Appearance Vs Reality In Hamlet Research Paper
Hamlet Comparative Essay The Theme of Appearance vs. Reality encircles William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in the play everything appears to be truthful and accurate but in reality this is not the case. Many of the characters in Hamlet hide behind a façade there’s Polonius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern just to name a few. But the two most important characters, Hamlet and King Claudius have the put on the biggest masks in the play. Hamlet uses the mask of madness in his appearance by using Ophelia’s rejected love and scorn to give the appearance of madness to anyone that looks at him. This is shown when Hamlet goes to Ophelia with dirty clothes, pale and looking mad:
My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his …show more content…
This is shown when King Claudius sends Hamlet to England with letters to the King for Hamlet’s execution.
And England, if my love thou hold’st at aught-
As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us-thou may’st not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,
The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: till I know ‘tisdone,
Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.
(Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, sc III, lines 59-69)
King Claudius gives the appearance of repentance when in reality does not want to repent but just to reap the rewards of his crime and he will do anything and kill anyone that gets in his
My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,
No hat upon his head, his …show more content…
This is shown when King Claudius sends Hamlet to England with letters to the King for Hamlet’s execution.
And England, if my love thou hold’st at aught-
As my great power thereof may give thee sense,
Since yet thy cicatrice looks raw and red
After the Danish sword, and thy free awe
Pays homage to us-thou may’st not coldly set
Our sovereign process; which imports at full,
By letters conjuring to that effect,
The present death of Hamlet. Do it, England;
For like the hectic in my blood he rages,
And thou must cure me: till I know ‘tisdone,
Howe’er my haps, my joys were ne’er begun.
(Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, sc III, lines 59-69)
King Claudius gives the appearance of repentance when in reality does not want to repent but just to reap the rewards of his crime and he will do anything and kill anyone that gets in his