Perception vs. Reality in Hamlet

William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a literary classic detailing one man’s quest for vengeance. After Prince Hamlet, the main character of the tale, is visited by the ghost of his murdered father, Hamlet sets off on a journey to bring the killer to justice. As the action unfolds, Hamlet’s own descent into confusion, depression, and what many of the play’s characters deem “madness” hamper Hamlet’s goal by causing him to act erratically in the name of avenging his father’s untimely death. Hamlet is not just about revenge: it is about exposing the human condition and the tenuous relationship between perception and reality, particularly in regard to the actions and mindsets of its characters.

At the outset of the play, Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark and the play’s title character, mourns the death of his father and laments the remarriage of his mother Gertrude to his uncle Claudius, who also takes control of the crown. Hamlet is so sickened by his mother’s incestuous act that he wishes he could kill himself to escape the situation. However, when the castle’s watch tells Hamlet they have seen an apparition resembling his father, Hamlet follows them into the night. After being led away from the others by the ghost, it is revealed that the specter is in fact the deceased king, who tells of his demise at the hands of Claudius. Hamlet, vowing revenge, forces the watchmen to swear their silence to him about the events that took place that night, as he will be feigning madness in pursuit of a plot to exact revenge on his murderous uncle. Hamlet’s decision to conceal his true intentions from the majority of the people in his life because he believes the words of the apparition directly leads to the perception by the other characters that he is going insane in the wake of his father’s death. Claudius, the first to notice that “not th’ exterior, nor the inward man resembles that it was” before the king’s death (Shakespeare 32), sends for two of Hamlet’s closest friends from school, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, in order to attempt to discern the cause of Hamlet’s apparent madness.

That cause is debated by many of the play’s characters during Act II. Polonius, the king’s Lord Chamberlain, believes that Hamlet is in the throes of madness because of an unrequited love for his daughter, Ophelia. Polonius’ perception is fueled both by stories Ophelia tells him of Hamlet’s odd behavior, and by the discovery of odd letters and love poems he wrote to her. To test his theory, Polonius engineers a meeting between the two of them and asks Ophelia to give Hamlet his tokens of affection back. This plan backfires, with Hamlet lashing out at Ophelia and repeatedly telling her to go to a nunnery and be chaste instead of pursuing love and marriage. (Shakespeare 47-48) Polonius’ incorrect perception of the cause of Hamlet’s madness leads Claudius and Gertrude to conclude that melancholy is more than likely the sole driving force behind the prince’s behavior. They still believe that his madness is unfeigned and potentially dangerous and decide that the best course of action is to send him to England to cool off.

Meanwhile, Hamlet concocts a plan to have a group of traveling actors put on a play in which a character is killed in much the same way that Claudius purportedly killed the king. After disclosing his plan to Horatio, one of the guards who told Hamlet about the ghost in Act I, they closely watch Claudius during the play’s performance to see his reaction. When the king in the play is murdered, Claudius demands that the proceedings end, leading Hamlet and Horatio to perceive this as an admission of guilt on Claudius’ behalf. Claudius, however, sees the production as a sign that Hamlet is going to murder him and take the throne for himself, since the plot of the play the travelers perform involves the poisoning of a king by his nephew. This causes Claudius to confess in private, cementing the reality of Hamlet’s accusations as more than mere guesswork. 

While outwardly acting insane, Hamlet is shown in Acts II and III to be a thoughtful individual, choosing to attempt to prove his uncle’s guilt before taking an action of revenge. The most notable example of this comes in Scene 3 of Act III, when Hamlet sneaks, unseen, into the same room that Claudius hides in, guilt-ridden and praying for forgiveness. Hamlet has the perfect opportunity to take vengeance, since Claudius’ back is turned and he is unarmed, but ultimately decides that he wants the moment of revenge to be during a time when Claudius is acting in an immoral way, rather than when he’s trying to atone for his sins. While Hamlet is still unsure of Claudius’ guilt, since he did not hear the spontaneous confession, he perceives that his uncle is acting in a way to tamp down his past actions and move beyond them. It is one of the few instances in Hamlet that perception and reality line up almost exactly.

Hamlet confronts Gertrude at the end of Act III about her choice to marry her dead husband’s brother, a decision that he claims offends the former king’s memory. Gertrude, fearing for her life, calls for help, and Polonius, hidden behind a tapestry, cries out as well. Hamlet, believing the hidden man to be the king, draws his sword and stabs through the tapestry, killing Polonius. After this, Hamlet sees his father’s ghost again, conversing with him about the original goal of vengeance, which Hamlet has not yet achieved. Yet, since Gertrude cannot see the apparition, she perceives this to be yet another sign of Hamlet’s madness. Hamlet tries to convince his mother that his madness has been feigned all along and urges her not to reveal his ruse to Claudius. 

In the next scene, Gertrude immediately sells her son out to Claudius, while not revealing her own opinion on whether or not she believes Hamlet to be legitimately insane. Claudius uses the revelation of Polonius’ murder to assume – again, correctly – that Hamlet is out to get him, further increasing his desire to ship Hamlet off to England, where he won’t be a danger to his ill-gotten rule. Midway through Act IV, Hamlet is ordered to be put to death in England and is to be escorted there by Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Claudius perceives that his plan will work well, since he has taken all the necessary precautions to ensure his rule won’t be interrupted. However, thanks to Hamlet’s ability to perceive that his friends have had their allegiance turned by the king, he switches the letter Claudius provided with one declaring that his two handlers are to be put to death, not the prince. When it is revealed that Hamlet survived his exile after all, Claudius decides to enlist the help of Polonius’ son Laertes in stopping the threat Hamlet poses to his rule, convincing the young man to engage in a duel wielding a poisoned sword. 

The final act of the play kicks into gear at Ophelia’s funeral. After Laertes, grief-stricken, dives into Ophelia’s grave, a hidden Hamlet bursts forth and declares that, in reality, he always loved Ophelia, furthering the perception that Hamlet is simply insane and not acting rationally. After the squabbling men are pulled off of each other, they agree to duel in the castle the following day. Hamlet, acknowledging how others perceive him for the first time in the entire play, apologizes to Laertes for murdering his father, but Laertes rejects the apology. Claudius’ scheming continues, since he sees himself as unstoppable, and he poisons wine intended for Hamlet in case he does not fall during the duel. However, since nobody besides Claudius is in the loop on what is really going on, a number of incorrect perceptions lead to a bloody reality by the end of the act. Gertrude drinks from the poisoned cup, Laertes is felled by his own poisoned sword, and Hamlet, though struck by the poison as well, manages to learn of Claudius’ treachery just in time, and is finally able to enact his revenge by doubly poisoning the king. In his dying words, he urges Horatio not to end his life, but to tell the story of what happened so that there is no mistake about the actual proceedings.

Ultimately, Hamlet can be seen as a collection of mismatched perceptions and realities. Claudius and Hamlet in particular use the other characters’ opinions of them to drive their actions, each sneaking around the other in order to attempt to gain the upper hand. While nobody really wins at the end – save for Fortinbras, the new King of Denmark – Hamlet’s final choice is to ensure that perception lines up with reality. He wants future generations to know that he was right all along.

Works Cited

Doran, Gregory, dir. Hamlet. Perf. David Tennant, and Patrick Stewart. Great Performances. Public Broadcasting Service: 28 Apr 2010. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/hamlet/watch-the-film/980/.

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Project Gutenberg. Ed. Michael S. Hart. Oct. 1997. Illinois Benedictine College. http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/2265/pg2265.txt.