“Those who betray Hamlet also betray themselves.” Explore Shakespeare’s presentation of betrayal in ‘Hamlet’.

 “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will”- Hamlet 5:2
A play renowned for its depictions of a world of deception and revenge, within ‘Hamlet’ Shakespeare artfully masters the environment and characters of Elsinore to create a stifling and claustrophobic atmosphere for audiences to experience. The themes of betrayal and retribution that shape the narrative arc of Hamlet’s plight are integral to that which lies at the heart of this drama, and by exploring them in depth, it is possible to see its events and action in a different light. Coined a revenge tragedy, ‘Hamlet’ consistently defies the stereotypes placed upon it, and takes up its own place as a play that seems to revolve around the inaction of its titular character, and not his supposed revenge. Despite this, the betrayal that is portrayed and delivered unto him time and time again seems to symbolise something more central to the message of this play. Hamlet is more than just the lead, in a historical context, he represents the rise in renaissance humanism that was occurring during the time of Shakespeare’s writing, with the notion of independent thought and action not governed entirely by religious doctrine. Indeed, betrayal by it’s very nature concerns moral ethics and philosophy, and it is Hamlet’s own ethical dilemmas that drive the narrative forward. Thus the characters that interact with Hamlet, in their manifest betrayals of him, must also be betraying themselves, with the wrong they do Hamlet being reflected in their own plights. This ‘divinity that shapes our ends’ as Hamlet describes it, perhaps hints at a sense of divine justice that exists within the play, as all those who betray Hamlet seem to pay the ultimate price for these acts of perfidy.
The original text of ‘Hamlet’ which may or may not have been written by Shakespeare himself, is referred to as the ‘Ur-Hamlet’ and was in circulation within Shakespeare’s company several years before the first staging of the play as we know it today. The text upon which it was based, a Danish legend concerned with the revenger Amleth, contains similarities and a few noticeable differences to Shakespeare’s narrative, including that the murderous uncle’s attempts to decipher whether the hero’s madness is real or not involve a beautiful woman and an old man. However, where this tale deviates from ‘Hamlet’ is in these characters steadfast refusal to betray Amleth, instead staying true to him. Shakespeare did not keep this element of the original, the characters of ‘Ophelia’ and her father ‘Polonius’, which seem to be the natural comparisons for these early figures, do betray Hamlet, choosing to be loyal to his uncle instead. It is Ophelia’s betrayal that perhaps breaks Hamlet the most, she is often considered to be the purest and most innocent of the characters within the text, and her disloyalty to Hamlet does only arise out of higher loyalty to her father. This makes her betrayal differ from that of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, whose willingness to act as spies for Claudius arises solely out of greed and a desire to protect themselves, “But we both obey,/And here give up ourselves in the full bent/ To lay our services freely at your feet/ To be commanded”. Guildenstern here demonstrates that, despite their supposed friendship and loyalty to Hamlet as his friends, they are willing to, without hesitation or much persuasion, give themselves ‘freely’ to Claudius. Unlike Ophelia who is instructed in her betrayal seemingly without an alternative by her father, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear to be more than willing to side with Claudius over Hamlet, a betrayal that seems without any other motivation than greed for the “thanks as fits a king’s remembrance” that the King and Queen offer. Ophelia’s betrayal is more pivotal to the plight of Hamlet’s inner conflictions, his confrontation of her in Act 3 symbolises a turning point, not only within the play, but within Hamlet himself, “Where’s your father?”. This line bears much weight. With it, Hamlet is ascertaining perhaps, the true fealty of Ophelia to him, it can be interpreted that he knows very well that Polonius and Claudius are listening, and that if Ophelia lies to him, then she must, by definition, become his enemy; and she does, “At home my lord”. Ophelia’s betrayal, whilst perhaps the most crime-less within the narrative, is also the most destructive, for it is clear that Hamlet, even by asking her this question, retained some hope that she, of all people, would not forsake him. But perhaps abandoning feeling for Ophelia is something Hamlet must do in order to carry out his own revenge, Catherine Belsey argues how “Intense love and hate cannot easily coexist in a single mind” lending to the notion that perhaps Ophelia’s betrayal is necessary in the course of Hamlet’s path to revenge his father’s death. Her action in turn drives his madness on, keeps up his pretences and his deceptions, and the violence that follows later with his murder of Polonius is ultimately that which will lead to her downfall. In the RSC 2016 production of Hamlet, they chose to stage the scene between them in such a way as to demonstrate how it lies at the root of what causes Ophelia’s own madness, using green paint smeared from Hamlet’s hand to her face to symbolise the transfer of this delirium. Her one act of betrayal, which she is tasked with by her father and the king himself, is enough to set her course clearly, her doomed fate is inevitable from this point onwards.