The dichotomy between appearance and reality is a fundamental human concern, driving narrative and shaping character arcs across literature. This theme resonates powerfully in Matt Haig's contemporary novel, The Midnight Library (2020), and William Shakespeare's enduring tragedy, Hamlet (c. 1603). While separated by centuries and vastly different dramatic forms, both works confront the unsettling truth that what seems to be is often far from what truly is. Through their protagonists' struggles with deception, illusion, and the elusive nature of self-knowledge, The Midnight Library and Hamlet reveal how the chasm between outward presentation and inner truth can lead to profound despair, and how bridging that gap, or at least confronting it, is essential for authentic living.
In Hamlet, the titular prince is immediately plunged into a world where appearances are dangerously deceptive. The court of Denmark, outwardly a picture of regal stability following the swift marriage of Queen Gertrude to Claudius, is in fact rotten with regicide and incest. Hamlet's father's ghost reveals Claudius's fratricide, shattering Hamlet's perception of his uncle and his mother's hasty remarriage. This revelation forces Hamlet to question everything he thought he knew. His famous soliloquy, "To be, or not to be," isn't merely an existential query but a direct result of this crisis of appearance versus reality. He grapples with the moral implications of acting on a truth that is hidden, and the performative nature of his own supposed madness, which he adopts as a tool to uncover the truth. The play's action is propelled by Hamlet's desperate attempts to pierce the veil of Claudius's smooth, kingly facade, and to understand the true nature of Gertrude's complicity. Even Ophelia, a character seemingly defined by her innocence, becomes a pawn in this game of appearances, her perceived madness mirroring Hamlet's, yet born from genuine heartbreak and manipulation. The stark contrast between the court's polished exterior and its festering interior underscores Shakespeare's masterful exploration of how deceit can masquerade as order.
Matt Haig's The Midnight Library presents a more internalised struggle with appearance and reality, centered on Nora Seed's regret-filled life. After attempting suicide, Nora finds herself in a liminal space, the Midnight Library, where each book represents a different life she could have lived. Here, the "appearance" is the imagined perfection of these alternate realities, often born from Nora's past regrets and what she believed would bring her happiness. She experiences lives as a famous rock star, a glaciologist, a pub owner, and a happily married woman. Initially, these lives appear to be the ultimate solutions to her unhappiness. However, as Nora samples them, she discovers that each reality, like the characters within them, has its own hidden complexities and dissatisfactions. The rock star life is isolating and vapid; the glaciologist life is lonely and dangerous; the marriage is fraught with unspoken tensions. The illusion of a perfect life, constructed from Nora's present-day dissatisfaction, dissolves upon closer inspection. The most profound revelation is that the "real" Nora, the one in her root life, was the most authentic, and that her perceived failures were not inherent flaws but subjective interpretations. The library itself is a manifestation of this theme: an infinite space of potential realities that appear perfect from a distance but are revealed to be flawed upon entry.
Both protagonists, Hamlet and Nora, are fundamentally challenged by the gap between what is presented and what is true. Hamlet, a prince burdened by a ghost's word, must navigate a court rife with political intrigue and moral compromise. His quest for vengeance is a quest for truth, for aligning the outward appearance of Denmark with its inner corruption. His feigned madness is a performance, a strategy to expose the reality of Claudius's guilt, but it also risks consuming him, blurring the lines between his authentic self and the role he plays. Nora, on the other hand, grapples with the appearance of missed opportunities and the reality of her own choices. Her journey through the Midnight Library is an exploration of potential selves, where the "appearance" of a better life is tested against the "reality" of its lived experience. She learns that no life is without its struggles, and that true peace comes not from escaping reality but from accepting and integrating it. Both characters, in their own ways, must confront the deceptive nature of surfaces – be it a smiling king or a seemingly perfect alternate existence – to find a semblance of understanding or peace.
Ultimately, both The Midnight Library and Hamlet underscore the pervasive influence of appearance and reality on human experience. Shakespeare uses theatrical conventions – plays within plays, spying, and soliloquies – to highlight the performative nature of his characters and the court. Haig employs a metaphysical conceit, the Midnight Library, to allow Nora to directly test the allure of idealized scenarios against their lived consequences. While Hamlet’s world is one of external deceit and political machinations, Nora’s is one of internalised regret and the illusion of perfect alternatives. In both narratives, the protagonists’ journeys are marked by the painful, yet necessary, process of peeling back layers of illusion to confront a more complex, often less comfortable, truth.