as Hamlet seeks to find confirmation and evidence against Claudius’s ferocious act. Hamlet’s deceitfulness is abundant and can be recognized throughout the play. His intention to justify his uncle’s murderous act involves deceitful planning and duplicitous mindset. There are abundant of examples relating to Hamlet’s on-going madness. Events and scenes that suggest Hamlet’s deceitful state of mind are embedded within multiple soliloquies that

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Hamlet progressed throughout the play. In the first half of the play, Hamlet was incredibly contemplative. He always had to think about his every move before acting on those thoughts. This, of course, was detrimental with his desire and plan of killing Claudius so it wasn’t doing him any favors. Then, something changed. He began to take action with only his gut feeling backing him up. Three scenes in particular led to the climax during which the stage becomes a battlefield. These scenes were the scene in Gertrude’s bedroom, Hamlet’s meeting with the Norwegian captain, and, the scene where Horatio acquires the letter from Hamlet, who was en route to England. These three scenes were vital in readying Hamlet for his plan to kill Claudius because they motivated him, they got him focused, and they highlighted the need to have Claudius dead.