Appearance, Reality, Deception and Dissembling- Assignment 3

    In "Hamlet" there are many cases of deception and dissembling which make the audience question the reality of characters.  The characters are exhibiting strange behaviors in order to maintain and appear like the good guys. By doing this, the audience can become confused as to the true reality of the characters, as wells as their intentions.
     Before we read Act 3, we are under the impression that Claudius is an evil man.  He is evil in the sense that he killed his brother for power however, Claudius can not truly be pure evil if he cries and tries to repent for killing his brother. In this section, a part of Claudius is shown to the audience that may be showing his true reality, although still selfish.
    In another part of the act Hamlet is talking to the ghost of his father again.  During this scene when Gertrude is questioning, "To whom do you speak this?" (III. IV, 130-135), we can question Hamlet's sanity.  We think that Hamlet's insanity is caused by the ghost but, maybe the ghost is caused by his insanity.  There are only a couple of people who can see the ghost, and they were all very close to the previous king.  Maybe the ghost is not real and Hamlet is insane like everyone thinks. The appearance of the ghost to only few people can lead the audience to doubt it's existence.
   Finally like we all know, the role of deception in Hamlet thus far is huge! There is deception between Gertrude and Claudius, Hamlet and the kingdom, Polonius and Hamlet and many other characters.  This deception plays a major part in the play because it draws out dramatic irony.  Dramatic irony gives the plot edge and gives the audience insight on different perspectives.  By using deception, the characters, like Claudius, are trying to create a false appearance.  They want to achieve certain goals to better themselves.
   All of these aspects make the play interesting and give the audience opportunities to guess at the outcome or make assumptions about characters.  I am sure that by the end of the play, we will be able to see the true nature of all the characters and make our final judgement on them.