Allison Hartsell
DRJ #2: Hamlet, Act II
Initial reaction: I don't feel that I
know enough about the characters at this point to be able to
compare them to anyone I know. I am beginning to think I am deeply
uncreative, but there's nothing here that reminds me of my life or
any movies apart from other
Shakespearean works. So I'll go ahead and compare one work of
Shakespeare to others. In this act, everyone seems to want to use
some sort of trickery to find out the “truth” about another
character. Trickery is very common for old William S. Shylock is
tricked in the Merchant of Venice by Portia, who is dressed as a man;
Juliet tries to trick the people of Verona into believing she is dead
in order to have the opportunity to run away with Romeo.
Character
anaylysis: I am going to focus on Polonius. He seems to be a caring
father, certainly interested in the welfare of his children. His love
is demonstrated in some odd ways, though, as he sends Reynaldo to spy
on his son Laertes in Paris, and first forbids Ophelia from
interacting with Hamlet further, then
intends to use her to determine if she's the source of Hamlet's
insanity. He also seems kind of obnoxious, rambling on to the queen
instead of getting to the point. I think he is a supporting
character, whose motives and interactions with Hamlet serve to show
us something about Hamlet, rather than Polonius. Hamlet's extreme
seriousness contrasts with the goofiness of Polonius, and Hamlet
seems to be mocking Polonius throughout their interactions. For
example, at 2.2.175-210, Hamlet and Polonius engage in a dialogue in
which Polonius seems utterly confused by everything Hamlet says. Then
later, at 2.2.354-380, Hamlet outright insults Polonius. Polonius
tells Hamlet that the actors have arrived, and Hamlet responds with
“Buz, buz,” accusing Polonius of being boring.
Theme analysis:
Several characters in this act plan to use some form of trickery to
find out the truth. Polonius intends to use Ophelia to see if Hamlet
is really in love with her, without Hamlet knowing that Polonius will
be spying; Queen Gertrude and King Claudius use Rosencrantz and
Guildenstern to find out what is wrong Hamlet; and Hamlet intends to
use the traveling actors and their play to determine if Claudius
really killed Hamlet's father. In short, I think one theme of this
act is our inherent desire to understand the truth in our reality,
even if we have to deceive in order to do so. Shakespeare uses
repetition of this theme—desire for truth—using many different
characters, to reinforce this idea.
Hahaha, you deeply uncreative? Yeah right. Personally, I am glad I don't know anyone who reminds me of a character from Hamlet, just saying. I agree, Polonius does express his love in an odd, overbearing kind of way. I like how Hamlet does mock Polonius, it's so funny. In regards to you theme, YES, just yes, Literally element? Check- repetition. Subject? Truth- check. Theme- we will deceive as long as it helps us achieve truth. Excellent job Allison. :)
ReplyDeleteFor me it seemed kinda mean of what Polonius does to his daughter, to me it seemed as though he used Ophilia as a tool to prove his theory about Hamlet. I mean if you knew someone was crazy and your child was the root cause of it would you put your child alone with that crazy person to prove you were right about something? But i do agree Polonius is annoying sometimes but he does bring some comical lines into the play maybe to contrast the whole depressing mood all the other characters give off.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand Polonius. On one hand I believe he cares for his children but on the other hand he is sneaky and doesn't trust his children because he does not know how. Like how he sends Reynaldo to spy on Laertes and uses Ophelia to spy on Hamlet but also he wants her to stay away from him because he thinks their fling is poison so to speak. Your theme was very insightful too.
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