Hamlet's life centers on deception. Not only is he often the victim of the deception of others, but he himself is deceptive. Almost everything he believes is false, and most of his manipulations are intended to help himself rather than hurt others. Deception is a major theme in Hamlet; he always uses it to achieve his ends. With deception as its central theme, it proves that the truth can always be manipulated to benefit the manipulator and get the truth they seek. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay One of the ways in which Hamlet is deceptive in the play for his own benefit is when he feigns madness; he does this to cover up the suspicious activities he is participating in in order to prove that his father was killed by his uncle Claudius. He tells this directly to his friend, who is also the man he idolizes, Horatio, "How strangely or strangely I behave, / As I may hereafter think / To put on an ancient disposition, / That you, seeing me at such times, will never do it, / With arms thus encumbered, or that nod of the head, / Or uttering a doubtful phrase, / Like “Well, well, we know” or; "We could, and if we wanted to"; / Or 'If we want to talk'; from me: it is not to be done, / Then grace and mercy help you when you need it most Hamlet's "antique disposition" is used primarily whenever he is speaking to someone whom. he knows close to Claudius, like this sentence that he says to Polonius: "For if the sun generates maggots in a dead dog, being a carrion that kisses well - Do you have a daughter' Every time he is in the presence from an acquaintance of Claudius, his words turn into gibberish and nothing he says makes any sense. Why would he ask Polonius if he has a daughter? Hamlet knows Ophelia and loves Ophelia...or at least pretends to—another act of deception, in fact. Not only does Hamlet deceive those around Claudius, but he also deceives Claudius directly. Again he speaks to Horatio about this, saying: "Give him careful note / For my eyes will be fixed on his face, / And after we both do, our judgments will join / In the censure of his appearance. Hamlet's intention in this specific scene is to discover that Claudius is in fact his father's murderer by staging a play within the play, called The Murder of Gonzago, which contains scenes very similar to what he believes what his father's ghost told him happened. . He wants Claudius to react in a way that reveals him to be his father's murderer, who is once again using deception for his own benefit. He also tries to deceive his mother Gertrude with The Murder of Gonzago – his intention with her is to show that she is wrong for marrying Claudius so soon after the death of King Hamlet by portraying his own character as having behaviors similar. Staging The Murder of Gonzago is another way in which Hamlet deceives others around him for his own gain, and The Murder of Gonzago itself carries the theme that deception can sometimes be a necessity to obtain the truth. However, Hamlet's deception does not only affect him. Due to the way Hamlet behaves to get what he wants, his so-called "antique disposition", Ophelia goes mad and commits suicide. Claudius states that Ophelia is "separated from herself and her righteous judgment" because of the, 1996.