Hamlet Essay

All of the characters in Hamlet spy, eavesdrop, use trickery and assemble plots in order to find out what the other characters are plotting. Evidence from Shakespeare’s Hamlet demonstrates quite clearly that deception will lead to corruption. Deception acts as a major factor to the characters’ downfall. Treacherous acts in this play lead to nothing but trouble. Throughout the play there is a progression of corruption that leads to death.
Deceit plays a major role in Hamlet, causing the deaths of most of the characters in the play. Everybody who dies in the play is either lied to by those who want them dead, or stabbed in the back by those dearest to them. In Act 3 Scene 3, Polonius agrees to eavesdrop on Hamlet’s conversation with his mother by hiding behind a curtain. This act of deception gets Polonius killed because Hamlet stabs the curtain thinking that Claudius was behind it. Laertes is also a participant in deception, although he is unaware, he is a pa...