Deception and False Appearences in Hamlet

The story of Hamlet opens, with Hamlet discovering that his new uncle-father is deceiving his entire town into thinking that he not only mourns the death of his brother, but that his death was an accident, which Hamlet later learns is untrue. He is deeply troubled by the fact that his uncle has fooled everyone into thinking that his brothers death was an accident, when he was the one that killed him.

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How False Appearances and Deception is used:

In this act, the book starts off by showing the reader that false appearances play a major role in the play. First, Claudius, the new king and Hamlet's uncle, acts like he is grieving for his brothers recent death, yet is due to marry his brother's wife. This is an outrage to Hamlet, and he later finds out that Claudius killed his father, just to get the crown, which makes Hamlet even more distraught. Not only does no one believe Hamlet's allegations against his uncle, but Claudius has fooled everyone into thinking that the kings death was an accident. Then, Hamlet resorts to taking his anger out on his girlfriend, Ophelia. He tells her that he never loved her, among other hateful things. This comes as a major surprise to Ophelia, since they were madly in love before his father's death. Laraetes even tries to convince her that Hamlet never loved her when he says, "As he in this particular act and place man gave his saying deed ; which is no further than the main voice of Denmark." He desperately tries to convince her that all that Hamlet says to her is a lie, and that he should not be trusted. He is obviously trying to deceive her into think that all of his lies are actually true and that Hamlet never actually loved her