Hamlet's life is all about deception. Not only is he often the victim of the deception of others, but he himself is deceptive. Mostly everything he believes is false and most of his manipulation is with the intent of helping himself rather than hurting others. Deception is one of the main themes of Hamlet; he always uses it to get what he wants. With deception as the central theme, it is shown that the truth can always be manipulated for the benefit of the manipulator and so that he can achieve the truth he is seeking. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One of the ways Hamlet is deceptive in the play to his own advantage is when he pretends to be mad; he does this to hide suspicious activities he is taking part in to prove that his father was killed by his uncle Claudius. He says this directly to his friend, who is also the man he idolises, Horatio, "How strange or strange I behave, / For, perhaps, hereafter I will think it fit / To put an old-fashioned disposition, / That you, seeing me in such moments, you will never, / with your arms so entangled, or with this shaking of your head, / or uttering some doubtful phrase, / like "Well, well, we know" or "We could and if we wanted"; 'If we want to talk'; or "There are and if they could"; / Or such an ambiguous revelation, to note / That you know something about me: this is not to be done, / Then grace and mercy to your greatest need help you '. Hamlet's 'old-fashioned disposition' is mostly used whenever he speaks to someone he knows is close to Claudius, as in this line where he speaks to Polonius, "For if the sun breeds worms in a dead dog, being a good kissing bastard - You have a daughter' Whenever he is near an acquaintance of Claudio's, his words become incomprehensible and nothing he says makes sense. Why would he ask Polonius if he has a daughter? Hamlet knows Ophelia and loves Ophelia… or at least pretends to – another act of deception, indeed. Not only is Hamlet deceitful towards those around Claudius, but he is also deceitful towards Claudius directly. Once again, he speaks to Horatio about the matter, saying, “Give him a careful note / For my eyes will fasten upon his face, / And afterward both our judgments will unite / In the censure of his countenance.” Hamlet's intent in this specific scene is to discover that Claudius is actually his father's murderer by staging a play within a play, called The Murder of Gonzago, which contains scenes very similar to what he believes happened, what his father's ghost told him. . He wants Claudio to react in a way that reveals that he is his father's killer, still using deception to his advantage. He is also trying to deceive his mother Gertrude with The Murder of Gonzago: his intent with her is to prove that she is wrong for marrying Claudius so soon after King Hamlet's death, by portraying her character as having similar behaviors. Staging The Murder of Gonzago is another way in which Hamlet deceives others around him for his own gain, and The Murder of Gonzago itself carries with it the theme that deception can sometimes be a necessity to get the truth. However, Hamlet's deception does not only affect him. Because of the way Hamlet acts to get what he wants, his so-called "old-fashioned nature", Ophelia goes mad and kills herself. Claudius states that Ophelia is "divided from herself and her just judgment" because of Hamlet's behavior. However, Ophelia herself is also deceptive; he hides his father Polonius' manipulative behaviors from Hamlet. In the act of trying to, 1996.