Hamlet Act Three Essay Question 5 What defines a rat is the fact that these creatures are subtle, reprehensible, and deceitful. In Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet, no other characters define this description quite as well as Polonius. Being the main advisor to King Claudius, Polonius is in a high position of power and has a right to deploy any means to find what he wants from people, however, born from a lust for power, Polonius relies upon deceit to arrive at the truth. This use of deceit has been used as message by Shakespeare to convey several distinct themes about people who use these tactics. Polonius, while seemly stuck between being a devoted parental figure and a ruthless politician, is revealed to be an extremely self-centered character with a goal of self-preservation, achieved by any means possible, as his actions often imply. This goal of self-preservation to maintain his family name and his position to the king has severely limited Polonius’s range of the conflict around him and causes a disconnect …show more content…
Stemming from Scene two, Polonius reveals his method of extracting information when he sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes in Paris and orders him to find information through roundabout ways of asking, “Inquire me first what Danskers are in Paris/...that they do know my son/...put on him what forgeries you please. (Shakespeare 2.1.8-23)” Through this method of extracting information, Polonius is the cause of many of the conflicts in this play; fueling Hamlet’s paranoia. Hamlet, by scene three, has had many misfortunes and tests to his trust, and is viewed as being unpredictable and unruly by Polonius, who thrives on control and order. Polonius believes that by helping Hamlet, he is helping the king, thus gaining higher favor. Polonius fuels Hamlet’s paranoia by pitting his friends against him through deception to make them garner information on Hamlet’s woes in his
In order to make sense of his behavior, the royal family spies on Hamlet. Polonius, the king’s chief counselor, believes that he is lovesick for his daughter Ophelia. However, in reality, Hamlet plans to kill the king. Hamlet’s deception can be seen when he is questioned by Polonius as he says, “These tedious old fools!”(Shakespeare, II.II. 218). After Polonius leaves Hamlet, Hamlet drops his act and refers to Polonius and King Claudius as fools.
Yet his position as advisor to the king undermines the importance of loyalty, duty, and service to the state. “...Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth, And this do we wisdom and of reach, With windlasses and with assays of Bias, by indirections find directions out.” In this quote, Polonius is instructing reynaldo to use deceit and manipulation to gather information about Laertes. This highlights Polonius’s willingness to use underhanded tactics to achieve his goals, even if it means betraying his own son. This quote also relates to the usage of power by other characters in Hamlet, such as Claudius using his power to manipulate and control the people around him, such as his wife and son, to maintain his kingly position.
Hamlet Character deception is a common characteristic that has and will be a reflecting characteristic in literature for centuries. In many of William Shakespeare’s tragedies, deception, whether positive or negative, is being used to mislead, to protect characters, or to hide a crime or future crime. Analyzing why the characters are using deception against each other is very important to the reader’s understanding of the work as a whole. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, He uses Hamlet’s deception of character and also the character’s use of deception towards Hamlet to carry out the overall theme of the tragedy. The theme that is represented, is that in able to get malicious revenge, you must be able to act as if you are someone different than your true self while in turn, being able to deal with others deceiving you.
Hamlet must know that King Claudius and Polonius are eavesdropping. Shakespear’s tone is not too cruel, but Hamlet is definitely calling Polonius a fool, for trying to make his daughter marry Hamlet. The Mood of it would be how it makes themes seem even more scandalous. Why were they eavesdropping? The dramatic irony used in these scene was different.
Shakespeare’s use of language helps to portray the major theme of deception in the play Hamlet. The utilization of diction helps to equate Claudius to an evil person, while metaphors help to make the comparison between Claudius and a deathly animal. By making comparisons and using specific word choice that help support the theme, Shakespeare is able to portray the deceitful antics of King
Hamlet Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare is a deep dark revenge tragedy of love and family betrayal. The revenge that Hamlet wants for the death of his father at his uncle’s hand consumes him so much that he loses his mind and causes everyone including the innocent to die. Hamlet is angry over the betrayal he feels when in discovers his uncle Claudius, who is now king killed his father. His mother marrying his uncle who, he now sees as a whore and Ophelia his true love repels his love.
Contrasting his attitudes with the moments that the king walks in, his behavior towards Polonius while the play is preparing, and his actions to Ophelia during the play, Hamlet is sporadic, when alone with Horatio, he is calm and collected, then again the sudden resumption to his “antic disposition” when Rosencrantz and Guildenstern enter. There is a long break in which we don’t sense any insanity from Hamlet, this is due to the fact that he has no need to assume his disguise. When we find Hamlet with the players, he is giving them directions for the play. With the players, Hamlet acts normal and of sound mind because the players are not likely to betray him, they don’t have the opportunity or the wish to do so.
Deception is an action driven with the motive to employ one purpose which can be to mislead another individual in order to gain knowledge, to get revenge, or to reveal a plan unknown to the public eye and keeping it that way for the dutiful well-being of the Kingdom of Denmark. In the tragedy Hamlet by William Shakespeare, deception develops into the character trait that initiates the actions, heartbreak, and revenge driving this play. This attribute held by Hamlet is the leading cause of this same flaw development in Ophelia, King Claudius, and many others in an attempt to reinforce the theme. This theme is one of heroism, but the deceptive notion each action reveals challenges the perception the reader has on each of the main characters. In order to be able to fully analyze the part Hamlet’s deception plays in driving the plot and storyline of this tragedy, one must understand that a foil character juxtaposes each character to illuminate their shortcomings.
Lying to other people makes it impossible to be self-aware. In Act II of Hamlet, Shakespeare implies that people who tell lies to others end up lying to themselves. They are no longer honest to themselves or cognizant of their limits. Shakespeare portrays Polonius as a pompous hypocrite who doesn’t realise when he’s making a fool out of himself. In the second scene of Act II, Polonius gives a flowery and lengthy speech on the virtue of succinctness.
Polonius is willing to spy on pretty much anyone so that he can knows more details about those close to him. He spies on his son Laertes and is willing to slander him without giving it a second thought when he tells Reynaldo, “to make inquiry of his behaviour” (II.i.3-4). Polonius wants Reynaldo to both spy on Laertes and to hurt his image, so that he can learn about his son’s character. Claudius betrays Gertrude by not telling her about the poisoned cup soon enough. He does not want her to drink the poison but she doesn’t know about it until it is too late, “Gertrude, do not drink.
Claudius had arranged an execution for Hamlet, to get rid of him permanently. Behind these acts of deception, we can see Claudius had wanted power, and would do anything to achieve it. This makes
Claudius, as seen in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is both intelligent and clever, two traits that, put together, complement his manipulative and dangerous nature. Due to his cunning nature he portrays the role of a very complex villain. The death of King Hamlet by Claudius results in Prince Hamlet to act out of character, which thus resulted in the tragic death of Polonius and Ophelia. While Hamlet and Gertrude were having conversation, Polonius was hiding behind the huge carpet that was hanging on the wall. Unknowingly, Hamlet stabs Polonius.
As a result,Hamlet can never trust his uncle’s wicked ways to get into people’s heads. Hamlet was betrayed by his friends because they worked for Claudius and gave orders from him,which caused him to not trust them either. For example,when Claudius summons Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to spy on Hamlet,Claudius said,”see if you can make Hamlet feel better and see if you can get info on what he is up to”(Shakespeare 87). This behavior shows evil purposes and twisted words. Claudius sends Hamlet’s friends to make him happier but also use them to see if Hamlet is mad.
In the play, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as a dynamic character to cause a mental state conundrum among the audience and explore the themes of suicide, spying, friendship, madness, providence, love, hate and humour. Furthermore, by utilising literary devices such as soliloquy, characterisation, dialogue, personification, metaphor, dramatic and situational irony Shakespeare exploits these themes and questions Hamlet’s sanity. In the beginning, Hamlet is portrayed as an overthinking person, claiming to act an antic disposition. However, as the play advances his manic rage and irrational acts such as Polonius’s murder and
Hamlet is a very diverse character that goes through several different emotional stages throughout the novel. Some think that he is depressed because of his father’s death, and some think that his breakup with Ophelia has made him go mad. Though Hamlet does seem out of control at times, it is because he is keeping a secret about his father’s death. The average person does not usually deal with the death of their parent well, and knowing that it was intentional makes Hamlet even more emotionally unstable. From the beginning of the novel, Hamlet proves to be very melancholy, and upset with his life.