Truth In Hamlet Research Paper

In Hamlet the principal theme of truth is present throughout the play. Many characters each define truth in their own distinct and unique way. Many philosophers also have their owned defined understanding of truth as well. Within Hamlet, many philosophers’ ideas of truth can be portrayed through the characters such as Hamlet himself and Polonious as well. Descartes and Hume the two philosophers, their ideas of truth can both be perceived through the two characters here, with their very own distinct methods of finding the truth, we can compare and contrast the main characters and their ideas and understandings of truth to come to a conclusion that each and every character in the play Hamlet has their own basic understandings of truth. Hamlet’s

Hamlet at firsts doesn’t believe the ghosts story and to cover it up he pretends he is mad. His idea is that the idea has to be proven to be true. Hamlet needs confirmation that his uncle had really murdered his father, and he does this by staging a play, with actors playing the act of the murder of his father as described by the ghost “Sleeping within my orchard/ My custom was always in the afternoon/ Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole/ With juice of cursed hebona in a vial, And in the porches of my ears di pour/The lecherous distilment” (1.5) The thing about Hamlet seeing the ghost is that one cannot be certain he sees a ghost as there isn’t similarity between seeing the same ghost. Just because someone sees a ghost doesn’t mean it is true, because our senses deceive us. Hamlet justifies this because he believes that everything is out of

As such as Polonius does through his spying. Hume believes through the use deductive reasoning he is able to form the idea of habits which can be used to understand truth. Because an action has happened in the past you find that A->B so it forms a habit/ custom. This makes it so that you foresee that A (Affects) -> B then you see that an action will happen because you feel that it would be like that after. You must observe one event that follows another; this becomes a habit, which then forms a necessity. As Polonius who is the king’s advisor, he sees that one thing is followed by another, which is appearances, and one appearance follows another. This becomes a habit for Polonius, that’s why he believes whatever benefits him is the truth, this because of his observations and experiences he deduces that is the