e?Appearance he is unsure that he will beforgiven.

e?Appearance he is unsure that he will beforgiven.

e?Appearance vs. RealityIn Shakespeares tragedy, Hamlet, there is a dominant and overwhelming theme that isconcurrent throughout the play. Throughout the play, all the characters appear as one thing on theoutside, yet on the inside they are completely different. The theme of appearance versus realitysurrounds Hamlet due to the fact that the characters portray themselves as one person on theoutside, and one different on the inside. In the play, Claudius, Hamlets uncle, appears to be kind,gentle, and caring on the outside, but in actual fact, he uses his loving behavior as a mask to coverup the fact that he is a selfish, mean, and cold murderer.

The women in Hamlet appear to livehappy and wonderful lives on the outside, but their happiness is used to cover up the corruptnessof their lives on the inside. And finally Hamlet appears to be mad and insane, but really he is usinghis madness as a veil to hide his secretive quest to seek the truth behind his fathers death.Appearance versus reality is coexistent theme that develops as the Danish kingdom gets engulfedin a web of a deception, corruption and lies. Hamlet is filled with characters covering up their true intentions with a whole otherperson, whom appears to be innocent. One character, that used deception to cover up their trueintention, was Claudius. Claudius, Hamlets uncle, is a very deceptive and cruel person.

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Claudiuskilled his brother, which was Hamlets father and then married his brothers wife in order tobecome the new king of Denmark. No one knew that Claudius committed the murder so he didnot receive any punishments for his actions. Claudius was forced to put on an angel-likeappearance that transformed him from a cold murderer to the perfect king. This illusion thatClaudius puts on ensures that his secret is kept hidden.

Under the illusion, Claudius is no longer amean, and selfish guy, instead he appears in all aspects to be the perfect gentlemen. Claudiusexemplifies the appearance versus reality theme, by the fact that appears to be kind and gentle, butin actual fact he is using his kindness and gentleness as a cloak to cover up the malicious murderthat he so violently committed. Claudius through out the play feels guilt for action, and thus triesto repent for his sin in, (3.3.55-56) by praying. In his prayer he says, My fault is past.

But, O,what form of prayer can serve my turn? Forgive me my foul murder? In this scene Claudius isnot clear on what to feel. He struggles to get out his prayer, because he is unsure that he will beforgiven. He wants to repent for his sin, but he knows that he cant because he is not truly sorry.In (3.3.

58-59) Claudius list some reasons why he can ask for forgiveness. He says Of thoseeffects for which I did the murder- my crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. Claudiusrealizes that his outside wants to seek forgiveness but his inside can not give up the positions thatgained. Claudius thus realizes that he has to separate his own deceptive illusion from of truefeelings. The women in Hamlet exemplify the theme of appearance versus reality as well.

Opheliaand Gertrude display deceptive illusions to hide the corruptions of their lives. Ophelia shields herlove for Hamlet in the beginning of the play, but eventually is forced to throw herself to Hamlet,at her fathers request. Ophelia exaggerates her love for Hamlet, so her father can prove to theking and queen that Hamlets madness comes from his love for Ophelia. Hamlet senses thatOphelia love is not genuine, and therefore treats her with disgust. He assaults Ophelia with words,and also with his actions, which included killing her father, though unintentional.

Hamlet beginsdisplaying acts of cruelty towards Ophelia, by using malicious sarcasm. He tells her to Go thyways to a nunnery. Wheres your father? Let the doors be shut upon him, that he may playfool nowhere but ins own house. Farewell.(3.1.

141-144) Before this scene, Hamlet overhearsthe king and Ophelias dad attempt to form a plan to try to fathom the source of Hamlets unusualbehavior. Their plan involves using Ophelia as the bait. Ophelia can do nothing but comply withthe king and her father plan. Hamlet is outraged that Ophelia, the girl he loves, is involved in aplot against him. Out of anger, Hamlet says to Ophelia, I did love you once but you should havenot believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it.

I loved younot.(3.1.125-129) Hamlet renounced his love for Ophelia and called her a fool actually believingthat he did love her.

Hamlets acrimonious words caused Ophelia to break down emotionallybecause she was caught in trap that forced her to go against her lover. Ophelias emotionalbreakdown could have been prevented if she would have realized that Hamlets harsh behaviorwas an illusion used to conceal his feelings about his mothers scandalous marriage. The otherwoman in the play, Gertrude, also displayed the theme of appearance versus reality. Gertrude refuses to believe that Hamlet tells the truth, when he tells her that Polonius is amurderer.

Hamlet tells his Gertrude:Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear. Blasting his wholesome brother…. In the rank sweat of an enseamed bed. Stewed in corruption,honeying and making love.

Over the nasty sty A cutpurse of the empire and rule, that from a shelf the precious diadem stole and put itinto his pocket.(3.4.

74-115)Hamlet tells her that her husband killed the old king, in order to become the new king.Gertrude refuses to believe Hamlet, despite his strong will to make her believe. Gertrude forcesherself to be happy despite of the circumstances. Her whole life is an illusion, by the fact that shedoes not want to accept anything that will make her unhappy. Gertrude wants to live a life filledwith nothing but happiness.

Her illusion is the unwillingness to accept the tribulations of life. Thecharacter that best exemplifies the theme of appearance versus reality is Hamlet himself. Hamletacts, as he was a mad man. He acts very strangely, which in turn creates the illusion that he isinsane.

He appears to be mad in order to conceal his true feelings and intentions. Hamlets trueintention is to avenge his fathers death by killing Claudius. Hamlet does not let anything get inthe of way avenging his fathers death, except a little procrastination. He kills three innocentpeople, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern and Polonius, if you can call them innocent, without havingfeelings of guilt. His malicious actions were actually expressing the way he felt. As the storyprogresses, Hamlet becomes a very cruel and cold hearted person who cares for no one.

Hismadness over takes him. After Poloniuss death, Hamlets gets into a fight with Laertes, Poloniussson. Laertes wants to avenge the death of his father. It isnt until later much later that Hamletrealizes that Laertes is upset over his fathers death. Hamlet contributes Poloniuss death to hismadness, when he says to Horatio, If Hamlet from himself be taen away, and when hes nothimself does wrong Laertes, then Hamlet does it not, Hamlet denies it. Who does it, then? Hismadness.

It be so, Hamlet is of the fraction that is wronged; His madness is poor Hamletsenemy.(5.2.248-253) Hamlet is telling Horatio that the madness that was within him killedPolonius.

The separation between Hamlet and his madness proves that his madness is just anappearance. Hamlet knows that his madness is a just a mask used to cover up his true feeling.Hamlets true feeling is that he does not care for anyone but himself.

Hamlet has a mask ofmadness that he uses to conceal his true feelings. Hamlets madness, though just as an illusionproves that he does not have care for Ophelia. Hamlet always harassed Ophelia with denigratingwords that belittled her existence.

Hamlet harassed Ophelia with his actions too. Hamlet murdersOphelias father, which totally destroys Ophelia. Ophelia is forced to commit suicide because shecant handle the destructive force of her fathers death. At Ophelias funeral, Hamlet said I lovedOphelia.

Forty thousand brothers could not make up my sum(5.1.285-287) If Hamlet lovedOphelia so much, then why did he treat her so badly.

Hamlets madness is used to cover up thehatred he had for Ophelia as well as for his mother. Hamlet treats his mother with no respect atall. He threatens her, and forces her to see give into his ways. Hamlet sits his mother down in herbed and tells her, This is your husband.

Look now what follows(3.4.73) Hamlet tells hismother that her husband Claudius is a murderer and that she should have not married him becausehe is no good. As I see it, when Hamlet is telling his mother the bad things about her husband, heis not polite and sincere about it at all. He is yelling and screaming at her. This rash behavior is notmadness- it is Hamlet. This is one of the few occasions where Hamlet expresses his true feelingswithout the use of deception.

Hamlet is filled with many falsehoods and deceptions. It seems like no one in the play canexpress what their true motives are. Deceptive illusions are used frequently in Hamlet to provideprotection from the destructive force of truth. All the characters are corrupt, are thus rely ondeception to get what they want.

The only non-corrupt characters in Hamlet seem to be thegravedigger and his assistant. With the exception of a few characters, the theme of appearanceversus reality is the fundamental basis for all actions of the characters in the play. Words/ Pages : 1,588 / 24

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