Act 2; Scene 1

A room in Polonius’s house.

Enter Polonius and Reynaldo.

POLONIUS.
Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo.

REYNALDO.
I will, my lord.

POLONIUS.
You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo,
Before you visit him, to make inquiry
Of his behaviour.

REYNALDO.
My lord, I did intend it.

POLONIUS.
Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir,
Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; Did Shakespeare choose Paris for Paris of Troy, as yet another instance of an unfaithful wife? As another reference to the Orestia? Most likely a reach.
And how, and who, what means, and where they keep,
What company, at what expense; and finding
By this encompassment and drift of question,
That they do know my son, come you more nearer
Than your particular demands will touch it.
Take you as ’twere some distant knowledge of him,
As thus, ‘I know his father and his friends,
And in part him’—do you mark this, Reynaldo? I do not trust Laertes. Clytemnestra cannot keep tabs on Orestes either, because he is in Phocis, and she couldn’t keep tabs on Agamemnon because he was in Troy. Orestes ended up plotting against her while Agamemnon was sleeping with any woman he could get.

REYNALDO.
Ay, very well, my lord.

POLONIUS.
‘And in part him, but,’ you may say, ‘not well;
But if’t be he I mean, he’s very wild;
Addicted so and so;’ and there put on him
What forgeries you please; marry, none so rank
As may dishonour him; take heed of that;
But, sir, such wanton, wild, and usual slips
As are companions noted and most known
To youth and liberty. Lie and cast some small aspersions on his character to get a better understanding of his behavior, and his friends will either confirm or deny that he behaves in such a manner.

REYNALDO.
As gaming, my lord?

POLONIUS.
Ay, or drinking, fencing, swearing,
Quarrelling, drabbing. You may go so far. Drabbing is another word for whoring, and yet he doesn’t seem to mind whoring out Ophelia to alleviate Hamlet’s melancholy and, as a result, give himself a chance at becoming a member of the royal family and becoming chief advisor to the crown.

REYNALDO.
My lord, that would dishonour him.

POLONIUS.
Faith no, as you may season it in the charge.
You must not put another scandal on him,
That he is open to incontinency;
That’s not my meaning: but breathe his faults so quaintly
That they may seem the taints of liberty;
The flash and outbreak of a fiery mind,
A savageness in unreclaimed blood, Is he sowing his wild oats?
Of general assault.

REYNALDO.
But my good lord—

POLONIUS.
Wherefore should you do this?

REYNALDO.
Ay, my lord, I would know that.

POLONIUS.
Marry, sir, here’s my drift,
And I believe it is a fetch of warrant.
You laying these slight sullies on my son,
As ’twere a thing a little soil’d i’ th’ working,
Mark you,
Your party in converse, him you would sound,
Having ever seen in the prenominate crimes
The youth you breathe of guilty, be assur’d
He closes with you in this consequence;
‘Good sir,’ or so; or ‘friend,’ or ‘gentleman’—
According to the phrase or the addition
Of man and country.

REYNALDO.
Very good, my lord.

POLONIUS.
And then, sir, does he this,—
He does—What was I about to say?
By the mass, I was about to say something. Where did I leave?

REYNALDO.
At ‘closes in the consequence.’
At ‘friend or so,’ and ‘gentleman.’

POLONIUS.
At ‘closes in the consequence’ ay, marry!
He closes with you thus: ‘I know the gentleman,
I saw him yesterday, or t’other day,
Or then, or then, with such and such; and, as you say,
There was he gaming, there o’ertook in’s rouse,
There falling out at tennis’: or perchance,
‘I saw him enter such a house of sale’—
Videlicet, a brothel, or so forth. See you now; Why is everyone concerned about who everyone else is sleeping with? I know this is set in medieval times, but why were they all such prudes? He’s a wealthy, privileged, unmarried young man, plus he’s a musician; he’s probably gonna sleep around. People haven’t changed that much; they haven’t changed at all.
Your bait of falsehood takes this carp of truth;
And thus do we of wisdom and of reach,
With windlasses, and with assays of bias,
By indirections find directions out.
So by my former lecture and advice
Shall you my son. You have me, have you not? Using subterfuge to find out the truth; the expectations that a father, but like Claudius, is truly incapable of making him do as he would like..

REYNALDO.
My lord, I have.

POLONIUS.
God b’ wi’ you, fare you well.

REYNALDO.
Good my lord.

POLONIUS.
Observe his inclination in yourself.

REYNALDO.
I shall, my lord.

POLONIUS.
And let him ply his music.

REYNALDO.
Well, my lord.

POLONIUS.
Farewell.

[Exit Reynaldo.]

Enter Ophelia.

How now, Ophelia, what’s the matter?

OPHELIA.
Alas, my lord, I have been so affrighted.

POLONIUS.
With what, in the name of God?

OPHELIA.
My lord, as I was sewing in my chamber,
Lord Hamlet, with his doublet all unbrac’d,
No hat upon his head, his stockings foul’d,
Ungart’red, and down-gyved to his ankle,
Pale as his shirt, his knees knocking each other,
And with a look so piteous in purport
As if he had been loosed out of hell like the Ghost has been loosed from hell. Hamlet has been turned into a demon by the ghost and set forth to commit dastardly deeds, which would make Hamlet an agent of Satan like Mephistopheles.
To speak of horrors, he comes before me. Why does he do this to her? Because he doesn’t have feelings for her, or does he want to test her feelings for him? Can he trust her to keep quiet about what he tells her? Does he choose her because he knows she will not keep his behavior to herself? But why wouldn’t she? Simply because she believes him, loves him, and wants him to get the help (mental) he needs…so she turns to the exact wrong person for advice on how to help Hamlet, or perhaps she is trying to get Polonius to change his mind and give her permission to speak to Hamlet again? Maybe she really loves him and is devastated when he treats her so badly. Maybe he views her like Eve in that she is an innocent and thus easily swayed by the serpent and dishonesty? Or does he see her as false, like his mother, and untrustworthy of his love?

POLONIUS.
Mad for thy love? Yeah, that’s the first thing I would think of too.

OPHELIA.
My lord, I do not know, but truly I do fear it.

POLONIUS.
What said he?

OPHELIA.
He took me by the wrist and held me hard;
Then goes he to the length of all his arm;
And with his other hand thus o’er his brow,
He falls to such perusal of my face Overacting: appearance vs. reality. Trying to decide if he should take her into his confidence and if he can trust her, perhaps? More likely, he is deciding if this is the course of action he truly wishes to pursue. Does he want to bring Ophelia into this mess? Again, why would he do that to her if he cares so much for her? Is it a punishment for her refusing his letters and seeing him? Again, perhaps he is merely testing her to see if she is as inconstant in her feelings as his mother, as all women are inconstant. Then again, maybe he knows her so well that he knows what she will do when he acts this way in front of her.
As he would draw it. Long stay’d he so,
At last,—a little shaking of mine arm,
And thrice his head thus waving up and down,
He rais’d a sigh so piteous and profound
As it did seem to shatter all his bulk, Pretending to have an orgasm, it might be appropriate with all this talk of lust? Ophelia is so innocent that she wouldn’t know what he was doing.
And end his being. That done, he lets me go,
And with his head over his shoulder turn’d
He seem’d to find his way without his eyes,
For out o’ doors he went without their help,
And to the last bended their light on me. Acting lovesick to trick her, as well as her father and ultimately Claudius, into believing he is mad? If he can fool Ophelia, who knows him well, can he then fool everyone else? A test of his own acting abilities?

POLONIUS.
Come, go with me. I will go seek the King.
This is the very ecstasy of love,
Whose violent property fordoes itself,
And leads the will to desperate undertakings,
As oft as any passion under heaven
That does afflict our natures. I am sorry,—
What, have you given him any hard words of late?

OPHELIA.
No, my good lord; but as you did command,
I did repel his letters and denied
His access to me.

POLONIUS.
That hath made him mad.
I am sorry that with better heed and judgement
I had not quoted him. I fear’d he did but trifle,
And meant to wreck thee. But beshrew my jealousy! He does wreck Ophelia…his actions ultimately kill her because she is destroyed mentally when he kills her father (Irony in that Hamlet is considered mad, but the one who turns out to be really mad is Ophelia). Polonius has no qualms whatsoever about throwing Ophelia at Hamlet to relieve his melancholy. In a way, he prostitutes her. If he can cure Hamlet of his melancholy, Polonius might gain a future king as a son-in-law, plus his stock will go up in Gertrude and Claudius’ eyes if he cures their son from what ails him.
It seems it is as proper to our age
To cast beyond ourselves in our opinions
As it is common for the younger sort
To lack discretion. Come, go we to the King. Prove my value; narcissism
This must be known, which, being kept close, might move
More grief to hide than hate to utter love.

[Exeunt.]

Ophelia is based on Cassandra…so is her purpose to be there simply to be used and discarded as Cassandra was by Ajax and Agamemnon? Even to an extent by Apollo. He had to know what would happen to her; he’s the God of Prophecy. He knew she would not become his lover just like he knew she would be raped by Ajax and then killed by Clytemnestra. So, if he loved her as he claimed, why did he allow those things to happen to her? The gods are fickle when they love. Or does she have a deeper purpose? As a catalyst for the showdown between Laertes and Hamlet, perhaps? Or is she a mirror of Gertrude? Both women are prostituted by Claudius…Gertrude literally while Ophelia is dangled in front of Hamlet to distract him from his purpose of killing Claudius. Both women unknowingly commit suicide. Both women love Hamlet. Gertrude, however, is harder than Ophelia, who is quite delicate; Gertrude doesn’t go to pieces when her first husband dies…she bounces back and quickly, unlike Ophelia, who is so devastated by the loss of her father that she lets herself drown, and welcomes death. Both are somewhat dumb about the things going on around them. Most women would have a slight suspicion of Claudius unless they were in on his plans to murder his brother. Ophelia, the dutiful daughter, should be slightly suspicious of her father suddenly wanting her to make herself available to Hamlet when he spent a lot of time earlier convincing her to save herself for marriage and guard her virginity. She never questions him though, just goes along with whatever he says. As does Gertrude (You’re a Queen, act like one).

Polonius is based on the Chorus, and the Chorus is a group of old men who are always sticking their noses into things that don’t concern them and giving unsolicited and often bad advice. His spying on Laertes and willingness to sell out Hamlet to Claudius are precursors to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Both Hamlet and Laertes are being spied on…character twins. He should be loyal to the crown, not to the King, and since Hamlet is the rightful king, he is a traitor to the crown since Claudius is an usurper.

The madness of Hamlet…the madness of Ophelia…are both symbols of raging hormones making young people insane. Is that why Polonius is so worried about what Laertes is doing in Paris? Is it normal hormones, or could it be how love makes you do crazy things, and thus a reflection of Claudius’ relationship with Gertrude? Wouldn’t it be madness to kill your own brother because you coveted his wife? But Claudius doesn’t just covet Gertrude, he wants the crown too and the power of a king, but is ill-equipped to be a king, as we see when he allows a horde of armed Vikings to march across Denmark, as well as his inability to rule…if he can’t rule a young, immature man like Hamlet how can he be expected to rule a country effectively?

Hamlet and Laertes are character twins. Both are not only being spied on, but both are considered by the older adults around them to not be mature enough to govern their own emotions. This is why Polonius is checking up on his son and why Claudius is named king and not Hamlet.