Appearance Vs Reality
Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare is a play that associates with what you see is not what you get. Hamlet's character is a philosophical thinker that takes on a very simple plot with only one objective: to kill Claudius for the revenge of his father, but instead makes it a tragedy full of twists and turns. After reading the play, two questions arose; "Does the playing ever end?" "When is an act not an act?" Every character in the play has a double-sided personality where everyone seems to be your best friend, but in reality they are spies reporting back to your enemy. Appearance versus reality is shown through several characters including, Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Hamlet. The way people are seen, and the truth behind their image is a major theme in the play. This explains that trust is a misconception; you must only trust yourself because what may appear to be honourable may not be. It is clear that that this play creates a world where uncertainties are the core of life and you must look deep inside a person to know who they truly are.
Claudius is one of the main characters in the play that appears to be good-hearted, but in reality he is a cold-hearted man who only cares about himself. He had killed his brother, elder Hamlet to get the throne and is now pretending to be an honest king that the state should look upon for answers. "Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death/ The memory be green, and that it us befitted/ To bear our hearts in grief.../ That we with wisest sorrow think on him...(Act 1,Sc.2, 1-6)".
Claudius seems like he cares about Hamlet's feelings, but in reality he is the man who had put him through misery. "...This unprevailing woe and think of us/ As of a father...And with no less nobility of love/ Than that which dearest father bears his son/ Do I impart to you...(Act 1, Sc.2, 111-6)". Claudius is trying to make Hamlet get over his father's death by telling him to think of him as...
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