<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Prompt: Folk wisdom says that honesty is always the best policy. American author Jessamyn West agrees: “I have done more harm by the falseness of trying to please than by the honesty of trying to hurt.” Yet some people believe that the truth, if it is not cushioned by tact, can hurt. In fact, the Roman writer Ausonius wrote, “Veritas odium parit,” or “Truth produces hatred.”</p>
<p>Assignment: What is your opinion of the claim that sometimes honesty is not the best policy? In an essay, support your position by discussing an example (or examples) from literature, the arts, science and technology, history, current events, or your own experience or observation.</p>
<p>Honesty provides the best solution to problems. Although in real life, we are tempted to deceive others for the benefit of ourselves or tell white-lies to please others, it is fallacious to assume that such dishonesty causes no harm. Lamentably, lying can usually lead to negative ramifications that neither the lier nor the one being deceived has been expecting, whereas honesty can promote understanding and harmony. Both Hamlet’s changing relationship with his old friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the play “Hamlet” as well as the mathematical notebook Catherine gives to Hal in the play “Proof” serve to epitomize the claim that honesty is the best policy.
The theme that dishonesty causes more harm than good is illustrated in one of Shakespeare’s signature plays, “Hamlet”. When the queen, Gertrude, asks Guildenstern and Rosencranz to meet Hamlet and find out the reason for his madness, both Guildenstern and Rosencrantz accept the request, thinking they can make a better impression on the king and queen and help Hamlet to feel better. However, when Hamlet meets them, they refuse to speak honestly at first, saying that they have simply come for friend visit. However, despite their effort to deceive Hamlet, Hamlet already know the true intentions of his friends and stopped trusting them at all, even though they are forced to tell that they are sent for in the end. The deception causes a breakdown of the friendship among the three young men, and finally leads to the deaths of Rosencranz and Guildenstern themselves. Therefore, deception, apart from causing harm to the one being deceived, also has a detrimental effect on the liar.
On the other hand, telling the truth, even those such truth may at first be hard to accept, is the best policy. In the play “Proof” by David Auburn, the protagonist, Catherine tells her best friend Hal that she has written the proof for a mathematical problem that have intrigued mathematicians for centuries. Although to Hal, such a claim is far from being credible and he refuses to believe it at first, and causes a lot of misunderstanding between the two, when Catherine was about to leave Chicago, the conflict is finally resolved at the end of the play as Catherine describes how she has arrived at a proof or the mathematical problem, gaining the trust of Hal at last. Thus, although honesty may cause misunderstandings temporarily, they can be resolved in the end, fostering a even better relationship between people.
Although we tend to deceive in order to escape immediate misunderstandings and possible punishments, it is always wiser to be honest because deception usually brings more catastrophic consequences eventually.</p>