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Can we consider deception in "Hamlet" a technique instead of a theme? Posted by brightensky on Sep 7, 2008. |
Hamlet Group
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It is rather a leit motif, a recurring element throughout a literary work from which a theme may be formulated. You are correct in thinking that use of a leit motif is a literary technique used to get a message across. In "Hamlet" there is deception everywhere. Everybody pretends, no one simply is. Appearance does not reflect reality.This goes from Gertrude's feelings towards her first husband, to her bereavement and sudden remarriage to Claudius, to Hamlet's feigning madness to approach the truth about his father's murder, etc. Even his friends abroad (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern) are false and set him up to be the next victim. And so deception goes on until the wicked scheme of the king is exposed. The last scene is pure carnage on stage and a bit grotesque, but truth is part of the catharsis or "purging" process Hamlet invokes. For this reason he dies a tragic hero, restoring order - if not in his family (everybody's dead!) - at least in his kingdom. Posted by parkerlee on Sep 7, 2008. |

