Appearance and Reality

The Theme in the Work

The play’s first question is already about the theme: in scene 1 of Act I, “Who’s there?” is asked in the darkness, of a sentry who cannot see the one he addresses either. In scene 2 of Act I, Hamlet sets what he feels against what he seems, saying that grief is what lies within and the rest is the trappings and suits of woe, while Claudius speaks in measured tones. In scene 4 of Act I, Hamlet admits before the Ghost that it may be a good spirit or a diabolical one, and in scene 5 of Act I the apparition says it is the father.

In scene 1 of Act II, Polonius teaches the technique of the spy: with the bait of falsehood, one hooks the carp of truth. In scene 2 of Act II, surveillance extends to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, summoned to probe Hamlet, who disarms them by demanding the confession. The Player who weeps for Hecuba shows the other side, the staged emotion that draws out true feelings, and from this finding Hamlet takes the method of The Mousetrap.

In scene 2 of Act III, the play staged before the court is appearance in the service of truth: Claudius rises, orders the lights lit and leaves, and Hamlet becomes convinced of his guilt. In scene 4 of Act III, what the mirror shows Gertrude is what exists within her, and she does not see the Ghost, which her son sees clearly: the reality of the scene is not the same for the two.

For Hamlet, appearance is not the opposite of reality; it is the only road to it. The prince reaches Claudius’s guilt only by feigning madness, commissioning a play and watching a face, and at each step the proof he obtains is indirect and open to error. The play does not resolve the opposition between seeming and being; it shows that, in a court where everyone watches everyone, truth is reached only by one who agrees to work with seeming.

Where It Appears

• scene 1 of Act I: On the battlements, the Ghost appears with the face and armor of the dead king before Horatio, who did not believe in apparitions, and vanishes without answering him.
• scene 2 of Act I: Before a court that asks him to abandon mourning, Hamlet says he has within him what exceeds appearance and calls the rest the trappings and suits of woe.
• scene 4 of Act I: The Ghost appears and beckons Hamlet, and his friends try to hold him back, but he draws his sword to be left free and goes after the apparition.
• scene 5 of Act I: The Ghost presents himself to Hamlet as his father, held in torment until he purges his crimes, and says that Claudius killed him with poison in his ear.
• scene 1 of Act II: Polonius sends Reynaldo to Paris to investigate Laertes through small slanders, using the bait of falsehood to hook the carp of truth.
• scene 2 of Act II: Claudius and Gertrude summon Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to probe Hamlet, who mocks Polonius and wrests from the friends the confession that they were summoned.
• scene 2 of Act III: Hamlet stages before the court his father’s murder, with the actor pouring poison into the ear of the sleeping king, and Claudius rises, orders the lights lit and leaves.
• scene 4 of Act III: Hamlet tells Gertrude that she will not leave until he sets before her a mirror where she may see what is within her, and the Ghost reappears, visible only to his son.

Passages

The question with which the play opens.

The trappings and suits of woe.

The bait of falsehood that hooks the carp of truth.

The mirror offered to the queen.