Topic > Portrayal of a Deceitful Society Through Characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet

In today's society, people often put on a show and act like a different person when trying to fit in. However, Shakespeare was a man far ahead of his time and incorporated the use of acting and pretense many times into his plays to portray a certain symbolism. In the play Hamlet, Shakespeare uses the "act/act" imagery model and the main characters, Hamlet, Claudius, and Polonius, as men who put on a play when necessary to represent how distorted and dark their society has truly become. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Hamlet, like many other characters, has many situations in which he behaves falsely or notices others doing so. Polonius tells his daughter how a young man can pretend to be in love to get what he wants from a woman. He tells her that because Hamlet is young, his affection for her may change, and that she is behaving like an immature girl and should understand better than that: “Affection, puh! You talk like a green girl / Not sifted in such dangerous circumstances. / Do you believe in his “offers”, as you call them?”. Right at the beginning of the play, Polonius calls out Hamlet for putting on a show. He tries to show how this world is corrupt because he made Ophelia fall in love while he was pretending the whole time. Furthermore, while Hamlet talks to Ophelia, he calls women in general false and compares them to paintings. He tells her that they only use cosmetics to deceive men. He tells her to leave and never marry anyone because no one should marry: “I heard about your paintings too, well / that's it. God gave you one face and you make another. You make them skip and walk, and / you stammer, you give nicknames to God's creatures and you make / your wantonness your ignorance. Go to, I won't talk about it anymore. It drove me crazy. I say: we won't have/we won't have any more weddings." Two types of actions occur in the scene. The first type is shown as Hamlet putting on a false show. He pretends to hate Ophelia even though he truly loves her. Secondly, he is angry at the world as a place due to the fact that women cover their faces with makeup just to hide their insecurities. Hamlet believes that if women can hide their faces with makeup, they could also hide more secrets from men. Teach actors how to act to get a reaction from Claudio. Hamlet wants to see and conform to all the people that Claudius was the one who killed his father and wants to take revenge on him. He tells them not to overdo anything and not to be too docile but to be natural in all their actions: “Be not too docile either, but let your discretion be your guardian. Adapt the action to the / word, the word to the action, with this special / observance, of not exceeding the modesty of / nature”. Hamlet wants the actors to be perfect in the play so that he can get revenge for his father; uses acting again here to show how rotten the whole situation is through the players' actions. Claudio is worried that he can't pretend to be a good guy in heaven, so he wonders if he can be forgiven and continue to carry on with his crimes that he committed. engaged. In the real world he knows he can get away with it, but not in heaven: “It cannot be, for I am still possessed / By those effects for which I committed murder: / My crown, my ambition, and my queen. / Can one be forgiven and hold back the offense? / In the corrupt currents of this world, / the golden hand of offense can.