“Deception may give us what we want in the present, but it will always take it away in the end.” -Rachel Hawthorne In Hamlet, one of Shakespeare’s plays, deception, as well as revenge, are the main foundations of the storyline. When Shakespeare uses this element in his writing, he is using the idea to indicate that deception can be destructive, and while it can be practiced on others, it is just as commonly self-inflicted. He is attempting to aid the thought that, while it may be helpful, deception has never helped anyone, you are only ever deceiving yourself. In Hamlet, many characters deceive each other, including Claudius, Polonius and Hamlet. To put it simply, each of these characters use deception to uncover or hide the truth, but …show more content…
At first, his deception is mild; as he only sends Reynaldo to spy on his son, Laertes, when he is sent off to Paris to study. He merely distrusts his children and he wants to keep an ever-watchful eye on him while he is away. Furthermore, he is equally protective over his children. For example, when he is worried that his daughter, Ophelia, will lose her chastity to Hamlet and forbids Ophelia to associate herself with him and tells her that she should rebuff his affections. On the other hand, when it is to prove a point, Polonius uses Ophelia as “bait” to discover whether or not Hamlet’s odd behavior is from unrequited love. His plan does not prove his theory, but he is determined to find the reason behind Hamlet's madness. That is why, later in the play, Polonius decides to spy on a conversation between Hamlet and Gertrude, which proves to be fatal. As the conversation goes on, Gertrude feels threatened by her son and she cries out for help. This leads to Polonius crying out in fear, and since Hamlet suspects the cry to belong to the hated Claudius, he stabs Polonius from behind the curtain. Polonius’s deceit cost him his life, and it was just another way that Shakespeare illustrated the harm that comes with