Hypocrisy In Hamlet

In the play, Hamlet, Shakespeare has shown that the loss of relationships, death, and betrayal are some of the outcomes of a person’s hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is a main factor that has driven the a lot because almost the characters are hypocritical.

Hamlet has lost a few relationships with people that are dear to him because of the two-face side that people have shown him. Hamlet and Ophelia were a great lover in the play till Ophelia showed her other face. Hamlet noticed that he is being spied on through Ophelia. So, Hamlet wonders where is Ophelia’s father, but Ophelia lies to Hamlet about Polonius’s whereabouts. Hamlet is enraged by this act and wonders “why wouldst thou be a breeder a sinners?”(Hamlet, 111). Hamlet lost almost all his love, respect, and trust for Ophelia. Because of Ophelia’s hypocrisy, the connections between Ophelia and Hamlet has been severed due to the fact she remained loyal to her father and continued to lie to Hamlet even though she loved Hamlet. “God hath given you one face,

and you make yourselves another.” (Hamlet, 111). This proves that because of Ophelia’s action of hypocrisy, “it had made [Hamlet] mad”(Hamlet, 111) so much that Ophelia should “get thee to a nunnery,” (Hamlet, 111).

Through the course of the play, the readers find out about the character change in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern through their act of betrayal. In the beginning of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were great friends with Hamlet until their first arrival in the play. As usual, Hamlet finds out quickly about their intentions and asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to “be even and direct with [Hamlet], whether [Rosencrantz and Guildenstern] were sent for, or no” (Hamlet, 83). A few acts and scenes later, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue to be hypocritical with Hamlet. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act like good friends with Hamlet, but in the inside, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern continue to do the king’s biddings and “soaks up the king’s countenance” (Hamlet, 163). Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play Hamlet like a fiddle for the king and this continues to anger hamlet. In the end, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern were betrayed and killed by Hamlet due to the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tried to kill Hamlet on the king’s bidding but, to be only sent to their bloody grave.

In the other hand, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern aren’t the only people that betrayed people in Hamlet. It was also Ophelia’s lover, Hamlet, who betrayed Ophelia. First and foremost reason on Hamlet’s betrayal is because Hamlet killed Polonius. Because of this, he betrayed Ophelia. In addition Hamlet hid the body so no one can find Polonius’s body. Moreover, Hamlet didn’t feel sad about killing Polonius. He just thought of Polonius as a “wretched, rash, intruding fool,” (Hamlet, 147) when Hamlet finds out that Polonius was slain. Which states that Hamlet doesn’t care about Ophelia’s feeling when Ophelia finds out that Hamlet killed Polonius and then hid the body.

The final and most important topic that Shakespeare was trying to convey to the audience is that hypocrisy causes death.

For this reasoning, the final thing that happened to the characters in Hamlet when they have shown hypocrisy was death. For instance, Hamlet’s hypocrisy killed Ophelia. In other words, Hamlet faking his madness killed Ophelia. In the beginning, Ophelia may have felt disappointed when she started rejecting Hamlet’s love letters, gifts and visits. Later on when Hamlet showed his madness to Ophelia, Ophelia must have felt scared and sad due to Hamlet. She might have thought that she was the reason for “O, what a noble mind is here o’erthrown!” (Ophelia, 111). Finally, Hamlet killing Ophelia’s father must have triggered a mental breakdown in Ophelia because of the problems that have been caused. Because of the mental breakdown, she died by drowning “mermaid-like a while they bore her up:/ which time she chanted snatches of old lauds,” (Gertrude,

201).
The next person that experienced death because of hypocrisy is Laertes. This is because Laertes acts like he is not mad at Hamlet because of what Hamlet has done with his father. For example, Hamlet was apologizing to Laertes of what he has done and Laertes “receive [Hamlet] offer’d love like love and will not wrong it,” (Laertes, 237). At this moment, Laertes was showing his hypocrisy by acting friendly and caring. This also created dramatic irony because we know that Laertes will wrong Hamlet’s love by poisoning Hamlet with his foil. But in the end, Laertes ends up getting stabbed his own poisoned foil because of his lack of control over his madness.
The most important person that has died because of hypocrisy is Claudius. Claudius is the most important because he has shown the most hypocrisy in the play. He has shown his hypocrisy by acting like a caring, wonderful and loving king to his subjects. But as the audience, we know that Claudius has committed all these for the “ crown, [Claudius] own ambition, and [the] queen,” (Claudius, 143). Claudius was afraid when Hamlet found out about Claudius’s dark side. Therefore, Claudius used any resources or assets he has access to. But, like everyone in the play, Claudius shared the same fate as the people around him.