- Stash someone.
In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the nosy but basically OK guy Polonius hides behind a tapestry to eavesdrop; when
he makes a sound, Hamlet stabs the tapestry wildly, believing he is stabbing his enemy Claudius. The terrible mistake is one of the great heart-clutching moments
in literature.
In the still-popular children’s classic Harriet the Spy, young Harriet discovers how useful simply hiding is: You can watch and listen, undetected. You must wait. Suspense is inherent in such a situation: What if you sneeze? What if a dog comes along and detects the candy bar in your pocket?
Hiding can, like many of the examples in this article, be used figuratively. A character can hide behind a stolen identity, a lie or even the fog of war.
