“There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy” (Joseph Pulitzer). In the book “Hamlet”, Shakespeare has a way of revealing how people hide their secrets from everyone even if they were close to them. It really shows how we are in the real world and how we do not trust people. He shows these things through Prince Hamlet, Gertrude, Polonius, and Claudius. After King Hamlet’s death, many characters’ own secrets and thoughts about other people start to come into the light for everyone to see. ay from Hamlet, but then he is willing to use her to find out the truth.
Polonius tells his daughter Ophelia to stay away from Prince Hamlet, “This is for all: I would not in plain terms from this time forth have you slander any moment leisure as to give words or talk with Lord Hamlet. Look to’t I charge you. Come your ways” (I. ii. 131- 135). After Ophelia told her father about her love towards Hamlet he told her to never see him again, in a Polonius wants his daughter to stay strict and calm tone. This was because Polonius knew that Prince Hamlet would not marry her, due to him being the heir to he throne of Denmark.
Later on, Polonius is willing to go against his own words to find out what is going on with Hamlet, “At such a time l’Il loose my daughter to him. Be you and I behind an arras then. Mark the encounter: if he love her not, and be not from his reason fallen thereon, let me be no assistant for a state, but keep a farm and carters” (II. ii. 160-164). When Ophelia came to Polonius and told him what happened between Hamlet and herself, Polonius decided to go to Claudius. He told him that Prince Hamlet’s behavior was caused, because Polonius kept his daughter away from him.
So, he gives is daughter permission to be with Hamlet to prove his theory. Polonius knew that what he was doing was going against his own words, but he was still willing to whore his daughter to find the truth. Gertrude was also facing the same problem as Ophelia, but in a different way. Gertrude believed that her love towards Claudius was the cause of Hamlet’s behavior. She wanted to help Hamlet, but she could not stop herself from loving Claudius. Thus Gertrude was feeling guilty about her quick marriage to Claudius after her late Husband’s death, “I doubt it is no other but the main: His father’s death, and our ‘erhasty marriage” (II. i. 56-57). She thought that her marriage was causing Hamlet’s behavior, because it started after her hasty marriage to Claudius. Also she never told Hamlet about her love towards Claudius until they got married. She was right about the marriage being the cause of Hamlet’s behavior, but this started after Hamlet heard these things from the ghost of his father, “If thou hast nature in thee bear it not; let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest” (I. v. 81-83).
However, Gertrude only knew one of the causes for Hamlet’s behavior; and she did not really see the big icture. She still felt guilty about her decision; the only thing was that she would not stop now. Seeing that she already did it, she only wants to help her son adjust to this truth now. But Claudius wants to help Hamlet get accustomed to his new life. Claudius was very ecstatic about becoming the new king, until Hamlet starts acting abnormally. Which began to make Claudius feel guilty about what he did.
During his speech about his brother’s death, there are two meanings to what he said, “Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother’s death the memory be green, and that t us befitted to bear our heart in grief, and our whole kingdom to be contracted in one bow of woe, yet so far hath discretion fought with nature that we with wisest sorrow think on him, together with remembrance of ourselves” (I. ii. 1-7). In his speech, Claudius talked to the people like he was mournful about his brother’s death. But they do not know the true meaning behind his speech, when he said “green” in his speech, he meant he was jealous of his brother.
So the people were being fooled into believing that their new king was a splendid guy. But Claudius was only acting heartbroken on the outside, ven though he was glad that his brother was dead. Later on after his speech Claudius became nervous when Hamlet began acting insane and wondered if Hamlet knew his secret, so he asked Hamlet’s friends to find out the cause, “What it should be, more than his father’s death, that thus hath put him so much from th’understanding of himself, I cannot dream of” (II. i. 7-10).
Hamlet decided to act bonkers after finding out Claudius killed his father, he wanted to cause Claudius to feel guilty about his brother’s death. Claudius began to worry about what Hamlet knew and why he was acting that way. Claudius was a double ided coin, due to his melancholy on one side and elated on the other about his brother’s death; while Claudius began feeling guilty about what he done. Hamlet also had to keep his own secrets from leaking as well.
When the ghost of his father showed up, their relationship came into the light, “But thou I am forbid to tell the secrets of my prison house, I could tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood, make two eyes like stars start from their spheres, thy knotted and combined locks to part and each particular hair to stand an end like quills upon the fretful porpentine” (I. v. 13-20). The ghost of King Hamlet showed that their relationship was not what people seemed to think.
The people thought that their relationship was great but behind closed doors, Hamlet and his real father were not getting along with each other. Hamlet also did not want to do what his father was asking him to do, “He that plays king shall be welcome, his majesty shall have tribute of me… ” (II. ii. 298-303). While his father wanted Hamlet to become the new king of Denmark after his death, Hamlet only wanted to become an actor. So this made his father think of Hamlet as a disgrace to the family. It is true that King Hamlet’s eath was the very key to unlocking the door of people’s secrets.
After the characters hid their secrets from everyone, it came into the light and showed what those people were really like. Prince Hamlet, Gertrude, Polonius, and Claudius were just the few whose secrets were shown to the readers. Still it was a secret to the other characters in Shakespeare’s play. Just like the play, people in the real world put on mask to disguise their true feelings and thoughts. When people think they cannot trust anyone, they begin to pile their secrets behind closed doors and never reveal their true nature to them.
