I felt that we got a good idea of who Polonius was during this act. During the first scene Polonius is telling his servant to spy on his son, Laertes. It appears that Polonius is trying to be nosy with his son, maybe a little too overprotective. But I personally think that he is simply being a concerned parent. He wants to make sure that his son is staying out of trouble and being safe. Later on in the act Polonius apologizes to his daughter, Ophelia for instructing her too stop flirting with Hamlet. He realizes that he made a mistake by telling her this, and he thinks that this is the cause of Hamlet's sudden madness. I do not believe that this is what caused Hamlet to go mad, but I believe it's what pushed him over the edge. Hamlet was already upset about the death of his father, the marriage of his mom and uncle, and by adding in his sudden romantic problems the depression and anger just took him over. Polonius does not know about these other problems though and is determined to fix Hamlet's craziness based solely on his romantic troubles.
Madness seems to be a reoccurring theme in this act. Hamlet is most certainly going a little crazy with all of the troubles he has recently ran into and people are starting to notice. Gertrude and Claudius are concerned about what is happening to Hamlet and decide to bring in his close friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. They want to use his friends to try and flush out the meaning behind Hamlet's strange behavior. Hamlet is able to pick up on this plan though fairly easily and does not reveal much to them. Polonius also attempts to figure out what is wrong with Hamlet, but he fails completely and Hamlet ends up making a fool of him. We, as readers, know that something is wrong with him though. This becomes apparent when Hamlet tells the actors to perform part of a play, pushing one actor so far that he starts to become very emotional and cry. I found the actors to be very ironic. Instead of bringing joy and happiness to Hamlet, which was why they were there in the first place, the actors only further Hamlet's madness. Hamlet even decides to use them as a way of figuring out of Claudius truly murdered his father or not.
I find it interesting that you see Polonius as a concerned parent. I hadn’t thought of it that way although it makes sense and now I see it. I was focused on the fact that he was being so deceitful in his ways of doing things. He wanted information about his son but was willing to have Reynoldo tell lies about him to get the information. He’s definitely a concerned parent as you suggest but I do think he is misguided in his tactics. I think this is true with Ophelia also. He assumed Hamlet did not truly love Ophelia and instructs her to stop seeing him. I believe Polonius should have waited to find out what Hamlet’s true intentions by watching the situation and talking to Hamlet, instead of making this assumption based on Hamlet’s age, status, and gender.
ReplyDeleteI agree as well that the theme held within this Act was madness. There were many obvious depictions of Hamlet’s madness, and the madness shown by everyone else as they scurry around spying and scheming. Although, I don’t entirely feel that Hamlet is really mad, I think that this is a scheme of his to waist time, playing everyone around him, as he tries to make-up his mind as to what he is going to do with his uncle. At the same time everyone else is acting crazy trying to identify Hamlets problem.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that Polonius was very much involved throughout this Act, although I didn’t find him as being a concerned parent at first, I can see where you are coming from. Polonius does express his concerns for the wellbeing of both of his children. But like many parents, Polonius is a bit of a busy body, trying to be involved in everyone else’s concerns. This in the end comes back to bite him as it leads him to his death.
I think that while Hamlet is upset about the current disastrous events he has had to endure, he is pretending to be mad. He warned Horatio at the end of Act 1 that he would be strange during the time to come. I think he is acting the way he has because he doesn't want people to know what he is really up to- revenge. This way, if he is doing something out of the ordinary to complete his plan, people will simply disregard it as his usual madness. It's hard to say the nature of Ophelia and Hamlet's relationship. We haven't witnessed their interactions yet, it has just been hearsay. However, I don't think Hamlet is really in love with her at all. I think he has a fleeting interest in her, but not love. She seems too simple of a person for Hamlet to truly love.
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