Lies and deceit Flashcards
From his very first scene, Hamlet sets himself up as someone who hates deception and values inner truth above all. Here, he insists that outward appearances (all being common markers of grief) can’t possibly judge what’s truly inside him.
In other words, Hamlet’s saying that his anguish and grief over his father’s death are far more intense than they appear to the outside world. He’s also implying that Gertrude, Claudius, and the rest of the court are totally fake and disingenuous because they don’t care about him or his feelings at all and are far too concerned with keeping up appearances.
“‘Tis not alone my inky cloak, good mother,
Nor customary suits of solemn black”
Polonius likes to dish advice, but he sure can’t take it.
He’s not in any position to be talking about truth after spying on his own children
“This above all: to thine own self be true”
Like Hamlet, the ghost dwells on Gertrude’s “seeming” virtue. But is the ghost saying Gertrude cheated on him when they were married?
“Ay, that incestuous, that adulterate beast”
Will seem fine on the outside to make you believe they are not involved, but inside they are.
“That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain”
Polonius instructs his servant to spread rumors about his son Laertes in the hopes of finding out what the boy’s up to. Obviously, this way of thinking has some major flaws—but this is actually pretty much the same method Hamlet uses to find out whether or not the ghost is telling the truth about Claudius.
“laying these slight sullies on my son”
Hamlet’s old friends try to deceive him, but Hamlet sees right through it.
Rosencrantz
Guildenstern
“there is a kind of confession in your looks”
Polonius colluding with the King to deceive Hamlet—and it ends up getting him killed.
They plot to set him up
“Be you and I behind an arras then”
Unlike Polonius, Claudius knows that all his scheming might catch up with him in the end. What’s interesting about this passage is the way his sexist remarks align his own deception with the use of cosmetics.
It sounds like like women are fundamentally deceptive, a theme throughout
“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 burden!”
When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern try to get Hamlet to confide in them, Hamlet is mad.
Compares deception to playing a musical instrument to mock R+G
Oh, and guess what? Their deception ends up getting them killed, too.
“Do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe?”
Like every other deceptive character, Laertes dies because of that deception.
“I am justly killed with mine own treachery”
When Hamlet confronts her, Ophelia lies to him outright—but she has no choice. As an unmarried daughter, she has to obey her father’s order to help him catch Hamlet. And it ends up killing her, just like it kills him.
HAMLET
[…] Where’s your father?
OPHELIA
At home, my lord.
