1) The document discusses disguise in William Shakespeare's plays, specifically focusing on two types: disguise as a change in appearance (cross-dressing) and non-physical "spiritual" disguise. 2) It provides examples of disguise as a change in appearance from Shakespeare's comedies like The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It, where heroines disguise themselves as men. In As You Like It, Rosalind disguises as a man named Ganymede to escape persecution. 3) While disguised, Rosalind is able to behave more freely and bravely. Her disguise is persuasive, and she is able to deceive others in her role as Ganymede. However,

1. Disguise in selected Shakespeare's plays
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a unique writer who had a
rare power to
penetrate even the hidden spheres of the human soul. He was able
to enter to every emotion or depression of man to such a degree that
he seemed to have had knowledge of for the others yet
undiscovered science about human life. His masterpieces are still a
boundless source for various researches.
One of the most important and repeated themes in Shakespeare's
plays is disguise. It is important to learn that disguise does not
always require the changes in the dress or wearing a different mask,
but changing behavior can achieve similar aims. It is evident from
the frequency with which Shakespeare used the concept of disguise
that he was apparently attracted to it. He alters the identity of a
character and uses the disguise to draw the audience in, to reinforce
the irony as well as to develop or advance the theme. Shakespeare
created the characters being in different types of disguise. This
chapter will open only two of them – disguise as a change of
appearance and non- physical, “spiritual” disguise.
Disguise as a change of appearance
Disguise may be perceived in a lot of different ways. In this part the
thesis will focus
on the disguise which means changing identity through changing
clothes, since it is the most frequent type of disguise in
Shakespeare’s work also called “cross – dressing”. As Freeburg
quotes in his work Disguise plots in Elizabethan drama “. . . disguise,

2. in our discussion, means a change of personal appearance, which
leads to mistaken identity.” (2)
It is generally known that “of the thirty-eight surviving plays
attributed to
Shakespeare, about one fifth involves cross-dressing.” (“Cross-
dressing”) The concept of disguise as a change of appearance when
women disguised themselves as men can be found in comedies such
as The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It. Disguised women had
various kinds of reasons why to guise themselves as boys. Freeburg
states some of those reasons to whether they were “prompted by
love, hate, the spirit of adventure, curiosity, jealousy, or infidelity. . .”
(3) In contrast with the time when the comedies were played and an
ideal picture of a woman was an “. . . obedient, modest, chaste, silent
and passive creature never forgetting her subordination to men,
especially her father and husband” (Johnova), Shakespeare
introduced his heroines as strong, witty, self-confident, self-reliant
personalities equal to men and sometimes more powerful than men.
Hidden behind the guise, women had more rights and freedom.
Nevertheless, such digression from the rules was accepted by the
audience because the plays ostensibly did not mirror the reality,
they served only for entertainment. Shakespeare utilizes this type of
disguise in his comedies and he does not avoid using it in his
tragedies as well. It will be demonstrated in a brief analysis of the
tragedy King Lear where men do not change their gender via
disguise but they simply change their appearance only.

3. As You Like it
In As You Like It the reason of disguise is a bit different than in The
Merchant of Venice. In the previous comedy Portia disguises herself
on her own will to help her beloved husband’s friend. Here, in As You
Like It, the heroine Rosalind guises herself as a man to save her own
life and to escape unrecognized from the dominion of Duke
Frederick. The Duke took her under his protection and gave her
home after he had exiled her father from his home. Although
Frederick likes her as much as his daughter, as the time passes, he
starts to be suspicious and accuses her of betrayal. She has to escape
and Frederic’s daughter Celia joins her since they are like sisters. To
be successful in their plan, they decide to disguise themselves.
Rosalind guises herself as a young man Ganymede, because her body
constitution is tall and reminds of that of man’s while Celia dresses
herself as a poor girl called Aliena. However, the decision to flee in
disguise was the idea of Celia, not Rosalind.
No? Hath not? Rosalind lacks then the love
Which teacheth thec that thou and I am one.
Shall we be sunder'd? Shall we part, sweet girl?
No: let my father seek another heir.
Therefore, devise with me how we may fly,
Whither to go , and what to bear with us:
And do not seek to take your change upon you,
To bear your griefs yourself, and leave me out;
For, by this heaven, now at sorrows pale,
Say what thou canst, I'll go along with thee. (I.iii. 219. 93-101

4. The reaction of Rosalind shows that she is no such a strong woman,
although as Hyland comments, “. . . as Ganymede, Rosalind does
dominate the play.”
(“Shakespeare's Heroines” 33)
Why, whither shall we go?. . .
Alas, what danger will it be to us,
Maids as we are, to travel forth so far!
Beauty provoketh thieves soner than gold. (I.iii.219, 103-6)
Celia then promptly offers the way how they can manage their
disguises and hide their
Women’s beauty.
I'll put myself in poor and mean attire,
And with a kind of umber smirch my face.
The like do you: so shall we pass along,
And never stir assailants. (I.iii.219.108-11)
What confirms Hyland’s theory is the fact that after Rosalind hears
about the possibility to disguise herself, she chooses an appearance
of a young boy and begins to be stronger and more active than Celia.
(33) As in the most of Shakespeare's comedies where women
disguised themselves as men, it is apparent in this story how
challenging it was for female heroines to dress as men. What a kind
of change in their characters was caused by that simple disguise!
Being strong, free and self-confident, not under the strict rules of the
society and without repressing their feminine intelligence, they are
able to behave bravely and at the same level as men. Rosalind's
increasing self-confidence and dominance within her sudden vision
of her cross-gender change is well seen in her reaction and in the
rest of the story from that moment.

5. Were it not better,
Because that I am more than common tall,
That i did suit me all points like a man?
A gallant curtle-axe upon my thight,
A boar-spear in my hand; and in my heart
Lie there what hidden woman's fear there will. . . (I.iii. 219. 102-7)
Rosalind guised as Ganymede and Ceila as Aliena, both accompanied
by Touchstone, escape from Frederick's court with the aim to go to
the Forest of Arden where Rosalind's father is hiding. During their
wandering, when they all are too tired, Rosalind shows her strength
again saying:
I could find my heart to disgrace my man's
apparel, and to cry like a woman; but I must comfort
the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose ought to show
courageous to petticoat: therefore, courage, good
Aliena! (II.iv. 221. 4-8)
Rosalind falls in love with Orlando whom she sees only once
during his wrestling match with Charles, Frederick's strongest man.
She does not know he has fallen in love with her too. She finds it out
when she, disguised as Ganymede, meets him in the Forest of Arden.
She offers him as Ganymede “to cure his love sickness” (“Cross-
dressing”), pretending he [Ganymede] is Rosalind, an object of
Orlando’s love with all bad habits which women usually have.

6. Rosalind, under that clever pretext, is able to tutor Orlando in love
and find out what kind of a person he is and if he really loves her.
Rosalind spends in disguise quite a long time during the play,
being disguised as Ganymede, pretending he is Rosalind. The most
apposite quote, a very famous one, depicts her transformations even
if in the play it is not in interaction with Rosalind herself. It is when
Jacques states that “All the world’s stage, / And all the men and
women merely players” (II.vii.224.139-40) during the conversation
between Orlando, who is looking for food in the forest and Duke
Senior, who resembles the forest to the “wide and universal theatre”
(II.vii.224.137). It is the truth that all characters of the story take
part in the play about the disguise, the play, in which Ganymede
pretends to be Rosalind. They greet him, speak and behave to him as
if he were Rosalind although they know he is a young man. “Ros:
God save you, brother. / Oli: And you fair sister.” (V.ii.235.17-18)
The whole story is focused mainly on Rosalind. Freeburg
emphasizes that femininity is present during the whole plot and it is
only strengthened by the disguise itself (72). Also in Cross-dressing
in Shakespeare's comedies – and beyond, the author points out that
“although the heroines show their masculinity in cross-dressing,
they are still biologically female and physically weak sometimes. . .”
It is apparent from the scene when Rosalind, seeing the bloody
napkin brought by Orlando’s brother Oliver, swoons. However, after
the Oliver’s reaction “Be of good cheer, youth. - You a man? You /
lack a man’s heart.” (V.iii.234.163 -4) she argues that her swoon was
only counterfeited to show she is strong enough as any other man is.
“And here the girl again makes an attempt to assert her manhood.”
(White)

7. White also points out that the absolute incongruity between the
masculine and feminine part of Rosalind is the essence of the whole
story. Nevertheless, despite her feminine part,
Rosalind's disguise is so persuasive that she outfoxes all persons she
meets being in the role of Ganymede, including her father and
beloved Orlando.
The end of the story brings denouement and revelation of
Rosalind herself as it is usual in all stories of that type. What is not
common is Rosalind's epilogue. She herself admits at the beginning
of the epilogue that it is strange to have a female character and to
give the epilogue since it is mostly a male's issue. Nevertheless, it is
a matter of fact that there were only male actors on the Elizabethan
stage. “It is not the fashion to see the lady the epilogue; / but it is no
more unhandsome, that to see the lord the / prologue...” (Ep.238. 1-
3)
As for disguise, the last lines of the epilogue are quite important if
we take account of the fact again that on the stage at that time
Rosalind was a male actor.
. . . If I were a
Woman, I would kiss as many of you as had beards
that pleased me, complexions that liked me, and
breaths that I defied not; and, I am sure, as many as
have good beards, or good faces, orsweet, breaths,
will, for my kind offer, when I make curtsy, bid me
farewell. (Ep.238.16-22)

8. King Lear
As it is shown above, the concept of disguise in Shakespeare’s
work is not only a privilege of his comedies, but it also appears in
tragedies. However, it is not the cross-gender disguise; it is a simple
change of appearance. The characters pose as another persons and
not another gender. The fact is, as it was mentioned in previous
chapters that on Shakespeare's stage the only actors were men, and
men disguised as women evoked humorous situations more suitable
for comedies. In contrast, in tragedies the cross-gender disguise
might have had outrageous effects since the plot was tragic and sad.
There are two characters who change their appearance in King
Lear. They are Earl of Kent and Edgar, son of Earl of Gloster. They
both disguise themselves as lower social status people being
expulsion by their own class. As Lind quotes, “each of these
characters, through their so called disguises, deal with their
transgression and banishment from their noble class.”
Kent is a nobleman who passionately supports King Lear.
However, he is banished by the King because he intercedes with him
for Cordelia while Lear disowns her since she does not show the
right affection towards her father. Nevertheless, Kent disguises
himself as a servant Caius and remains loyal to the king. Before he
enters Lear's castle being disguised, he speaks to himself.
If but as well I other accents borrow,
That can my speech diffuse, my good intent
May carry through itself to that full issue

9. For which I raz'd my likeness. - Now, banish'd Kent,
If thou canst serve whre thou dost stand condemn'd,
(So may it come!) thy master, whom thou lov'st,
Shall find thee full of labours. (I.iv.837.1-7)
Kent uses his speech diffusion as a tool to help him to be
unrecognized. In Shakespeare a jeviště svět Hilsky comments on a bit
different kind of disguise. He argues that the change of Kent's speech
means his “real disguise” (611). The nobleman who in the first scene
speaks in a blank verse will change his form of speech to more
shocking and familiar one (Hilsky 611).
This transformation is well seen in the situation when Kent meets
Oswald and to his question
“What dost thou know me for?” (II.ii.841.13) he answers:
A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats;
a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave;
a lily-liver'd, action -taking knave; a whoreson,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . a beggar, a coward, pander,
and the son ad heir of a mongrel bitch; . . . (II.ii.841.14-22)
Kent disguised as Caius guides Lear during the whole story and
his character does not change. His main focus is to receive king's

10. trust again and therefore he is honest in every situation. When he is
asked by Lear “What are thou?” he answers sincerely, “A very
honest-hearted fellow, and as poor as a king.”(I.iv.837.19-20) His
devotion and service to the king is appreciated by Edgar who speaks
about him with the Duke of Albany in the last scene. “Kent sir, the
banished Kent; who in disguise / Followed his enemy king, and did
him service / Improper for a slave.” (V.iii.860.220-2)
The second disguised character who changes his physical
appearance in the tragedy King Lear is Edgar. He disguises himself
as a beggar after his younger brother Edmund victimizes him since
Edgar is the first born and therefore the inheritor of their father's
property. Initially, Edgar wants “to preserve himself.” (Maclean 51)
In a soliloquy, he states,
I will preserve myself; and am bethought
To take the basest and most poorest shape
That ever penury, in contempt of man,
Brought near to beast. My face I’ll grime with filth,
Blanket my loins, elf all my hair in knots,
And with presented nakedness out-face
The winds and persecutions of the sky. (II.iii.842.6-12)
“Self- preservation is a prerequisite to a second and more active
purpose which disguise makes possible” (Maclean 51) “. . . to
prevent the fiend and to kill vermin” (III.iv.848.160) Edgar is in his
nature good and honest. As his brother Edmund admits, Edgar's
nature is
“. . . far from doing harms” (I.ii.836.136). Two times during the story
Edgar nearly gives away his disguise because of feeling pity to
others. Firstly, in the scene with the almost mad king Lear “[Aside]

11. My tears begin to take his part so much,. . .” (III.vi.849.59) and
secondly, seeing his own father bleeding from his eyes.
Poor Tom is cold – [Aside] I cannot daub it
further.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[Aside] And yet I must. - Bless thy sweet
eyes, they bleed. (IV.i.851.52-6)
However, the circumstances change him a bit. As the time passes,
Edgar disguised as a poor Tom wants to get his revenge. His
character undergoes a certain transformation and development and
therefore, his motive of the disguise becomes quite different from
that of Kent's.
Both of them, Kent and Edgar, want to preserve their existence
either saving life or social status or observing loyalty to the King.
Both characters, being disguised experience dreadful situations
through the entire story to the very end. It is obvious that the use of
disguise in the tragedy is quite different from that in comedies as it
has to correspond with the obligatory recognition of dramatic rules
valid for tragedies.
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
It is no surprise that Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is considered to be
one of the best Shakespeare's tragedies. In fact, since it is a family

12. drama where all kinds of relationships are present, ranging from
friendship and friendship betrayed, the nature of duty to oneself, the
truth, seizing and losing control to pretence and disguise, it has
engaged people for more than four hundred years. As the society
continues to change, the topicality of those issues remains.
This part of the thesis examines and analyses that masterpiece from
the point of non-physical, i.e. spiritual disguise.
The valiant King Hamlet has died. “The death of Hamlet’s father is
obviously a breaking point for the Prince. We can assume from the
play’s words and action that it changes every relationship in his life.
For starters, Hamlet does not become king.” (William Thornton) His
brother has succeeded him as King of Denmark and also as a
husband of Queen Gertrude, Prince Hamlet's mother. The new King
is fully in control of the court, despite his hasty andincestuous
marriage. Prince Hamlet alone is still in mourning for the late King
and when Gertrude marries Claudius within two months after his
father's death, Hamlet feels his mother betrayed the memory of his
father.
So excellent a king; that was, to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month--
Let me not think on't--Frailty, thy name is woman!--
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body,
Like Niobe, all tears:--why she, even she--
O, God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer--married with my uncle, . . .
(I.ii.802.139-152)

13. At that time, a ghost closely resembling the late King appears at
the castle. He reveals to Hamlet that his brother seduced the Queen
and poisoned him. He commands Hamlet to avenge his murder.
Hamlet vows to undertake the task. From that point, Hamlet starts
to behave oddly. He pretends madness. There are lots of theories
whether Hamlet was or was not really mad. “. . . Hamlet does appear
to be acting as a madman; it becomes difficult to decide, Whether or
not he is truly mad, or simply feigning madness. Although Hamlet
has stated that he may find reason or need to act mad the insane
behavior which follows appears to be without motivation . . .”
(Jeremy DeVito) Another author sees Hamlet's conversations with
his only friend Horatio as a “crutial point in deciding for or against
the sanity of Hamlet” (“Hamlet's Madness As a Strategy of Disguise”)
The fact is that Hamlet, after meeting the ghost, announces to
Horatio and Marcellus that he will behave strange if it is necessary
and he forces them to swear not to tell anybody.
. . . But come;
Here, as before, never, so help you mercy,
How strange or odd soe'er I bear myself,
As I perchance hereafter shall think meet
To put an antic disposition on,
That you, at such times seeing me, never shall,
With arms encumber'd thus, or this headshake,
Or by pronouncing of some doubtful phrase,
As 'Well, well, we know,' or 'We could, an if we would,'
Or 'If we list to speak,' or 'There be, an if they might,'
Or such ambiguous giving out, to note
That you know aught of me: this not to do,
So grace and mercy at your most need help you, Swear. (I.v.805-
806.168-181)

14. It is obvious from the citation that to disguise his behaviour to
pretend being a madman is Hamlet's strategy how to learn the truth
about the father's death. According to Hilsky, the “process of
verifying” may be the reason why Hamlet pretends madness. (“Když
ticho mluvi” 124)
Not only Hamlet is disguised in the tragedy. King Claudius,
Hamlet's uncle, who killed Hamlet's father, also disguised his
behavior. He seems to be morally an excellent man, a soft husband
and loving uncle. He pretends to repent the death of the former king,
his brother.
Though yet of Hamlet our dear brother's death
The memory be green, and that it us befitted
To bear our hearts in grief and our whole kingdom
To be contracted in one brow of woe,
Yet so far hath discretion fought with nature
That we with wisest sorrow think on him,
Together with remembrance of ourselves.
Therefore our sometime sister, now our queen,
The imperial jointress to this warlike state,
Have we, as 'twere with a defeated joy,--
With an auspicious and a dropping eye,
With mirth in funeral and with dirge in marriage, . . . (I.ii.801. 1-12)
And, moreover, that he loves Hamlet as his own son.
As of a father; for let the world take note,
You are the most immediate to our throne;
And with no less nobility of love
Than that which dearest father bears his son,
Do I impart toward you. (I.ii.801.108-12)

15. Claudius is the only person in the play who suspects Hamlet's
insanity. Anxious, the
King asks the Prince's fellow students, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern, to spy on him. There is another type of disguise as a
change of behaviour – hypocrisy shown. Hamlet's fellow students,
disguised as his best friends, investigate why he behaves so
peculiarly. However, after Hamlet asks them to tell him the truth, to
his question “Were you sent for?”
(II.ii.809.277) they admit after hesitation “My lord, we were sent
for.” (II.ii.809.295)
Hamlet wants to ascertain himself whether the Ghost told the
truth and he sets up the players' performance which is a re-
enactment of his father´s murder and he believes that Claudius'
reaction will indicate his guilt.
Play something like the murder of my father
Before mine uncle: I'll observe his looks;
I'll tent him to the quick: if he but blench,
I know my course. The spirit that I have seen
May be the devil: and the devil hath power
To assume a pleasing shape;. . . (II.ii.811.605-10)
Hamlet confides his intention to Horacio, his loyal friend, and asks
him to observe Claudius' reaction.
There is a play to-night before the king;
One scene of it comes near the circumstance
Which I have told thee of my father's death:
I prithee, when thou seest that act afoot,
Even with the very comment of thy soul
Observe mine uncle: if his occulted guilt
Do not itself unkennel in one speech,
It is a damned ghost that we have seen,

16. And my imaginations are as foul
As Vulcan's stithy. Give him heedful note;
For I mine eyes will rivet to his face,
And after we will both our judgments join
In censure of his seeming. (III.ii. 813.75-87)
In the scene about the mousetrap there is the second piece of
evidence that Hamlet only pretends his madness. He warns his
friend Horatio that the King and Queen are coming and he must play
a madman not to be revealed. “They are coming to the play; I must
be / idle:.” (III.ii.813.89-90) “He [Hamlet] is completely capable of
switching from his mad state to a state of complete sanity and
masterful thought.” (Free Essays, “Hamlet's Words”)
During the play Hamlet as well as Horatio see Claudius'
reaction of confession. Martin Hilsky describes the situation in the
play within the play as if the protagonists were in the mirror
chamber in which each mirror “shows the past, the present and the
future.” (“Shakespeare a jeviště svět” 512) Hamlet learns that the
Ghost told him the truth and Claudius is the murderer, Claudius
discovers that Hamlet knows about his crime and that he only
pretends his madness. And here is the break-event point of the
entire tragedy. “Till that moment Hamlet's question was: “Does the
Ghost tell the truth? Is Claudius a murderer?” and after the play
within the play Hamlet's question changes to: “What will I do?”
(Hilsky, “Shakespeare a jeviště svět” 513)
Being alone after the play within the play in his soliloquy, Claudius
describes his inner feelings. He knows he should repent his crimes,
but he cannot renounce what they have won him – the crown and

17. the Queen. He knows that God will judge and punish him, however,
he cannot make the sacrifice which would earn him his mercy.
O, my offence is rank it smells to heaven;
It hath the primal eldest curse upon't,
A brother's murder. Pray can I not,
Though inclination be as sharp as will:
My stronger guilt defeats my strong intent;
And, like a man to double business bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first begin,
And both neglect. What if this cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with brother's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow? Whereto serves mercy
But to confront the visage of offence? (III.iv.817.36-47)
Hamlet in rage is prepared to deliver justice. After the confirmation
of the Ghost's testimony he was ready to “. . . drink hot blood.”
(III.ii.816.391) However, seeing Claudius he starts to hesitate.
Claudius seems to be praying and Hamlet does not want to “kill him
in that situation, when Claudius has made his peace with God.”
(McCain) Hamlet thinks his dead father would not wish a revenge
which would send Claudius into Heaven. Moreover, it is against his
virtues and religion to kill a man at prayer.
Now might I do it pat, now he is praying;
And now I'll do't. And so he goes to heaven;
And so am I revenged. That would be scann'd:
A villain kills my father; and for that,
I, his sole son, do this same villain send
To heaven.
O, this is hire and salary, not revenge.
He took my father grossly, full of bread;
With all his crimes broad blown, as flush as May;

18. And how his audit stands who knows save heaven?
But in our circumstance and course of thought,
'Tis heavy with him: and am I then revenged,
To take him in the purging of his soul,
When he is fit and season'd for his passage?
No! (II.iv.817.73-87)
“Thanks to that scene, Hamlet was perceived as a volatile,
indecisive man, not able to act.” (Hilsky, “Shakespeare a jeviště svět”
515) Moreover, Mara McCain acknowledges in her essay Hamlet's
admirable delay that “Hamlet's inability to make the snap
judgements necessary to kill Claudius has often been cited as the
reason for the tragic end of the play.” The fact is that if Claudius had
been killed during the scene when he was praying, Hamlet would
have become the king and it would have been the end of the story,
however, not the end of the tragedy. As Hilsky quotes in his book
Shakespeare a jeviště svět, “tragical hero must die” as it is the rule of
all tragedies (515). Hamlet's indecisiveness caused many
unexpected and grievous events. Pollonius would not have been
killed, Ophelia would not have committed suicide, Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern would not have been sent to England to be executed.
And finally, the most tragical scene would never have happened.
Indecisiveness accompanies Hamlet through the whole story. His
comments and soliloquies are full of hesitation and allusions, and
moreover, without any action. “. . . It is not nor it cannot come to
good; / But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue!”
(I.ii.802.158-159) He expresses his doubts why he is the one who
should have the solution of the revenge in his hands at the end of the
first Act. “. . . The time is out of joint: - O cursed spite, / That ever I
was born to set it right!” (I.v.806.189-90)
When the Ghost set him the task, he suggested that Hamlet
would be “. . . duller shouldst . . . than the fat weed/ That roots itself
in ease on Lethe wharf” (I.iv.804.32-3) if he

19. failed to act. In his second sololiquy Hamlet responds to that taunt,
worrying that he is indeed “dull and muddy-mettled” (II.ii.811.575.)
The great part of the monologue expresses how angry he is with his
own passivity and irresolution.
O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
Is it not monstrous that this player here,
But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,
Could force his soul so to his own conceit
That from her working all his visage wann'd,
Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect,
broken voice, and his whole function suiting
With forms to his conceit? and all for nothing!
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A damn'd defeat was made. Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain? breaks my pate across?
But I am pigeon-liver'd and lack gall
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!
O, vengeance!
Why, what an ass am I! . . . (II.ii.810-811. 557-592)
The character of Hamlet is from the beginning a shattered
personality. Firstly, he is prostrated with the unexpected death of
his father and after the encounter with the Ghost he is absorbed by
the immorality of the whole world and society. Moreover, Hamlet is
in a really difficult situation promising the Ghost to commit a sin. It
is easier and safer for him to express his feelings and decide what to
do while being a madman. Marvin Rosenberg calls it “. . . a private
violence of a man at war with himself” (Rosenberg 206) Hamlet,
hidden behind his disguise of madness can more easily express his

20. disgust with the state affairs, early marriage of his mother and the
whole world.
. . . What should a
man do but be merry? for, look you, how cheerfully
my mother looks, and my father died within these two
hours.(III.ii.813-14.125-8)
He also complains about the spoiled world, in which it is hard to live.
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this! (I.ii.801.133-7)
“Hamlet has been under such pressure that he could hardly breathe.
In his heart there is a kind of fighting. . . he cannot get away, and the
pressure is still intensifying . . .” (Rosenberg 206) It is apparent that
in such state of mind he thinks several times of what a perfect
solution of all the problems he has a suicide would be. His words
affirm his hopelessness not only in the first line of his famous
soliloquy “To be, or not to be, that is the question” (III.i.812.56) but
also in the following citation.
O, that this too too solid flesh would melt
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!
Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd
His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God! (I.ii.801.129-32)
Not only Hamlet, but also Shakespeare himself went through
the conflict of the period in they lived in. To confront Hamlet's
irresolution with the historical period, it is necessary to have a short
view of the history.

21. The sixteenth century was a period of Renaissance and Humanism.
Renaissance means “rebirth” of ancient learning and values. The
main feature of the new ideology, Humanism, is viewing the man as
an equal human being, emphasizing the importance of each
individual, his nature and the place in the Universe. An analogical
part of the humanistic philosophy was to educate predominantly
male learners to be ideal gentlemen, universal men, which was a
reminiscence of the Greece-Roman ideal. Hamlet is an ideal,
representative, man of Renaissance. The Shakespeare's hero's
humanistic education supported by his university studies results in
the fact that Hamlet becomes “a humanist who dreams about
unsullied man. . .” (Střibrny 106) The characteristics of Hamlet as a
university student shows the importance of education and the
concept of individual. Hamlet holds to the extraordinary value of the
human mind “. . . What a / piece of work is a man, how noble in
reason! how / infinite in faculty!” (II.ii.809.307-9) He also presents
his contemplations about the life cycle in conversation with Horatio
in the churchyard.
HAMLET
To what base uses we may return, Horatio! Why may
not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander,
till he find it stopping a bung-hole?
HORATIO
'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.
HAMLET
No, faith, not a jot; but to follow him thither with
modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it: as

22. thus: Alexander died, Alexander was buried,
Alexander returneth into dust; the dust is earth; of
earth we make loam; and why of that loam, whereto he
was converted, might they not stop a beer-barrel?
Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away:
O, that that earth, which kept the world in awe,
Should patch a wall to expel the winter flaw! (V.i.828.210-224)
However, by the end of the Renaissance, “humanist thinking
became more sceptical.” (Wood 92) General crisis of the Late
Renaissance caused a chain of changes in all spheres of the Late
Renaissance England. First of all it was the substantial religious
upheaval performed by the English Reformation by Henry VIII and
the establishment of the Church of England.(Charvat 196) The
religious conflict was also joined by political uncertainty. After fifty
years of stability, the reign of Queen Elizabeth was coming to an end
“with no certainty about what would happen when she died.” (Wood
92) Elizabeth was the last of the Tudors and she was dying without
an heir. England was a small country at risk of invasion from
Scotland, Ireland and Spain. But the most substantial changes
occurred in economy. The decline of the period marked the decline
of Feudalism and beginning of Capitalism. The new economic
relationships directed by longing for profit resulted in revolutionary
changes in coping with new, aggressive and basically immoral acting
of the landowners, so called New Aristocracy and ravenous, ruthless
bourgeoisie. (Charvat 204) Factually, the desire to be successful
without any respect to man as such, his feelings, moral principles
and humanity was apologized in advance. The philosophy of the new
era accepted any means to succeed and become wealthy. Any lie,
betray, trickery even a murder were proper and justifiable.
Comparing the two different ways of thinking and views of the
world, it is rather easy to recognize the crisis of a Renaissance man

23. in changing conditions. Shakespeare's Hamlet was written and
performed in the final years of Queen Elizabeth I's reign.
Considering all the above mentioned circumstances, the Late
Renaissance people longed for certainties in the unstable world of
the Late Tudor England where moreover “Rumour was rife, and
conspiracies (real or imaginary), government spies and informers
were everywhere.” (Wood 92)
The play mirrors the period of those great changes and uncertainty.
And so does Hamlet, the tragic hero, still performs a “member of the
great world that Shakespeare loved and praised and which goes to
ruins.” (Pokorny 158)
Since every play was a subject to government censorship at that
time (Wood 92),
Shakespeare exploited masterly the concept of non-physical,
“spiritual” disguise in Hamlet for inconspicuous, however, fierce
criticism of the society to point out the problems of those days.
Shakespeare's critics of the society is apparent in Hamlet, Act V in
the churchyard.
HAMLET
How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he
rot?
First Clown
I' faith, if he be not rotten before he die--as we
have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce
hold the laying in--he will last you some eight year
or nine year: a tanner will last you nine year. (V.i.827.169-174)
Besides, Hamlet expresses his opinion about his native Denmark. He
compares Denmark with
a prison. As Pokorny comments in his book Shakespearova doba a
divadlo, “the picture of the social crisis is repeated here . . . and

24. England appears here dressed in the external costume of the
Denmark.” (157) From Pokorny's quotation it is noticeable that
Shakespeare in the tragedy emphasizes the unstable situation in
England.
HAMLET
Then is doomsday near: but your news is not true.
Let me question more in particular: what have you,
my good friends, deserved at the hands of fortune,
that she sends you to prison hither?
GUILDENSTERN
Prison, my lord!
HAMLET
Denmark's a prison.
ROSENCRANTZ
Then is the world one.
HAMLET
A goodly one; in which there are many confines,
wards and dungeons, Denmark being one o' the worst.
(II.ii.808.240-249)
As a real man of Renaissance, Hamlet observes the humanist
thought deeply fixed in his nature and acting, which is in deep
antagonism with the new times. The antagonism is a source of his
scepticism, indecisiveness and hesitation.
Considering unexpected changes in politics and society of he
Late Tudor England and detailed analysis of Hamlet's feelings and
acts, it is evident that Shakespeare uses the motif of madness as
psychological disguise intentionally to draw people's attention to
the instability and uncertainty of that period. He shows the Late

25. Renaissance society their picture in a mirror where they can see
themselves as indecisive human beings. That picture is disguised in
the thoughts and acts of “mad” Hamlet.