In an age where truth has never been harder to find, the lesson that not all facts are created equal is undeniable. In a compilation of Northrop Frye's lectures; Imagination instructed, it raises questions about the continuity of thought: “Looking in the mirror is the active mind struggling for coherence and continuity of its vision” (Frye). Frye asserts that the reflective mind seeks consistency among its beliefs and prefers to become ignorant rather than incoherent. However, this is not a modern day flaw and has existed in human nature since man's first capacity for reason, a fact evident in William Shakespeare's famous play: Hamlet. Human reasoning is not based on empirical evidence and deductive logic, but on the cohesion between an individual's perception of the world, their ego and their emotions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Without being aware of the innate error of the thought process, people will act on fleeting impulse, continue to ignore the lies they tell themselves, and be unable to develop character. When individuals have experiences that challenge their worldview with an inconvenient truth, the mind's most basic response is to refute the evidence and excuse the event as an unrelated coincidence. This subconscious mind does this to protect the continuity of thought from the conscious mind so that other principles relying on these beliefs can remain true, so as not to cause a psychological crisis. In Hamlet, Gertrude sets out this method of adaptation very clearly: “It is the very currency of your brain. /This ecstasy of creation without a body /is very cunning" (3.4.139-141). Gertrude refutes the authenticity of Hamlet's misdeeds, notably the murder of Polonius, and his fury against her in the fourth act by attributing them to his madness, wanting to believe that Hamlet is a good-hearted son, protects her pristine mental image of him by attributing his murderous fervor to a madness beyond her control Gertrude would rather sacrifice the truth than sacrifice her optimistic view of the world. . Seeing Unfiltered Reality is Dangerous as an excerpt from Thomas C Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor “She brings the food, the waste of the party, to the grieving widow; faces the horrible reality of humanity” (Foster 179) The featured short story, The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, ends with Laura confronting the dark reality of her wealthy family's indifference and contempt for her. suffering of his grieving lower-class neighbors. Laura makes no excuses for the disturbing events and subsequently suffers a nervous breakdown, the ignorant lies she believed being replaced by a sobering truth. The relationship between mental state and perceived events is not one-way however, the effects of emotional disturbance can affect the way the world is seen, prior to the conscious rationalization of such events in the mind. The mental state could be compared to the lens with which the world is seen through, dirty, foggy, distorted or as clear as the viewer's mind. Hamlet with corrupted feelings, sees with a dim eye, disenchanted with life; “What work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, how expressive and admirable in form and movement… and yet for me, what is this /quintessence of dust? (2.2.299-304). Hamlet is so deeply affected by his sense of neglect at the hands of his mother and distraught by the Danish court that his worldview?