Hamlet, written by William Shakespeare in 1608, is a play that follows the life of Hamlet, the witty and intelligent, yet deeply melancholic prince of Denmark. Since the devastating death of his father and hasty remarriage of his beloved mother to Claudius, his uncle, Hamlet begins to lose his joy for life and falls into a bleak depression. That is, until the ghost of his father returns, demanding justice for his murder! Hamlet is without a doubt Shakespeare's greatest tragedy, as well as his most acclaimed play. Lives are lost, families torn apart, and nothing is what it seems. Yet, it was through the theme of deception, prominent in the stories of Hamlet, Claudius and Laertes, did the dreadful ending of Hamlet come to pass.

Through feigning lunacy, Hamlet leads to his own downfall. By donning a false madness, Hamlet convinces all those around him that he is truly crazy. Throughout the play, he deftly evades answering compromising questions from Rozencrantz and Guildernstern, two of his schoolmates that Claudius hires to spy on the young prince. When asked where he hid Polonius' body, he smoothly avoids responding to their question, by vaguely stating, "The body is with the king, but the king is/Not with the body" (4.ii.26-7). Moreover, since Claudius fears Hamlet will come after him and avenge his father, he writes a letter to England, instructing them to kill the insane prince. Yet, Hamlet manages to deceive Claudius, as well as Rozencrantz and Guildernstern when he discovers his death letter and cleverly rewrites it, so the instructions say to kill his illusory friends. Sadly, when Hamlet, in a fit of rage, kills Polonius; he sets off a series of tragic events, one of which being his own demise. This is how Hamlet's deception causes his own collapse.

By murdering King Hamlet and taking over his thrown, Claudius opens the door to his own catastrophic end. To commence, Claudius executed his brother Hamlet, by making the death look as if, "A serpent stung [him]" (1.V.36); Claudius hastily marries Queen Gertrude afterward and became the new king of Denmark. Regrettably, Claudius did not count on Hamlet's ghost returning to tell his son of "Murder most foul" (1.v.27). Additionally, when Hamlet vowed to avenge his father, Claudius had to take precautious steps, so Hamlet did not suspect him, of the heinous crime. This led to his final two-faced act, where he, along with Laertes, poisoned the tip of Laertes' rapier to try and murder Hamlet. In case Laertes did not succeed, his back up plan was a cup of toxic wine. Despondently, his plan backfired when Hamlet forced him to, "Drink off this poison" (5.ii.331) and he dies at Hamlet's hand. Through his deception, Claudius led to his own defeat.

The dishonesty of Laertes, the playboy in Paris, led a key role in the tragic outcome of the play. The fact that Laertes tricks the court of Denmark into believing he is refined, intelligent and polished, proves he is very good at concealing his true nature. Also, all his spuriousness came into fruition when his treasured sister Ophelia committed suicide. When he declares to seek revenge on Hamlet, he dares the prince to a fencing match and he along with Claudius, tip the rapier with poison. Yet, when there is a sword mix up, he, as well as Hamlet are both unfortunately infected and died. In the end, Laertes was the one that administered the final blow to Shakespeare's brilliant tragedy, signalling his own devastating ending, along with Hamlet's.

Indeed, the final downfalls of Hamlet, Claudius and Laertes are not due to some cruel twist of fate, but are products of their own misleading nature. In the end, it was really their own flaws that ended their lives. Yet, one can only think. If the entire play would have lacked the powerful undertone of deception, could and would Hamlet even be considered the Tragedy Of All Tragedies?

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