In the first two acts of Hamlet there are a few characters that are deceitful. In the play, there are a couple of situations where the outer appearance of characters does not always match their true intent. Hamlet acts differently when he is with others.
He acts insane to avenge his father’s death. Ophelia’s loving father, Polonius, goes behind her back to discuss her relationship with Hamlet to the King. There are other characters in the play that are deceitful such as Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Claudius is not an honest King and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are pretending to be Hamlet’s friend to find out information for the King.After Hamlet speaks to his father as a ghost, he decides that pretending to be insane is the best way to avenge Old Hamlet’s death.
He says to Horatio,“Here as before, never, so help you mercyHow strange or odd some’er I bear myself(As I perchance hereafter shall I think meetTo put an antic disposition on)” (Hamlet I.v.169-172).Hamlet tells Horatio that he will act crazy and to go along with it. He wants people to believe that he is insane so he can find out what happens. If Hamlets decides to do something bad no one would suspect that he meant to do it on purpose because he is insane.
He would use is “illness” as an excuse. Hamlet is making people believe that he is crazy through his actions and his words. One of the first times, Hamlet is crazy is when he goes to Ophelia’s room. After Hamlet leaves Ophelia’s room, she goes to tell Polonius about their encounter. She says,“Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbraced,No hat upon his head, his stockings fouled,Ungartered, and down-gyved to his ankle,Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,And with a look so piteous in purport,As if he had been loosed out of hellTo speak of horrors-he comes before me” (Hamlet II.
i.78-83).Hamlet is deceitful throughout the first two acts. He is only dishonest because he wants to avenge his father’s death and the only way to do so is to act insane.
Claudius and Polonius are also deceitful characters in the play Hamlet. Claudius is a murderer and Polonius is a backstabber. Claudius killed his brother, Old Hamlet, and then married his wife. He is putting on a persona of not knowing anything about his brother’s death when he truly does. Old Hamlet comes in the form as a ghost to tell Hamlet about his murder.
He tells him that it was Claudius who killed him, “But know, thou noble youth, /The serpent that did sting thy father’s life/Now wears his crown” (Hamlet.I.v.38-40).
After Claudius killed his brother, he married Gertrude, Old Hamlet’s spouse. Claudius attempts to create an appearance that he is now this great ruler of Denmark who has courage and confidence. In reality, he is a coward and a hypocrite. Claudius’ deceitful act provokes a chain of events that will not be controlled. Polonius is a liar. He tells his daughter, Ophelia, that he loves her and that he will protect her.
He then goes behind her back to the King to set her up. Polonius says to the King and Queen,“At such a time I’ll loose my daughter to him.Be you and I behind an arras then.Mark the encounter.
If he love her not,And be not from his reason fall’n thereon,Let me be no assistant for a stateBut keep a farm and carters” (Hamlet. Ii.ii.162-167).Polonius is extremely nosy and meddlesome at times like when he tries to have Ophelia reveal her secret affair with Hamlet.
Polonius is playing everyone in the play, including his own children and the King and Queen.In the play Hamlet a lot of characters are deceitful. Claudius is the King of Denmark and a murderer. Polonius is a meddler and two-faced and Hamlet is “insane.
” Throughout the play, the chain of events that started when Claudius killed Old Hamlet will become out of hand. Because no one is being who they say they are, everyone’s secrets will start to unfold.
