Hamlet: Lies, Deception & Spying - Unravelling the Themes

The "Hamlet" analyses crucial aspects of events with a sequence of episodes by which lies, deception, and spies are essential themes. The main characters of the play are without taking care of each other's feelings lie to each other, deceive one another, and do spy to each other. Nonetheless, the purpose behind such progress based on lies, deception, and spying is particular to the scenarios and conditions in which they happen. The unfolding of these themes onward with social and political establishment occurs since people get disclosed to situations necessitating the implementation of significant deception that widely establishes its roots deep in the play.

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Hamlet, without a doubt, simulated lunacy, and Polonius becomes victim as he gets cheated (Ziolkowski 88). Polonius had a belief that the insanity of Hamlet emanated from his enormous affection for Ophelia. The deception is clear from the move of Hamlet to pursue Ophelia. Hamlet swiftly realizes that Ophelia is a member of Claudius, Polonius' cahoots, and Gertrude even though, for some period, he seems to seek Ophelia. The deception of Hamlet focused on knowing the truthfulness involving the death of his father. Actions of Claudius increase in fraud. Directly after the murder of his brother, the Danish court is deceived by Claudius, and as a result, unjustifiably autocratic leadership. He had no legal legitimacy or moral to the Danish throne, having poisoned the king. Claudius took advantage of deception as a weapon of self-growth as it became apparent when his reign got blemished by hypocrisy and shady deals.

Polonius also demonstrate deception. The overzealous older male offered payment to Reynaldo to spread rumors, and progress lies about Laertes. Polonius was deceiving the mass in this manner. Reynaldo gets cheated into lies by being paid for the work. Polonius also deceive Laertes through preaching hypocritically on Laertes' journey to France. Finally, Polonius activeness is spoilt by as most individuals in the play, deceptions of Polonius are utterly harmful, worse, and he would get implicated in his deceptive actions. Polonius paid Pyrrhic for being a prying person (Puchner 4).

Hamlet has surveillance of at least eight people, each with particular motives, and prince Hamlet is within them as he has an interest in spying. Nearly every character has various reasons for interference. The spying game is started in France by Polonius through spying on Laertes (Price 159). His care and love for his son could be the reason for spying on Laertes or his anguish about his son's action. Laertes could demonstrate his behavior, which worried him. Claudius and Polonius, spies on Hamlet and Gertrude by quietly listening to their conversation. Hamlet and Gertrude are spied by Claudius together with Polonius through secretly listening to their dialogue (Ziolkowski 88). They keep out of sight from the backside of the arras while they spy on Hamlet Ophelia. They have no intention of getting caught while eavesdropping. Polonius has audacity that he can manage to lure Hamlet through his daughter, Ophelia.

The primary purpose was to hear out the entire private dialogue between Ophelia and Hamlet. Polonius, from his spying games, would go through a blow. Hamlet confuses Polonius for Claudius while he was under Polonius' radar, thus murdering him. It happened when Hamlet heard Polonius, who was concealing at the backside of the curtain, calling for help, thereby stabbed him thinking it was Claudius. On the verge of murdering Claudius, the ghost appeared to him.

The bad interaction between the Prince of Denmark and Claudius likewise propagates spying behaviors which leaves them with the urge to accomplish their intentions to each other. On behalf of the Prince, Hamlet spied on Polonius in the process so that his longings could get accomplished. (Puchner 3). The irony of this spy spreads out from, however, as it happened when Hamlet was also watching Claudius. Hamlet initially tried to imitate insanity to initiate the process of investigating the death of his father. In this case, he draws aims of discerning by keen observation on the Danish Prince were an affirmation of his skepticism that his late father. Claudius killed his father and his action gets provoked by the delayed mourning of Hamlet. Likewise, marriage and his hatred towards the throne are other reasons that contribute to triggering him.

Behavior that Hamlet had adopted got Claudius much worried. Therefore Claudius considered it better to spy on him as a result. It starts when Claudius presumes that Hamlet is insane through events of a dispute with Ophelia. The deception here basically lies in the reason that he wants to manipulate Hamlet's trust that the latter is genuinely mad. Claudius planned to cover up that he is spying on him. Claudius' spying intended to self-security. He aimed to spy on Hamlet to conceal himself from his insanity, for it was a significant risk. This event involves Hamlet's deceptive behavior. He feigned madness, and Claudius trusted that he was truly insane. The latter started to spy on him based on the insanity that was not genuine.

Some deceptions run across "Hamlet," and several individuals lie for particular logic. Several instances show that every individual was a deceiver. Claudius tells lies to the whole Denmark state through murdering Hamlet. The action of truth misinterpretation and lies is secretive at the start of the play since Claudius tells that snake bites killed the king Hamlet. However, Ophelia is extremely shocked by learning from Hamlet's strong statement. Throughout events that result in Hamlet's death, it was a result of spying, which cost him dearly. Many murders came along through the power of deception.

Deception caused Hamlet himself to die. Another instance is when Hamlet organizes to deceiver his mother, Gertrude, in her closet during their meeting. He supposedly seems to harm her, but he has no motives of getting physically barbaric with her, he merely intends to scare her. The mental state of Hamlet is a complete creation to deceive to gain personal interests. All along the entire play, Hamlet masks his real intentions of murdering Claudius, therefore, makes people believe and trust upon him that his madness has all the blame. Initially, Hamlet gets amazed by what has entirely occurred, and his whole life is a mess. Madness later makes Hamlet think of suicide at some point. Hamlet discovers ways to overcome emotional hurdles that had kept him from accessing his revenge. He changes from cowardice into courage as he investigates the death of his father.

The opening of the play starts when Claudius cheated on the congregation that King Hamlet perished as a result of a bite of a snake, and still through his ear, he had poisoned the king while he fell asleep (Williamson 318). Hamlet asked Horatio to keep an eye on the reaction of Claudius all along with the play. Claudius got angry and got off the play assuring Hamlet that he was the killer as the court was watching. A Lie of Hamlet involving his mentality is a perfect instance as it crucially shows the happenings of the following scenes. Hamlet simulated insanity so that people would trust that he is not harmful during his quest to find justice for the death of his father. He cheated concerning the state of his mind. He wanted to investigate the involvement of Claudius in the death of his father. Hamlet concealed his aims of murdering Claudius. If Laertes failed to win the duel, Claudius would put poison for Hamlet into a drink.

Ophelia would get announced that has drowned by Ophelia. Rescheduling of the fight, Gertrude would encounter Hamlet in a contest. Gertrude accidentally drank from the poisoned drink and dies. Hamlet gets injured with the sword that gets poisoned. However, switching of foils happened whereby Laertes, together with Hamlet, gets injured with foil that gets poisoned. As Laertes is dying, he confessed the plan Claudius had to murder Hamlet. Claudius gets stabbed by Hamlet, and Hamlet perishes, telling Horatio to share his story.

Hamlet is deceived by Polonius, together with other individuals in the play, through laying facts on his biasness for spying and insincerity. He would give Laertes, his son, a long lecture on morality when he was about to leave for France. However, while he was in France, he would organize for a spy to monitor his movements. (Price 159). It is a deceit that progress to such far, particularly having said a lecture on morality. Polonius gets between Hamlet- Ophelia dialogues and speaks still another considerable trick. He claimed that Hamlet was insane, and more communicates to Claudius that Hamlet is mad. There is no justification in Hamlet's insanity because he is pretending it. Polonius' deceits were proof of the ideal character since it gets publicized. Hamlet asked him to prove his principle and honesty since he had known that he was a person who accomplished the act of practicing deceit in scene two of act two.

Hamlet communicates and deceives, and then swiftly makes the secret information others know. It concerns Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who appears to be genuine to have a particular beginning from Wittenberg and have decided to visit him. The extent of truthfulness was that the two were to send the Danish Prince since the latter had a firm belief issue with Hamlet (Puchner 3). Though they did not allow showing their plans and appearing to be true that they are favorable, they planned to get some message from Hamlet. A kind or similar script takes place when Claudius gives information to Hamlet that he is sending him to England to assist in fostering English-Danish bonds. It was that he was dispatching him to England for a useful purpose. Hamlet realizes his planned killing, thus reshuffled the orders that resulted in Guildenstern and Rosencrantz to get executed. Finally, hamlet returned to Denmark. Claudius' major plan of sending Hamlet to England was to murder him, as he had earlier organized.

In conclusion, prominent themes in Shakespeare's "Hamlet" are lying, spying, and deception. Nearly all individuals are involved in these behaviors, and it is kind of indisputable that they make the backbone of the play. Characters deceive, lie, and spy to each other. Still, they all occur for particular motives.

Works Cited

Price, Joseph G. Hamlet: critical essays. Routledge, 2014. Accessed from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=b0zIAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA159&dq=spying+in+hamlet+essays&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjBmb_xgPDnAhUQAGMBHaPWDl8Q6AEIOjAC#v=onepage&q=spying%20in%20hamlet%20essays&f=false

Puchner, Martin. The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Eds. Suzanne Conklin Akbari, et al. WW Norton, 2013. Accessed from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=G9rULgEACAAJ&dq=Norton+anthology+of+world+literature.+volumes+I+and+II.+2013&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ472ch_DnAhVEXhoKHWcVBPIQ6AEIJzAA

Williamson, Claude CH. Readings on the Character of Hamlet: compiled from over three hundred sources. Vol. 36. Routledge, 2013. Accessed from

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Ziolkowski, Theodore. Hesitant Heroes: Private Inhibition, Cultural Crisis. , 2014. Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press, 2014. Accessed from https://books.google.co.ke/books?id=V7lcDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88&dq=deception+in+hamlet&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjFuKey8e_nAhUb6OAKHcR7CFsQ6AEINzAC#v=onepage&q=deception%20in%20hamlet&f=false