In The play Hamlet the theme of betrayal goes throughout the play. It shows you all different types of betrayal imaginable; your mother betraying you and your father, your friends betraying you, your girlfriend, your uncle, and your father. It is all here in the five act long play.
The first person Hamlet feels betrayed by is his mother. She goes and marries her husband’s brother two months after his death. He is outraged at them both but feels betrayed by his mother. During the play Hamlet shows his anger at his mother by embarrassing her and making crude comments towards her. He then goes so far as to scram and rant at her in her bedroom, then kills a guy because of his anger towards her.
The next people who betray Hamlet are his good school friends Rosencrantz and Guilderstern. Claudius, the new king, calls the two to the castle in Denmark. He asks them to spy on Hamlet and find the reason why he has gone crazy; if they do find out they will be recognized like kings. So they try, but Hamlet knows their reason for coming and plays with their minds as they do to him. After Hamlet kills Polonius they are told to take Hamlet to England so he can be killed, and they accept without thought for their friend, only to get what they want, money and fame.
Ophelia, Hamlet’s girlfriend was the next to betray him. Her father told her that she may never speak to him again because he was making a bad impression on her. She did what she was told because she was afraid of her father Polonius. When she went to tell Hamlet he was already depressed and it sent him over the edge. He fumed about and called her names over and over again to put her down for what she did. He tried to say he didn’t love her, but he always did and after she turned her back on him he had no one to turn to. I believe that Ophelia was the one that finally pushed him over to the edge into insanity and it ended up killing her whole family.
Betrayal is a very strong theme throughout the play. The things that the people do to Hamlet are sickening and very wrong, but they all get it in the end; either from him, nature, or from there own arrogance and selfishness.