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Hamlet - Trust/Deception - Coggle Diagram
Hamlet - Trust/Deception
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'the harlot's cheek, beautied with plast'ring art'
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In these times, prostitutes used makeup with lead in it to hide the signs of siphylis on their face, to keep up business
however, the lead in the paint slowly degraded the skin, creating a perpetual cycle of using makeup to cover imperfections
Claudius is stuck in this same cycle, by using lies to cover more lies
'O my offence is rank it smells to heaven, it hath the primal eldest curse upon't, a brother's murder'
this suggests that the offence has reached heaven, as Claudius recognises his sins and worries about his fate
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the use of 'smell' suggests that the truth of his sins will diffuse uncontrollably throughout the court, like a bad smell
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'behind the arras ill convey myself, to hear the process'
reminiscent of Elizabeth's spymaster, William Cecil
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it is unsure whether Hamlet is truly mad or not, and so perhaps he cannot be trusted
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However, Horatio says 'these are wild and whirling words, my lord' after Hamlet has met the ghost
the use of alliteration and elongated 'w' sounds emphasises the concern of Horatio, who is Hamlet's closest friend and most trusted adviser, so knows him well
this suggests that Horatio believes Hamlet is truly mad, and he is 'the Harbinger of truth' (Mabillard)
this is echoed by Ophelia, who claims Hamlet seems as if he 'had been loosed out of hell', with the use of hellish imagery amplifying the serious tone of her words, and how she believes this fully.
This then indirectly leads to Hamlet's mistreatment of Ophelia and her own madness, suggesting his madness has made his untrustworthy
Indeed, Thomas Bright's 'Treatise of Melancholy' from 1583 details the symptoms of those who are mad
he says that sufferers see 'phantasticall apparitions' which may suggest why the ghost appeared to Hamlet, instead of Claudius. Also, why Gertrude could not see the ghost
Bright goes on to explain how sufferers see their homes as a 'prison or dungeon' rather than a place of 'repose or rest', which is echoed by hamlet when he suggests that 'Denmark is a prison'
it is unsure whether Shakespeare was familiar with this work of Bright, but perhaps he wished to include elements of madness in Hamlet so as to fundamentally question his trustworthiness and the core of the plot itself