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Transcript

Appearance v. Reality Analysis

By: Alexas Casey

Appearance vs. Reality

During Hamlet, there are a lot of examples of Appearance v. Reality, this is because many people can not tell the difference. Even in today's sociey, many people take what appears to be happening as reality.

Act 4

Claudius sees that Gertrude is upset in her bedroom. She says Hamlet was acting insane, and in his madness killed Polonius.

Appearance: The way this appears to the reader is that Gertrude is basically going along with the belief that Hamlet is going crazy. She tells Claudius what he has done and the conversation they had. She is scared of Hamlet.

Reality: Gertrude is beginning to believe Hamlet. She is starting to believe that Claudius killed Hamlet's father. She is scared of Claudius.

Act 3

During act 3, Claudius, struck by Polonius's words, mutters an aside about a "deed" that his "painted words" can't hide from his conscience. They hear Hamlet coming and hide.

Claudius is admitting to his guilt of killing his brother, though he is doing in private. This proves that Polonius can not tell the difference between reality and appearance because in reality, Claudius killed his brother. Claudius and Hamlet both know this. Polonuis, on the other hand, can only see/believe what Claudius is telling him. He does not believe he is a murder, simply because he is making his decisions based of his appearance.

Act 2

Act 1

In Act 2, Ophelia enters, upset. She tells Polonius that Hamlet burst into her room and held her wrists, studied her face and sighed. Then he left without a word.

The appearance of this moment may seem to Ophelia, or even Polonius, that Hamlet is mad. He has went crazy over his father's death.

But maybe, the reality of this moment is slightly different than what they think. Hamlet could just be pretending to have gone mad to get people to listen to him, or pay attention to the death of his father.

Hamlet becomes obsessed with the appearance of what really is occurring and the reality of what is occurring.

Example:

Gertrude: "Why seems it so particular with thee?" Hamlet: "Seems, madam? Nay, it is, I know not 'seems.

'Seems" is alluding to appearance, while "it" is relating to the way reality actually is.

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