Boldtutor presents another essay response to the 2016 English Advanced HSC question focusing on William Shakespeare’s play Hamlet. Students could use the essay as a guide to create their own response to arguably Shakespeare’s most famous play. You can find other responses in the Bold Insight blog.
Enjoy.
2016 HSC question: How does Shakespeare use imagery to portray challenging ideas about truth and deceit in Hamlet?
William Shakespeare’s Hamlet remains a widely studied play because of a narrative that encourages audiences to fathom several fascinating perspectives on concepts such as truth and deception. Through the use of visual imagery, metaphors and soliloquies, Shakespeare brings to life a Machiavellian and melancholic setting that exemplifies the social and political decay that engulfs states when truth and honour are upended by deceitful acts. Hamlet’s narrative thus allows audiences to consider the idea that deceptive practices will lead only to the loss of innocence as exemplified through Ophelia’s death. Furthermore, Shakespeare reveals that the pursuit of truth, justice and reason is a confronting act for many people. However, the pursuit of justice and truth must be embraced if one hopes to combat corrupt thinking that encourages the practice of betrayal and murder.
Shakespeare relies on metaphor to create imagery throughout Hamlet to convey the idea that the pursuit of truth and justice is an act that most individuals would rather avoid performing because they would prefer to let destiny or a higher power dictate the fate of Machiavellian or deceptive individuals. Like Hamlet himself, many human beings seem to dread such circumstances, and often crave for someone else to assume responsibility for the performance of actions that carry great weight for one reason or another – ‘The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, / that ever I was born to set it right’ (act 1, scene 5, lines 189-190). Hamlet acknowledges metaphorically that Denmark is a morally disjointed state whose moral foundation is decaying as a result of the immoral and Machiavellian actions of characters such as Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Claudius and Gertrude. As he struggles to deal with his father’s death, Hamlet metaphorically remarks that the world ‘tis an unweeded garden / that grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature / possess it merely’ (act 1, scene 2 lines 135-137). Despite knowing the truth of Denmark’s corruption, Hamlet feels that he is ‘cursed’, and this reveals the existential concerns he has when it comes to performing the actions required to avenge his father’s murder. Indeed Polonius provides some advice as to how a human being should live in a complex world by stating to Laertes – ‘This above all, to thine own self be true’ (act 1, scene 3, line 78). In other words, Polonius proposes that all human beings should live a life where they are true to themselves and their values no matter the circumstances. Hamlet however struggles to live such a life and his struggle is symbolic of the inability of many human beings to live a truthful life in a world still shaped by Machiavellian and immoral activity. Hamlet’s displeasure of such struggle is made clear when he states – ‘O what a rogue and peasant slave am I!’ (act 2, scene2, line 502) to life and its inconsistencies. In his famous ‘To be or not to be that is the question’ soliloquy, Hamlet thinks about taking his own life and ending his association with a world that he feels is too difficult to deal with. Indeed his former girlfriend Ophelia chose to kill herself in response to the irrationality and corrupted state of her world. Hamlet though eventually learns to accept the world for what it is and, while overlooking Ophelia’s grave, he makes peace with the meaning of his life and finally becomes true to himself and his purpose – ‘This is I, / Hamlet the Dane’ (act 5, scene 1, lines 224-225). Hamlet’s observation of Yorick’s skull provides readers with a vivid idea of what it is like to confront one’s own mortality/inevitable death. It is during this scene that Hamlet makes his peace with fate and goes on to fulfil his destiny as avenger of King Hamlet, even if it results in death. This visual image also allows audiences to perhaps realise that all actions, eventually, lead to death. It is important thus to make peace with this inevitable fate and journey onward to the pursuit of truth and justice – because these are concepts worth dying and killing for. This is what Hamlet does and this is the message that Shakespeare advocates through his use of imagery.
The imagery in Hamlet also helps Shakespeare create a setting where innocence and purity are lost because of deceptive Machiavellian action. Such deception can cloud one’s judgment and this leads to terrible consequences for innocent characters like Ophelia. Hamlet’s melancholic and distrustful outlook of the world strains his judgment of his girlfriend Ophelia – ‘God hath given you one face and you make yourselves another’ (act 3, scene 1, line 137). Such a view of Ophelia is shaped by Hamlet’s negative reaction to his mother’s hasty re-marriage to Claudius – the man who murdered Hamlet’s father. As a result, he develops the view that women overall are deceptive and untrustworthy in nature. Ophelia’s character and her eventual tragic suicide symbolizes that even purity in a decaying society will die. Ophelia doesn’t deserve the eventual rejection that Hamlet gives to her and she is obviously ill prepared to deal with such rejection – ‘Oh woe is me / T’have seen what I have seen, see what I see’ (act 3, scene 1, lines 154-155). The audience can interpret Ophelia’s death as an act that promotes the idea that a corrupted state provides no fertile ground for the growth of purity. Indeed the metaphor ‘woe is me’ allows audiences to imagine Ophelia being engulfed by a world where innocence and virtue are superseded by deceitful action that results in the breakdown of the relationship between Ophelia and Hamlet. Such environments are full of decay and this is reflected by Hamlet’s poor and misguided attitude toward Ophelia – an innocent woman who eventually takes her own life in a bid to free herself from the rotten state of Denmark. Ophelia’s death thus encourages audiences to reflect on the consequences of practicing deceptive behaviour, given that such character invariably leads to a breakdown of trust and loyalty between individuals on a micro and macro level of society. Such a breakdown eventually leads to the downfall of the state.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet remains a timeless text because of its ability to vividly portray a world that encourages audiences to think about concepts such as truth and deceit. Through various literary techniques, Shakespeare creates imagery to convey the intense emotion that many characters feel in Hamlet as they struggle to survive and conquer a Machiavellian landscape where the pursuit of truth and justice will usually result in the deaths of many innocent and immoral individuals. In essence, Hamlet’s imagery challenges audiences to embrace the idea that any action in a deceptive world will lead to consequences that, for better or worse, teach us to deal with the flawed nature of our character and society.
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