Hamlet Appearance Vs Reality Essay

1248 Words5 Pages

William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor; Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon”. Shakespeare first started being an actor and playwright in London and possibly has several plays produced. Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564 to April 23, 1616 in the Holy Trinity Church. In William Shakespeare’s later period, after 1600, that he wrote the tragedies Hamlet, and Macbeth. Possibly the best known of these plays is Hamlet which explores betrayal, retribution, incest and moral failure. These moral failures often drive the twists and turns of Shakespeare’s plots, destroying the hero …show more content…

Macbeth’s tragic story has more appearance versus reality due to most of the crimes that he committed and on what’s going on in his mind. He hides his intent from Duncan with fine words, while he is planning his murder. Macbeth says “False face must hide what the false heart doth know” (Act I, Scene VII, line 83). This means that Macbeth is portraying his innocent, although he knows he is guilty. He’s guilty for his wife’s plan in the first place, but he tries to think his way out of it; but he goes with it. Appearance versus reality is also seen at the beginning of the play when the witches introduce the quotation, “fair is foul, and foul is fair,” (Act I, Scene I, line 10), or what seems good is really bad. Macbeth seen it as what seems bad is really good. Malcolm flees to Scotland when his father dies and looks guilty, but he is only trying to protect himself. King Duncan says in Act I, Scene IV, lines 12-13 “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face: He was a gentleman on whom I built, an absolute trust,”. Duncan is meaning that “there is no way” in “there is no art” and the man’s character in “man’s construction.”King Duncan means to say that what is hidden in the mind of man can never be understood by looking at his face; the face is never a true index of the