HAMLET HELP! Appearance vs. Reality.?

Question

What would be the best examples from the play to use for an appearance vs. reality essay?

I've been doing some research, and it seems that the best to go with is using 4 main characters (Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Claudius, Polonius) as examples.

However, they way I thought of the question, I thought that I could use the ghost to support the theme: guards and Hamlet see the ghost but only Hamlet can communicate with it; ghost shows up in Gertrude's room but she can't see the ghost while Hamlet sees and speaks to it

Which do you think would be the safer topic to go with??

Answer 1

I don't know about "safer"; it depends on what you would do with each.

However, I'd suggest that the ghost would make it interesting, partly because there is no really good basis for assigning the quality of "reality" to either side. Is Hamlet seeing a reality that Gertrude, for example, cannot see? or is she seeing reality, while Hamlet goes on a murder spree because he is seeing and hearing ghosts?

Answer 2

The best examples of Appearance vs reality that I can think of are, indeed, Rosencrantz and Gildernstern for spying on Hamlet while acting as friends . Ophelia for breaking up with Hamlet, and then spying on him via pressure from Polonius (also an example of parents vs. children). Also Hamlet's "insanity"...is the example I normally use. Oh yes, an Claudius, definitely, it also goes great along with the "disease in the body politic"

The ghost could go along with the theme because at first the ghost appears to be there to haunt the castle and everyone is worried, but then he talks to Hamlet revealing how he was killed.

I would just write what you know the most about.

Answer 3

Shakespeare examines the theme of appearance and reality in his book-Hamlet. The dilemma of what is "real" is established at the very beginning of the play. Hamlet doesn?t know what to believe and devises a plan to find out. The old king Hamlet appears to be bitten by a snake, but in reality he was poisoned, the ghost appears as an apparition, but it?s actually real, and the play-with-in-a-play strongly depicts the theme of appearance vs. reality. The dead King appears to have been bitten by a snake. In reality, he has been poisoned. Everyone believes that the king died from snakebite, but once Hamlet knows the truth he is unsettled by the revelation. When Hamlet's dead father directs his son to, ?Avenge him of his foul and most unnatural murder? (1.5. 25), Hamlet's response shows determination to act and a curiosity to know all the facts surrounding the murder: (1.5. 29-31) "Haste me to know't, that I, with wings as swift, as meditation or the thoughts of love may sweep to my revenge.? Hamlet's choice of image is significant here. A person who wants to take revenge rarely has "thoughts of love" but only concentrates upon thoughts of revenge, but Hamlet's thirst for revenge is immediate and deep. Shakespeare also develops the theme of appearance vs. reality when Hamlet resents his mother's insinuation that he is putting on a show of being grief-stricken.