Deceit in Hamlet

Deceit comes into existence when a person misleads another. Besides, there are different kinds of deceit: it can be concealment of the truth in order to mislead someone and it can also be an act or device intended to deceive, that is to say a trick or a stratagem.

Therefore, there has to be one party who manipulates in different ways and by different means, either by his behaviour or by his deeds, and the other party who is a victim of these manipulations.

One have to have in mind the fact that several characters of the most famous Shakespeare’s play Hamlet manipulate each other or plot against each other. Such as Polonius spies his own children as well as Hamlet and Gertrude, Claudius deceives the whole state of Denmark, spies Hamlet and manipulates several other characters, and Fortinbras plots against his uncle and against the state of Denmark. However, sometimes some characters appear as both misleading and mislead.

It raises the following questions: is Hamlet deceitful or deceived? Does he succeed in deceiving or does he eventually fail?

To answer these questions, it will be necessary to focus the analysis on Hamlet’s behaviour. It will notably be useful to study the way he shows his sincere and true feelings, which are sometimes misunderstood, and also the way he hides them in order to intentionally mislead his entourage. Then, it will bring the other aspect of deceit, the play-acting and manipulations used by Hamlet to reach his aim: to avenge his father’s death. When studying these types of deceit present in Hamlet, it will also be important to stress on the impact of Hamlet’s dissimulations or manipulations on the audience (and or the reader).

The very first reference to insincere behaviour appears at the beginning of the play, when Gertrude reproaches Hamlet his excessive grief about his father’s death. She suggests him to cast off the “nightly colour”, speaking thus about Hamlet’s appearance, supposing that Hamlet’s