Hamlet is Essentially the Victim of his own Deception: A Critical Approach - Essay Example

“Hamlet is Essentially the Victim of his own Deception A Critical Approach ‘Deception’ is one of the dominant themes, in Shakespeare’s play, “Hamlet”, that serve as the baseline of the plot of the drama, while shaping its central character. Hamlet despises deception, and craves for truth and honesty more than most other characters do in the play. Ironically Hamlet himself resorts to deceptions and lies in order to discover the truth about the regicide, and, in the long run, he himself is ensnared in his own lie and deception. But Hamlet’s deception essentially can be acquitted of the charge being a crime. Indeed it is more of a strategy, on Hamlet’s part, in the cold war with Claudius, than an intentional crime that inflicts pain on the innocent. From a plain view, Hamlet’s deceptive actions are justifiable from a Machiavellian perspective. It is Hamlet’s situation that compels him to choose the path, of deception and lies, which is supposed to lead him to the ultimate truth of his father’s death. Indeed Hamlet is in a situational irony that forces him to assume those deceptive roles. Literally Hamlet is trapped in his own deception since his deceptive role forces him to refrain from being committed to Ophelia’s love, to kill Polonius accidentally, and eventually to loss Ophelia. Since his semi-maniacal behaviors grow suspicion among Claudius and other people of authority, he can be held responsible for the accidental killing of Polonius who attempts to spy on him. For the same reason, he is responsible for making Laertes his enemy and for his own death at Laertes’s hand. But a deeper analysis of Hamlet’s character is more likely to raise the question whether Hamlet is right enough to assume that Claudius is the murderer of the late King. Hamlet’s presupposition of Claudius as the murder primarily depends on the ghost’s assertion that he himself doubts. Hamlet also cannot provide any solid evidences to support his proof. There are only two signs in the play that show that Claudius might have killed the king. They are not strong enough to prove that Claudius is guilty. The first one is that Claudius runs away in fear, according to Hamlet’s expectation, while watching “the Murder of Gonzago”. Such case does not essentially prove that Claudius is the murderer, since there may a number of reasons that provokes him to do so. The most appealing one is: the part of the mimic play that has been staged by Hamlet, directly deals illegal-love between Gonzago’s wife and his murderer. Indeed such presentation is humiliating for a king who has married his mysteriously dead brother’s wife, even though he is not guilty of the murder. There is another possible reason: Claudius is mentally so weak that he cannot but avoid the fratricide of the play. Claudius’s psychological weakness is evident in the one and only following set of lines in the whole play: ………………….………..Pray can I not, Though inclination be as sharp as will: My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent; (3.3.21) The emotionally swept audience most likely mistakes Claudius’s repentance for his murder, when they hear Claudius to say, “O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven; / It hath the primal eldest curse upon't, / A brother's murder” (3.3.18). But there is another possibility that Claudius has fully perceived the foulness of his incestuous love for his brother’s wife after viewing Hamlet’s play; therefore, he comparing it with fratricide, with a wish to relieve himself from his past: ……………….What if this cursed hand Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens To wash it white as snow? (3.3.23) Now the question that arises here is why Claudius attempts to kill Hamlet, if he is not guilty of the murder. The most reasoning answer is that after Hamlet kills Polonius, Claudius must feel the risk of life and he normally will try to get relief from him, even though he is not guilty of the murder. But a deeper understanding of Hamlet’s psychology to avenge his father’s killing essentially reveals that Hamlet is a self-deceived deceiver who commits crimes one after another under his aggrandized self as a justified avenger. If the supernatural presence of the king’s ghost is expunged from the drama, Hamlet will simply appear to be a skillful deceiver, before the audience, who attempts to find out his father’s killer just because he wants to repair his ego bruised by his mother, Gertrude’s marriage with Claudius. His overriding passion for his mother and his utmost anger at her marriage with Claudius dangerously verge on the brink of incest, as both his anger and incestuous fear are evident in the following lines: ……….Soft! now to my mother. O heart, lose not thy nature; let not ever The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom: Let me be cruel, not unnatural: I will speak daggers to her, but use none; My tongue and soul in this be hypocrites; How in my words soever she be shent, To give them seals never, my soul, consent! (3.2.32) Hamlet feels the utmost humiliation and hatred at Gertrude’s assumed dishonesty and supposedly deceptive marriage. He primarily seems to be obsessed more with the humiliation of his self than with the murder of the king. Therefore, he needs a scapegoat, killing which in the name of revenge will repair his wounded ego. He feels that Gertrude is the real offender, but since he cannot kill her, he needs to establish a link between the murder and Claudius through his assumptive method of staging a play that will be similar to Claudius and Gertrude’s story. This bruised self or ego of Hamlet frantically pushes him to the verge of madness, and to assume the deceptive madness in order to prove Claudius as a murderer. It is evident that he appears to be less eager with searching for the real murderer than to establish the possible link of Claudius’s marriage with the murder. As a basis of his assumption of Claudius as the possible murderer, he depends on the ghost’s assertion and ultimately he becomes the victim of his deception. Works Cited Shakespeare, William, Hamlet. London: Jeremy Publishers, 2003. Read More