Betrayal in Hamlet Prince of Denmark

There's a sort of rage a man feels when he's been deceived where he most trusted. It compares to no other anger. - Orson Scott Card. Betrayal is an act of disloyalty, treachery, violating trust, or breaching confidence. Betrayal is a reoccurring theme in the tragic Shakespeare play, Hamlet. Many of the characters deceive one another as well as deny their own feelings, betraying themselves. The secrecy and dishonesty of the characters show that the actions of humans do not always relate to their appearances in society. Hamlet by William Shakespeare was said to have been inspired by the death of Shakespeare’s only son Hamnet. Shakespeare often wondered if God had betrayed him. Hamlet struggles with betrayal and betraying others in this play. The idea of betrayal is universal, seen throughout classic literature, cinema, and even everyday issues such as divorce and adultery.

The most obvious act of betrayal is the murder of King Hamlet. Claudius is clearly seen as the villain, he has killed his brother to marry his sister in law and extort the throne. But as we go more in depth there may be another who played a part in King Hamlet’s death, Queen Gertrude. After only two months after the death of her husband she marries his (King Hamlet’s) brother Claudius. Claudius and Gertrude quickly move on from the death of King Hamlet and do not mourn for the appropriate amount of time. To the public they seem very rapturous and in control but in reality, they are both dealing with the guilt of their immoral actions as well as how their actions have affected Hamlet, who appears to have gone mad following the death of his father. Why would Gertrude go to severe lengths to make Hamlet get over the loss of his father? And to make matters worse G...

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...this does count as Ophelia betraying Hamlet, Hamlet takes this to a new extreme by not only insulting her, denying he loves her, and humiliating her on several occasions he even goes as far as to kill her father. And although he doesn’t mean to kill Polonius he actually could care less, and literally insults to corpse. By denying his love for Ophelia, he leaves her confused and broken hearted. She didn’t understand why the man she loved was now acting as though he was disgusted by her and as if he never cared for her at all. Hamlet’s hasty actions continue when he abruptly murders Polonius, Ophelia’s father. This drives Ophelia into madness. Hamlet truly loves Ophelia, but she will never know because of his deceptive actions. When Hamlet denies his feelings for Ophelia he also betrays himself. He denies himself happiness and causes himself more pain than necessary.