Appearance vs. Reality

Appearance vs. Reality

1. Polonius

   • Polonius appears to be a loyal servant to his Kingdom when in reality, he secretly enjoys spying and probing around someone else's business . He enjoys the thrill of deceit so much, that he sends a spy on his own son, Laertes, to make sure he does not make a fool of himself when he goes away to Paris.
   • "And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!"

2. Claudius

   • "Claudius, the duplicitous cowardly, and conniving politician"
   • Claudius hides behind a veneer of being a gentle, just, and concerned King, that grieves for his dead brother and who cares for his people and in particular, his stepson.
   • However, in reality, Claudius conceals a very dark secret and fears Hamlet's apparent madness not because of Hamlet's well being but his own.

3. Hamlet

   • Madness
     • Hamlet uses madness to try and show that he has gone mad from the rejection of Ophelia's love but also as a cover up for a plan to kill Claudius.
   • Gertrude asks why Hamlet is still in mourning two months after his father died: "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Hamlet responds: "Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not 'seems.'"
   • Hamlet's obsession with what's real has three main effects: 1) he becomes so caught up in the search for reality that he is not able to act; 2) in order to prove what's real and what isn't Hamlet himself must hide his "reality" behind an "appearance" of madness; 3) the more closely Hamlet looks, the less real and coherent everything seems to be.

4. The difference between "seems" (appearance) and "is" (reality) is crucial in Hamlet. The characters try to figure each other out by using deception of their own, such as spying and plotting.

5. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern attempt to deceive Hamlet by acting as his concerned friends