Reality and Illusion in Shakespeares Hamlet - Appearance versus Realit

Appearance versus Reality in Hamlet Appearance versus reality is one of the central themes of Shakespeares come across, Hamlet. The characters in the play assume roles for the purpose of concealment - Claudius, in reality a receiver and usurper, plays the roles of grieving brother and rightful king the adulterous Gertrude plays the role of a most seeming-virtuous queen when she is, in her sons view, a most pernicious woman. Even Hamlet himself assumes the role of a madman in his attempt to establish the reality of his uncles guilt. In 1.2, the nervous Gertrude asks her son why he is taking the death of his father so personally... Why seems it so particular with thee? Hamlet indignantly asserts the sincerity of his grief.... Seems, maam? Nay, it is. I know not seems. Tis not alone my inky cloak, obedient mother, Nor customary suits of solemn black, Nor windy suspiration of forcd breath, No, nor the fruitful river in the affection Nor the dejected haviour of the visage, To gether with all forms, moods, shapes of grief, For they are actions that a man competency play But I have that within which passes show, These but the harness and the suits of woe. Here the prince may be implying that his mothers grief, unlike his own, is merely an appearance. When the shadow of disused Hamlet appears and reveals to his grieving son the horrific details of his death at the hands of his treacherous brother, the theme of appearance versus reality becomes firmly grow 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 re... ... A.C. Quote. Literary Companion to British Authors William Shakespeare. San Diego Greenhaven, 1996. Danson, Lawrence. Tragic Alphabet. Modern fine Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. natural York City Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 65-86 Findlay, Alison. Hamlet A Document in Madness. new-fangled Es says on Hamlet. Ed. rank Thornton Burnett and John Manning. New York AMS Press, 1994. 189-205. Hopkins, Lisa. Parison and the Impossible Comparison. New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. New York AMS Press, 1994. 153-164. Rose, Mark. Reforming the Role. Modern Critical Interpretations Hamlet. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York City Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 117-128 Wiggins, Martin. Hamlet Within the Prince. New Essays on Hamlet. Ed. Mark Thornton Burnett and John Manning. New York AMS Press, 1994. 209-226.