Act3 Reflective Blog Post

Act3 Reflective Blog Post

Deception: Who uses deception and how? Who is being deceived?

     Deception plays a key role in Hamlet. I find that the theme of deception almost becomes the foundation of the play. Although there are many times where Hamlet uses his "madness" or "insanity" as an act of deception in order to distract the other characters from his suspicious plans, I will only focus on one instance where a character is deceived by Hamlet.

     In act three, scene one, Hamlet deceives Ophelia by insulting women, specifically Ophelia. Hamlet spots Ophelia while she is praying and they begin to converse. Ophelia tries to express her love for Hamlet, as he had done earlier, when he states, "Beauty will sooner/ transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the/ force of honesty can translate beauty into his likeness" (III.i. 211-213). Hamlet claims that the beauty of women makes men lie. He is attempts to express to Ophelia that when he told her he loved her, her beauty was defeating his truthfulness, it was all a lie. This scene makes the audience question whether or not he says this to pretend that he has gone mad or if he is truly being honest with her. If he is faking his madness, he is deceiving Ophelia to make her believe that he is mad because he cannot see her. If he is telling her the truth he is deceiving her into believing that he truly loved her. Either way Hamlet deceives Ophelia by telling her he only loved her for her beauty.

     This is just one way that Hamlet deceives a character throughout the play. There are many other situations where Hamlet is dishonest with characters. If Hamlet did not deceive these characters in the play he would not be able to follow through with his plans. 

Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Toronto, Ontario: Harcourt Brace & Company Canada, Ltd., 1988.

Act1 Reflective Blog Post

Women: How are women portrayed in Hamlet?

     Throughout Act 1 of Hamlet, there are only two scenes which give us an idea of how women are portrayed. In each of these cases the two women, Gertrude and Ophelia, are portrayed as weak and subject to the men.
     The first instance of this is in scene 2 when Gertrude marries Claudius just after her husbands death. In his soliloquy, Hamlet indicates the amount of time his father has been dead for: "But two months dead! nay, not so much, not two" (I.ii.138). He is emphasizing that his father has not even been dead for two months before his mother was manipulated into marrying Claudius. He further goes on to say, "So excellent a king; that was, to this,/Hyperion to a satyr: so loving to my mother" (I.ii.139-140). Hamlet tells of how much his father loved his mother. Hamlet is trying to understand how his mother could move on so quickly even though Hamlet's father was so good to Gertrude. This proves how subject Gertrude is to Claudius.  
     In the following scene Ophelia is introduced. Just before Laertes, Ophelia's brother, leaves for France he takes a minute to caution Ophelia against an affair with Hamlet. Polonius, their father, overhears this and later tells Ophelia that she may no longer see Hamlet anymore: "I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,/ Have you so slander any moment's leisure,/As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet" (I.iii.132-134). She replies, "I shall obey, my lord" (I.iii.136). Ophelia is weak, in that she cannot stand up to her father and express her true feelings to him.
     Although there are only two women in this play Shakespeare still portrays the weakness of women and how they are subject to men during this time period and throughout the play.

Work Cited
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Toronto, Ontario: Harcourt Brace & Company Canada, Ltd., 1988.