Appearance Vs Reality in Hamlet

Appearance versus reality is one of the central themes of Shakespeare's play, Hamlet. The characters frequently put on guises which conceal their true intentions. For example, Claudius, in reality a murderer and usurper, plays the roles of grieving brother and rightful king and the adulterous Gertrude plays the role of a virtuous queen, when she is, in her son's view, a truly insidious woman. Even Hamlet himself assumes the role of a madman in his attempt to establish the reality of his uncle's guilt. This essay will examine this theme throughout the play, focusing on these examples.

In Act 1 Scene 2, the anxious Gertrude asks her son why he is taking the death of his father so personally:

Seems, madam? Nay, it is. I know not 'seems'.

'Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,

Nor customary suits of solemn black,

Nor windy suspiration of forc'd breath,

No, nor the fruitful river in the eye

(I.ii.87)

Here the prince may be implying that his mother's grief, unlike his own, is merely an appearance. When the ghost of old Hamlet appears and reveals to his son the horrific details of his death at the hands of his treacherous brother, the theme of appearance versus reality becomes firmly rooted in the plot as Hamlet is presented with a moral dilemma. If the ghost is in reality what he appears to be, then Claudius is merely an appearance, an arch-hypocrite. The king is not in reality the grieving brother he had pretended to be in the previous scene, but a ruthless fratricide. This is Hamlet's initial reaction to his dead father's revelations. “O villain, villain, smiling damned villain!

That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain” (I.v.109).

Gertrude too is exposed as a hypocrite, a most seeming-virtuous queen. However, if the ghost is not what it appears to be, but rather a malicious spirit, then Claudius really is a grieving brother and the queen is in fact a virtuous woman who did not commit adultery with her brother-in-law.

The pretence of madness also becomes a protective mask beneath which he can conceal his grief and from behind which he can comment freely on people and situations, thus relieving the emotional pressure which is building up inside him following the Ghost's horrific revelations.

Polonius, a tool of Claudius, uses an appearance in an attempt to please his political master by penetrating Hamlet's disguise and cynically uses his daughter Ophelia as a decoy, pretending that she is praying in the lobby. The callous father hopes that Hamlet will confront Ophelia there and inadvertently reveal his true feelings to the concealed King and to himself. However, Hamlet sees through the pretence and realizes that a trap has been laid for him and consequently he lashes out viciously at the hapless Ophelia, suspecting that she too (like his mother) is guilty of deceit and betrayal.

“I have heard your paintings well enough. God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another” (III, i, 48).

Polonius is fully aware of the hypocrisy of what he is doing. While he pretends to Gertrude that his actions are motivated by concern for her son's mental health, he is in reality an agent of Claudius, seeking to ingratiate himself with the King.

We are oft to blame in this

'Tis too much prov'd, that with devotion's visage

And pious action we do sugar o'er

The devil himself. (III.i.45)

These words in turn 'catch the conscience' of the king and though a strikingly appropriate image he reveals his duplicity to the audience that it is true:

How smart a lash that speech doth give my conscience.

The harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art,

Is not more ugly to the thing that helps it

Than is my deed to my most painted word.

O heavy burdon! (III.i.63)

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are two of Hamlets childhood friends who when asked by the king, try to find out what is troubling the young prince. Both help to add to the theme by showing their appearance of being Hamlets friends. The pair goes to Hamlet pretending to be his friends when in truth they are only there because the king asked them to find the truth. Hamlet quickly reveals the truth and says,