Shakespeare & Hamlet: An Analysis of the Theme of Disguise

To be or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? (III.I.63)

This is one of the most famous lines in history, taken from Shakespeare's revenge tragedy, Hamlet. This play, the story of Hamlet tells the tale of Prince Hamlet who plots his revenge on his uncle, King Claudius who killed his father and married his mother, whilst he himself is plotted against by other characters. Amidst all of the confusion within such a story, William Shakespeare added in the subtle motif of appearance and disguise, which the characters use to cover up their inner feelings, thoughts and emotions.

The characters in Hamlet that most prominently display the motif of appearance and disguise are two of the main male characters, Prince Hamlet and Claudius. Prince Hamlet not only hides his anger about the marriage between Claudius and Gertrude, but he also ends up hiding his emotions for Ophelia. In the play it is written:

Ophelia. My lord, I have remembrances of yours
That I have longed long to redeliver.
I pray you now, receive them.
Hamlet. No, not I,
I never gave you ought. (III.I.64)

Ophelia is not the only person Prince Hamlet hides from; as the play goes on he also plots to prove Claudius' guilt by any means possible; while attempting to hide his suspicions in case Claudius is innocent of the crimes the ghost has accused him of. Prince Hamlet's plan is to put on a play, which he strategically calls, 'The Mousetrap'. In this play the king's brother poisons him by putting a lethal concoction into his ear, as was the way the ghost of King Hamlet describes his own death to Prince Hamlet. The moment Claudius sees this he is outraged. He reacts by stopping the play and yelling, "Give me some light. Away!" (III.II.78). The lights are then turned on and everyone exits. Claudius later comes to say:

I like him not, nor stands it safe with us
To let his madness range. Therefore prepare you.
I your commission will forthwith dispatch,
And he to England shall along with you.
The terms of our estate may not endure
Hazard so near's as doth hourly grow
Out of his brows. (III.III.82)

However, it is not that Hamlet is a hazard so much to the other men as he is to Claudius himself.

Although the men in Hamlet follow the motif of the story quite distinctly, it is the women who bring another level to it by not being able to reveal their deepest emotions aloud. Ophelia finds it necessary to bottle up her feelings for Hamlet because of her fathers precedence over the matter, and because of the fact that she cannot reveal her true feelings, such as sadness and despair, she can only hint at them, as seen when she speaks to Gertrude of flowers and says,
There's fennel for you, and columbines. There's rue for you and here's some for me. We may call it herb of grace o' Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There's a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died. They say 'a made a good end. (II.V.109)

This is the point in the story at which Ophelia has lost all sense and has gone mad. Later, as she sits in a tree over a lake making a garland, she falls into the lake and drowns. There is much speculation as to whether she has committed suicide or if it was simply a mistake. Most people believe it to be suicide, but Gertrude seems to thinks otherwise. Gertrude appears to see through the appearance of the events into what she thinks really happened. When she informs Laertes of his sister's death she declares the following:

Clamb'ring to hang, an envious silver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaidlike awhile they bore her up,
Which time she chanted snatches of old lauds. (IV.VII.118)

In explaining Ophelia's death to Laertes, Gertrude uses beautiful words, as she describes Ophelia as being "mermaidlike" or her flowers as being "trophies".

Apart from the mortals in the play and the shields they either hide behind or step back from, the ghost of King Hamlet also plays a part in using appearance and disguise to get his way. When the ghost is first seen, he is wearing the armor that King Hamlet wore in battle. Later on in the play when Hamlet is speaking with Gertrude, the ghost comes again but in this instance, his appearance is revealed only to Hamlet. Hamlet realizes this when he says, "On him, on him! Look you, how pale he glares!" and Gertrude replies, "To whom do you speak of this?" and "Nothing at all yet all that is I see"(III.IV.90).

From, Hamlets denial over his love for Ophelia to Gertrude's denial over Ophelia's death, it is clear that every character in Hamlet has some inner feeling which they wish to hide using either appearance or disguise. Thus their true feelings are shielded from all but themselves as said by the player King Hamlet:

But, orderly to end where I begun,
Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown;
Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own. (III.II.75)

Work Cited

Hamlet. New York: Signet Classic, 1998.