DRJ #1: Hamlet, Act II
My initial reaction is that Polonius is not a very bright
counsel but uses his position to his advantage.
I always wonder how people get to the top, but do not seem to have what
it takes mentally to be at the position.
It is usually they know someone, and have some sort of charismatic personality
or arrogance to them. I have known a few
people like this in my previous career, and I usually try to stay out of their
way and just watch from afar.
Polonius probably gained his position either by default or
through his conniving ways. He has
Reynaldo spy and spread lies on his own son and why, is he afraid of losing his
position to his younger generation? He
also uses his own daughter to find a resolution for the King and Queen to prove
himself worthy of his position. Therefore,
I think Polonius is a character foil to Hamlet as Hamlet seeks the truth if his
uncle really killed his father, and seems to be worthy of the throne. On the other hand, Polonius goes further from
the truth to distract Hamlet using his daughter. However, there are some similarities as they
both use their position to use other people such as Hamlet using the play to
find out the truth and Polonius using Reynaldo to spread lies about his son
with both using indirect methods to find what they need to.
In this Act, Shakespeare uses irony to feed Polonius and
Hamlet’s ambitions gains. It is ironic
that both men have some position of power but yet that power can be misleading
as they are aware that people can lie to them for their ambitious gain. As an example, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are childhood friends of Hamlet but due to their higher allegiance or ambition
to the new King they allow the King to use their friendship to find out what’s
going on with Hamlet. This is
illustrated in line 230 when Hamlet saw through them, asked how they are doing
and told his friends “Let me question more in particular: what have you, my
good friends, deserved at the hands of Fortune…” Hamlet knows his friends were sent for a
purpose and wanted to find out why. It
is also ironic that Hamlet, being a prince, finds it even harder to express his
emotions than that of the players. The
players, who is of lower class, is able to say what he wants to say with
feelings, but he a prince can’t even use his power to find out the truth as
stated on line 500. Out of his own self
pity came a revelation for his ambition which is to use the play when Hamlet says
“the play’s the thing wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King.”
Wow! I didn't see it that way. Polonius was really close to the royal family and they trusted him. I never knew how he got there and he had so much lead way to getting to spy on his son and on Hamlet. Thanks this helped me to see more about this character.
ReplyDeleteIt is odd that Polonius is portrayed as a floundering idoit but also a conniving genius. Clearly, he knows how to manipulate, as any good politician does, which would explain how he got where he is today.
ReplyDeleteI can agree with Polonius's use of Ophelia to distract Hamlet. I was like, no wonder Hamlet hates him so much! i think the whole family has something against Hamlet because of his royalty. Ophelia's brother tells her to stray away from Hamlet and Polonius keeps stalking Hamlet. Maybe they all like Ophelia.
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