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Dishonesty In Hamlet

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I wholeheartedly agree that Shakespeare brilliantly portrays a world in which deception and false appearances dominate. The masterfully crafted setting of Elsinore is a rotten cesspool of lies and deceit, filled with characters masquerading as honest and regarding over obsequiousness and espionage as perfectly moral practices. Nothing is ever as it seems and the dishonesty sweeps up even those opposed to it. Polonius is certainly the embodiment of sycophantic falsity in this play. He is constantly trying to ingratiate himself with others and is repeatedly seen to be prying into the business of others, which ironically leads to his demise. He deems it acceptable to spy on and spread lies about his son, reasoning "Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth: and thus do we of wisdom and of reach, with windlasses and with assays of bias, by indirections find directions out". He also doesn 't see anything wrong with using his daughter to gain information about Hamlet, with his plan "At such a time I 'll loose my daughter to him. Be you and I behind an arras then, mark the encounter". Finally, he suggests "Let his Queen-mother all alone entreat him to show his grief. Let her be round with him and I 'll be placed, so please you, in the ear of all their conference". It is fitting that he died as he …show more content…

Claudius tries and fails to pray for forgiveness, but Hamlet mistakes this for repentance. Because of this, he decides to "trip him that his heels ay kick at heaven" and delays in killing him. Unfortunately for him, his uncle is not truly remorseful for his sins, saying "My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go". The king is deceptive without even trying, it is second nature to him. This disingenuity is so rooted in him and in the rest of the Danish nobility that it turns what should be a heartfelt plea for absolution into a merely superficial show of

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Although Hamlet is plotting to murder a king which is the highest form of treason any person could commit in his time, is made to seem like an honorable and justified action. Through the ghost of his father demanding that Hamlet avenge his untimely death by the hand of his brother, the audience disposes of this idea that plotting against and killing a king is treason. The audience understands Hamlets rage and desire for revenge and is encourages it although Claudius is the new king of Denmark and father to Hamlet. This betrayal Hamlet commits against his former uncle now his adoptive father would disgust the audience had it not been that Claudius was guilty of murdering Hamlets father and plotting to murder Hamlet. By having this double crossing it establishes how not even the bonds of family can quench the thirst for power and

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Polonius fuels Hamlet’s paranoia by pitting his friends against him through deception to make them garner information on Hamlet’s woes in his

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Charles Dudley Warner said, “People always overdo the matter when they attempt deception.” Hamlet is a play that is filled with deception. Nearly every character within the play has lied to one another or committed a form of deception, making almost every character a master in the act. Lying and secrets are prominent from the very beginning of the play. When the ghost, said to be the late King Hamlet, is introduced, it is very secretive and kept quiet.

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This suggests that Claudius is not genuinely praying to have his sins forgiven. He is praying thoughtlessly, therefore his prayers would not be heard or forgiven. This scene shows how indecisive and wavered Hamlet is because he is not driven enough to kill Claudius. He still

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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.

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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

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Deception comes in many forms and can be seen in all kind of ways but mainly when someone purposely causes someone to believe something that isn 't true to gain a personal advantage. Many authors use this tactic in their plays books and other literary work like in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, the author uses the technique of deception to mislead Claudius, Gertrude, himself, Ophelia and his friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spare their feelings and to carry out a crime. Hamlet uses deception throughout the novel, but one way is to distract everyone from his true intention which is to gather information against Claudius to prove he killed his father. Shakespeare contributes all this back into his work by making each character in the play enact on some form of deceit to uncover the obscure truth.

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Many works of art, especially literature, has a large focus on deception and how deception pushes a plot and story along the line to completion. This had been used in the long history of literature an uncountable amount of times by a lot of different authors, but one of the most popular works which has a heavy focus of deception and the consequences thereof is the drama, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by William Shakespeare. This drama, often just called Hamlet features incredibly heavy themes of deception as almost every character is being deceitful in someway, which all has varying effects on the advancement of the main story and plot. Arguably the most deceitful character in the entire drama is the namesake Hamlet. Hamlet has

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As the play starts with the death of the previous Hamlet, there is already tragedy that has poisoned the kingdom of Denmark. Tragedy is highlighted throughout the whole play and creates a dark atmosphere around the characters. This dark energy seeps into the lives of those in Denmark and influences many onto the wrong path. The theme of espionage is prominent in Hamlet, underscoring themes of deception. It is manifest in the furtive and self-destructive behavior seen in several characters’ story arcs and becomes a key contributor to the tragic consequences that result.

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In this play, the characters choose to be deceitful instead of being truthful when getting their way. The irony is that deception is used to find the truth by these characters. There are many examples of deceit in the play, most notably by Hamlet, Polnius and King Claudius. Hamlet uses deception

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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.

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First of all, King Claudius’s ambition to become the next King of Denmark causes him to lose his conscience. As King Hamlet’s ghost reveals the truth of his death, he anguishes, “Thus was I [King Hamlet], sleeping, by a brother’s hand, Of life, of crown, of queen at once dispatched” (1.5.81-82). The throne of Denmark motivates King Claudius to slay his own biological brother to succeed King Hamlet’s “crown”. His desire to gain power has overwhelming covered up his moral values.

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1854 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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Deception is a common tool among people of the world. For as long as we have communicated, we have worked our way around truths. The art of deception is very intricate and fragile, having to be planned carefully. In Hamlet by William Shakespeare, several characters use deception to get their own way. Three of them who made use of it are Claudius, Laertes, and Hamlet.

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To be or not to be morally ambiguous is to have the lack of coherence in making moral life decisions. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, the main character Hamlet goes through a great transformation. Hamlet seeks revenge toward Claudius who he believes killed his father for the throne. In many of Shakespeare’s play there is always a hero and a villain, but in Hamlet, Hamlet plays a pivotal role because he can be viewed as both the hero and the villain. Hamlet is seen as a morally ambiguous character due to the decisions he makes throughout the plot of the novel that ends up leading him to his demise.

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