Obscured truth and authentic feeling in King Lear and Hamlet

¶ … Obscurity of Real Feeling and Intentions in King Lear and Hamlet

"Nay madam, I know not seems," says Hamlet to his mother Gertrude. (Act 1.2) By this he means he is not pretending to mourn his beloved father. Hamlet's mourning suit of inky black fabric truthfully expresses his feelings. However, Hamlet does deploy language later in the play to both obscure and reveal his true feelings. After he learns the truth about Claudius, he pretends to be mad to apparently divert suspicion from himself. However, although his madness is a simulation, he often uses the cover of madness to tell the truth, such as when he calls Polonius a fishmonger, or a pimp, as Polonius 'pimps' his daughter Ophelia for his own political gain.

In contrast, Claudius' display as a king is always a lie -- he pretends to love Hamlet in Act 5, even while he has arranged the entire play to kill his stepson. Much like Lear, when he was king, Claudius never reveals his true self in public. Lear only learns the value of truth telling after he spends a night on the heath during a storm. After being stripped of his power, he begins to understand the naked truth of the human condition. He also understands the value of his daughter Cordelia's brutal honesty and the honesty of his loyal fool.