In a time when truth has never been harder to find, the lesson that not all facts are created equal is undeniable. In a collection of Northrop Frye's lectures; The Educated Imagination raises questions about the continuity of thought: "Looking in the mirror is the active mind struggling for coherence and continuity of perspective" (Frye). Frye states that the reflective mind seeks consistency among its beliefs and would rather become ignorant than become inconsistent. However, this is not a flaw of modern times and has existed in human nature since people's first ability to 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, his ego and his emotions. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Without awareness of the innate fallacy of the thought process, people will act on ephemeral impulses, continue to ignore the lies they tell themselves, and be unable to develop character. When individuals experience 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 does this to protect the thought continuity of consciousness so that other principles that are based on these beliefs can remain true, so as not to cause a psychological crisis. In Hamlet, Gertrude shows this coping method very clearly: "This is the very coinage of thy brain. /This enraptured disembodied creation /is very cunning" (3.4.139-141). Gertrude refutes the authenticity of the misdeeds committed by Hamlet, in particular the murder of Polonius, and his fury against her in the fourth act, attributing them to his madness. Gertrude, wanting to believe that Hamlet is a kind-hearted son, protects her pristine mental image of him by blaming his murderous fervor on a madness beyond his control. Gertrude would rather sacrifice the truth than sacrifice her optimistic view of the world. Seeing unfiltered reality is dangerous as an extract. from the shows How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C Foster; “She deals with it. Bring the food, the scraps of the feast, to the grieving widow, face the horrible reality of humanity” (Foster 179). The featured story, The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield, ends with Laura facing the sad reality of her wealthy family's indifference and contempt for the suffering of her grieving lower-class neighbors. Laura does not excuse the troubling events and subsequently has a nervous breakdown as the ignorant falsehoods she believed are replaced with sobering truths. The relationship between mental state and perceived events however is not unidirectional, the effects of an emotional disorder can influence the way the world is seen, before the conscious rationalization of such events in the mind. The state of mind could be compared to the lens through which the world is seen through, as dirty, clouded, distorted or clear as the mind of the beholder. Hamlet with contaminated feelings, has a blurred vision, disenchanted with life; “What work is a man, how noble in reason, how / infinite in faculties, how expressed / and admirable in form and movement… and yet to me, what is this / quintessence of dust?” (2.2.299-304). Hamlet is so deeply affected by his feelings of abandonment by his mother and shocked by the court in Denmark that his worldview changes to reflect the?