Can anyone please help me with the scene 2 of Hamlet?

Question

Who is "acting" (appearance vs. reality) in scene 2?
and how are they doing it?

Answer 1

Hey, now here's a halfway interesting homework-type question. Congratulations to whichever teacher thought this one up.

The IRONY of the second scene in Hamlet is that Claudius (and, following his lead, Gertrude) assume that the darkly-clad Hamlet is "playing a part," but the reality is that he's consumed by grief over his murdered father. On the other side of the coin, Claudius is "acting" as though things are fine in Elsinore, and acting as though HAMLET is the one with a problem, when the reality is that he's a murderer...and he just married the widow of the man he killed.