Hamlet Essay Paper
Many works of literature contain a character who intentionally deceives others. The character?s dishonestly may be intended to either help or to hurt. Such a character, for example, may choose to mislead others for personal safety, to spare someone?s feelings, or to carry out a crime.Hamlet Essay Paper
TASK: Your choice is Hamlet. In a well written essay, analyze the motives for that character?s deception and discuss how the deception contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. Hamlet Essay Paper
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I need about 3 pages total. This is what I have so far
Hamlet can be said to be one of Shakespeare?s greatest tragedies. The play revolves mainly o deception which without, would not create a plot for the play. The audience would find no antic-disposition with Hamlet and Claudius would not appear as interesting to the audience and maybe there would not be the famous soliloquy by Hamlet, ? to be or not to be??. Had there been complete Honesty in the play, there would not be any interest. The main theme surrounding the story is deception. From the play?s opening, we see Hamlet as someone that hypocritically and ironically sets himself up as abhorring corruption and lies (Shakespeare & Hibbard, 2008). He makes the impression that his grief is genuine and not an ?inky cloak? that is meant to paint a picture to the rest of the world. Nonetheless, after he is informed by the ghost that ? the serpent that did sting they father?s life now wears the crown?, he immediately puts on an antic disposition and is of the feeling that through pretending to be insane, he can successfully unmask Claudius as the murderer. Lying and deception become prominent in his character.
There is however an acceptance that Hamlet is pretending to be mad. We get to see his cunningness especially in making a vow that ?the play?s the thing wherein I?ll catch the conscience of the king?. Hamlet is of the thought that he would be able to guilt trip the king through staging a re-enactment of the Mousetrap play. He was of the thought that Claudius would make a confession. Eventually, this deception leads to Hamlet?s death from being stabbed by Laertes. These deception also cause the death if Ophelia (Shakespeare & Hibbard, 2008).Hamlet Essay Paper Ophelia was significantly obedient to her father, which was well known by Hamlet and by telling of his fake madness, she would foil his plans as she would definitely tell Polonius. Hamlet lies to Ophelia and the unrequited love she had for him causes her to go mad and commit suicide. Deceit from Hamlet makes him both a perpetrator and a victim.
An individual must always be wary of the truth based on the fact that truth is quite often manipulated to serve the needs or desires of any person who requires the truth to be on their side. On most occasions, the only means of discerning the truth from fiction is by way or means of employing deceptive acts, since an act of deception always exposes both the truth and itself to be quite different things. Nowhere is this aspect truer than in Shakespeare?s Hamlet. One of the major themes in the play is deception. In the play, the act of deception is expressed throughout the play in three major forms: the fear of being deceived, the act of deception itself, and lastly, the ultimate result of the deceptive act (Marshall, 2002). Here, deception seems to govern the relationship between characters while driving the plot. This paper analyses the motives behind Hamlet?s deception in addition to how the deceptive act contributes to meaning of the work as a whole.
Motives behind Hamlet?s deceptive acts
There are a couple of instances in life where individuals deceive or are encouraged to dishonest with each other. In a competitive world where stakes are high, individuals may resort to being deceitful. Deception is a reoccurring theme in Shakespeare?s Hamlet. Hamlet deceives a number of characters due to a host of reasons worth noting. First, the motive behind Hamlet?s use of deception is revenge for his father?s death. Hamlet?s father had been murdered and in order to revenge for his death, Hamlet pretends and subsequently pretends to be mad. Chaudhuri (n.d) argues that Hamlet is so successful at feigning madness to the extent of outsmarting Claudius and accusing him that he killed Hamlet?s father. In the end, he accomplishes his revenge.Hamlet Essay Paper
Secondly, Marshall (2002) argues that the motive behind Hamlet?s use of deception is to bend a potentially fatal situation into his own will. For instance, Hamlet went ahead and employed deceptive means by rewriting a letter he found saying that he (Hamlet) should be put to death. By so doing, he uses deception to prevent his own death at the expense of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. As mentioned earlier, Hamlet feigned insanity. By so doing, his motive was to deceive people around him by drawing their attention away from his real plans (Chaudhuri, n.d).
From the beginning of the play, Hamlet sets himself as someone who abhors lies or deceit. Hamlet is deceitful and to hide his deceit, he uses lies here and there for purposes of confusing a number of characters.Hamlet Essay Paper Hamlet, at one time plans to deceive his mother, at their meeting in her closet with the intention of harming her. Even though he does not kill her, he plans to use deception with the motive helping Nero (Khan and Bughio, 2012).
Hamlet?s use if lies do not stop there. At some point, he deceives Ophelia by telling her that he does not love her at all and he has never loved her before. Hamlet?s bold statement significantly shakes Ophelia and upon her death, Hamlet comes out to confess that he truly loved Ophelia. However, his only true intention was to get Ophelia to be his woman as opposed to truly loving her (Marshall, 2002). In short, Shakespeare?s Hamlet is a play full of deceit. Even though there are other major themes in the play such as betrayal, death, and corruption among others, deception seems to dominate them all. Almost every character in the play uses some form of deception to achieve a certain desired end. However, none accomplishes this more than Hamlet himself (Khan and Bughio, 2012).
Even though Hamlet lies to the state of Denmark, to Claudius, his mother and Ophelia just to mention but a few, he even goes ahead and lies to himself with the motive of proving that he is sane or of sound mind (Chaudhuri, n.d).Hamlet Essay Paper
Importance of deception in contributing to meaning of Shakespeare?s Hamlet
As it appears, deception is one of the biggest and widely evident themes in Shakespeare?s Hamlet. Without deception, the plot of the play would not unfold as required. In other words, it is through deception that the plot unfolds and a lack of it could have made the play a bit boring (Tuohy, 2012). Tuohy (2012) further states that without the use of deception, Hamlet would lack antic-disposition and Claudius would be far less interesting.
One of the main reasons as to why Hamlet has remained to be one of the most fascinating plays in the 21st century is largely anchored down to the theme of deception. Hamlet, Polonius, Ophelia and Claudia are some of the characters that use deception for purposes of achieving their goals. Without the use of deception in the play, the destructive nature or harm that comes with deceiving oneself and others would be unknown (Tuohy, 2012).
Tenbrunsel and Messick (2004) argue that without the use of deception, Shakespeare?s Hamlet would lack some sort of appeal. Through deception, viewers remain glued on what will happen next. They will be yearning to know whether an act of deception would be discovered or the liar will walk free. Deception creates and sustains interest in a play or any other work of literature (Tenbrunsel and Messick, 2004).
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Conclusion
William Shakespeare is one of the most accomplished poet and play writers whose works have survived generations. In one of his works titled Hamlet, Shakespeare attempts to bring out the theme of deception. Deception appears to be the main theme used by a host of characters such as Hamlet for purposes of achieving their own ends. Without deception, the plot of the play would be insignificant and main characters would lack a better connection aimed at highlighting deception and its true harms. Hamlet Essay Paper
References
Marshall, P. (2002). Deceptive appearances: ghosts and reformers in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe, 188-208.
Khan, Q., & Bughio, F. A. (2012). Nunnery scene: a pragmatic analysis of hamlet-ophelia encounter. 3L; Language, Linguistics and Literature, The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 18(2), 25-34.
Chaudhuri, S. (n.d). Being True To Yourself: Lying In Hamlet.
Tuohy, J. (2012). The role of lies and deception in Shakespeare?s ?Hamlet?. Retrieved from https://jamietuohy.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/the-role-of-lies-and-deception-in-shakespeares-hamlet-jamie-tuohy-2/
Tenbrunsel, A. E., & Messick, D. M. (2004). Ethical fading: The role of self-deception in unethical behavior. Social Justice Research, 17(2), 223-236.Hamlet Essay Paper
