Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare in which nothing can be taken at face value: appearances are frequently deceptive, and many characters engage in play-acting, spying and pretense. What deliberate attempts are made at deception? Are the intended audiences deceived? While some deceptions are perpetrated in order to conceal secrets, others aim to uncover hidden truths. The play itself is built on deception, and can be seen especially through three characters’ words and actions— Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet. Thus, without the thrill of deception, there would be no play; it would be a meaningless, drab story. Lies and deceit will bring each of these men’s downfall. Throughout Shakespeare’s theatrical piece, many of the male characters …show more content…
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. If being sincere is so valuable, why does he not follow his own advice? This exemplifies his hypocrisy, which would cause his death later on, where he would be behind the tapestry to try to listen to Hamlet and Gertrude’s meeting and he would be stabbed. His death works well in that he lived a life in a disguise of a wise father, when he really was a fool who only wanted to a higher position in court and would do anything to get it. When Polonius was stabbed, Hamlet called him a “rat”, a fitting description for how he really
I think Hamlet by using his mad façade hides his real intentions and motivations from his enemies and people that will give away information,
A foil is a minor character in a literary work that compliments the main character through similarities and differences in personality and plot. In William Shakespeare's play "Hamlet", the main character, Hamlet, has three major foils. These foils are his close friend Horatio, Fortinbras, Prince of Norway, and the brother of his love, Laertes. These three characters contradict and enhance Hamlet's major characteristics.
In the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the lack of honesty was utilized frequently through the character’s actions by undermining and lying to each other, demonstrating that honesty is the best route. Throughout the play Horatio is the only one who was honest and kept by Hamlet’s side, while everyone else lied and spied.
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
In the play Hamlet, deception is a major factor in the cause of the deaths of all those who die in the play, including Hamlet himself. The following paragraphs will outline the deception involved in the deaths of various characters including: Polonius, Gertrude, Laertes, Ophelia, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Old Hamlet; as well as the downfall of the antagonist and protagonist: Claudius and Hamlet themselves.
One must always be weary of the truth because it is quite often manipulated to serve the needs of any person who requires that the truth be on their side. Quite often, the only way to discern the truth from the fiction is by way of a deceptive act, because an act of deception always exposes both its self and the truth to be two quite different things. Nowhere is this more true than in William Shakespeare's, Hamlet. One of the major themes in the play is in fact, deception. This central theme is expressed throughout the play in three major forms: the fear of being deceived, the act of deception, and the ultimate result of the deceptive act. The first facet of the deceptive
Claudius’ lies are effective enough to persistently deceive to play’s antagonist, Hamlet. Despite Hamlet’s disgust with Claudius for marrying Gertrude, and his view of Claudius as “a king of shreds and patches” (III.iv.104), Hamlet suspicion of Claudius as a murderer is preliminarily nonexistent. The appearance of a spirit claiming to be Hamlet’s dead father first alerts Hamlet to the actions of “that incestuous, that adulterate beast, /With witchcraft of his with, with traitorous gifts” (I.v.42-3). And yet still, Hamlet remains hesitant to believe that Claudius was the murderer, searching for complementary evidence. The play that Hamlet enacts -- designed to “catch the conscience of the king” (II.ii.562) --succeeds in revealing Claudius’ guilt, but does not provoke instant action on Hamlet’s part. So effective is Claudius’ manipulation of the royal circle that he manages to almost permanently stay the revelation of his guilt, and if it weren’t for supernatural intervention against an injustice, he may never have been exposed.
Polonius' pre-occupation with his courtly duties overshadows his character as the wise old man and marks his role as the fool. As the fool, Polonius provides comic relief, and a "busybody" messenger for the court. His speech, for all its wisdom, "makes him so comic and absurd. All his ludicrous exhibitions of pedantry and expertise, his mouthings of clichés and commonplaces, his observations and definitions--all imprison the mind's potential range in littleness" (Long 137). In addition to his speech being superfluous, Polonius' messages to Hamlet are quite ironic. The arrival of the Players and Gertrude's request to speak with Hamlet have already been relayed to Hamlet before Polonius repeats the messages. This foolish redundancy is comic and even more so is Polonius'
” ( 2.2.120 ), Claudius replies “ As of a man faithful and honorable” ( 2.2.120). Because of this, Polonius appears to be relatively vain, and his arrogance becomes greatly pronounced. When questioned upon his knowledge he even goes as far as to use his own daughter, Ophelia, to gain information on Hamlet to aid himself and Claudius. These negative manipulative traits are again exemplified as he urges Gertrude to find out about Hamlets motives. He again masks his instructions as advice he states; “ Tell him his pranks have been to broad to bear with and that you grace hath screen’d and stood between heat and him “ (3.4.5).
The play, Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare is a tragedy where the main character, Hamlet, decides to take revenge on King Claudius, who killed his father and took the throne by marrying his mother. Hamlet learned from the ghost of his father that King Claudius killed him in his sleep and nobody knew. While Hamlet makes it his mission to uncover the truth and seek revenge upon Claudius, Claudius must keep up a mask of deception and disguise. Until Claudius dies due to Hamlet killing him, Claudius was able to maintain deception quite succesfully; although, he was not able to deceive Hamlet.
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.
“Hamlet” and “Twelfth Night” are two Shakespeare plays of complete opposites. Due to one being written as a tragedy, and the other as a comedy, many comparisons can be drawn between the two plays, on themes and motifs that develop throughout the plays. One of the themes that is easily recognisable in the early stages of both plays, is that of deceit and disguise. In “Hamlet”, we learn early on that Hamlet decides to act as a madman in order to try and weed out a confession from his uncle about the murder of his father. Although he does not actually reveal to any other characters his plan until Act 1 Scene 5, when he tells Horatio that he plans to “put an antic disposition on”, the audience can recognise very early that Hamlet is going to show some kind of deceptive characteristics in order to execute his plan.
In Hamlet deceiving illusions are frequently used to protect truth from being a destructive force. Situations within acts one and two that appear to be true and honest are really contaminated with evil. Various characters within the first two acts hide behind masks of corruption. In the first two acts most characters presented seem to be good and honest making it a complex task for Hamlet to discover all the lies that have hidden objectives within them.
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 the play Hamlet the character Polonius is a courtier to the king Claudius. He is the epitome of everything that Hamlet hates in the court of Denmark. Polonius’s character is at many points in the play is a comic character who contradicts himself constantly and finds incredibly long winded ways to embellish his points. Shakespeare uses the persona of Polonius, as a satirical figure and as a foil, to show what is wrong with the court of the time. Polonius is also the father of Laertes and Ophelia who are integral to the final downfall of the Danish kingdom. The tensions that arise from the death of Polonius is prevalent throughout the remainder of the play, and his passing