The Deceptive Character of Polonius in William Shakespeare's Hamlet "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive!". This quote by Sir Walter Scott has been heard around the world, translated into many languages, and repeated to us by parents, teachers, and our peers. What does it truly mean? Humans create major and possibly chaotic problems when trying to beguile others. This quote not only applies to one person affecting another, but also how the actions of one person trying to deceive many people through double-talk or hypocrisy lead to complex and sometimes unresolveable events. The character Polonius in Shakespeare’s Hamlet fits the description of one who tries to deceive others by wearing different “masks”, double-talking, and practicing hypocrisy to gain the approval of others.. It is safe to assume that since he is the King’s advisor, Polonius must act as a public person to protect the King’s best interest. Therefore; on a basic literal level, it is justifiable for Polonius to want to spy on everyone to protect the King. However; if his actions and speeches are examined closer, it is evident that he is a limited and vain person who is overly concerned with his appearance and wears different masks to tune up to different people. His first mask is the one he puts on for Laertes and Ophelia before sending Laertes off to England. He wants Laertes and Ophelia to think of him as a wise, moral, and respectable father as shown in the following lines: “Give thy thoughts no tongue, nor be unproportioned thought his act.... Those friends thou hast, and adoption tried, grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.....Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. Take every man... ... middle of paper ... ...ation to the main themes of the play and helps us gain insight on other characters. I find the following quote to be one of Polonius’ most ironic lines: "Madam, I swear I use no art at all," (II. ii 104). Readers should laugh to the absurdity of this statement. Polonius used a very wicked art; deceit, to gain knowledge that was none of his business. Polonius was a conniving, pompous hypocrite whose “end was justified by his means.” He was literally stabbed in the back without his identity being known to the murderer, just like he symbolically stabbed Hamlet in the back with his reports and comments to the King questioning Hamlet’s sanity. The artificiality of Polonius suggests the kind of world in which Hamlet and the other characters live in after his death, as well as a world in which we live today: full of deceit, hypocrisy, pretense and masks.
Hamlet – the Wise Polonius The older gent in Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, namely Polonius, is no type character. Rather he is quite rounded and complex. This essay will explore his character.
Polonius is interesting because he was a cunning old intriguer who, like an iceberg, only showed one-eighth of himself above the surface. The innocuous sort of worldly wisdom that rolled off his tongue in butter balls was a very small part of what he knew. It has been insufficiently noted that Shakespeare would never have held up the action in order that Polonius should give his son advice as to how to conduct himself abroad, unless the scene helped him to develop his theme. But “This above all – to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man” (I.3.78), has considerable . . . value when it is spoken by an old gentleman who is presently going to instruct a servant to spy on his son, and to profess great anxiety about his daughter’s morals, when plainly he needed to send her away into the country if he really wanted her to retain any [. . .].(108)
In Hamlet, The new king Claudius is able to gain respect from the kingdom. He even steals the love of Hamlet’s mother Gertrude. The old king’s councilor, Polonius, becomes Claudius’s councilor and his best friend. He helps Claudius keep an eye on Hamlet and tries to keep him from finding out anything about his father’s death. Polonius believes that if he helps Claudius that he can make life better for himself and for his daughter and son. But in the end, his actions get him slayed, drive his daughter to insanity, and eventually set...
This idea reveals the character of Polonius since he will go through corrupt ways to receive what he wants. Yet it's ironic how Polonius intends to use lying as a way of bring forth truth. The mentioning of “by indirections find directions out” is again the reference to use lies to uncover truths. Hamlet’s conversation between Polonius reveals his enmity towards this character. The scene begins by Polonius accompanying Hamlet after devising a plan with the king to figure out why he has gone insane. However, what Polonius, and majority of the characters in the play, do not realize is Hamlet’s pretending. This was established when Hamlet claims, “I hereafter shall put an antic disposition” (I.v.191-192). As the scene proceeds Polonius asks, “Do you know me, my lord?” (II.ii.189-190) which Hamlet replies, “You are a fishmonger”. In other words, Hamlet is degrading Polonius. The term fishmonger has two
Foils are the minor characters in a play that aid in developing the more important characters. By using the similarities and differences between two characters, the audience can get a better understanding of that major character. In Hamlet, Shakespeare uses many foils to develop the major characters of his play. Two foils that Shakespeare used to develop Hamlet's character were Laertes and Polonius.
Hamlet is a play by William Shakespeare about a prince named Hamlet who was spoken to by the ghost of his dead father telling Hamlet to kill his uncle Claudius (the new king) because Claudius killed him. The story revolves around Hamlet's dillema of how to kill his uncle while being deceptive enough so that no one finds out about the ghost. This essay will prove how deception is often used in Hamlet for many reasons. Claudius uses deception to protect himself from being prosecuted for his crime of killing the King. No one knows what the deal is with Gertrude because she deceives everybody by keeping to herself all the time keeping everyone from knowing anything. By using quotes from the book I will prove how these two (Claudius and Gertrude) and among a few others , use deception for different reasons and in different ways. A lot of the times it is to protect someone, or themselvs because they believe that the truth will hurt more than their lies.
In William Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet, Polonius, Laertes and Ophelia’s father, gives a long lesson and advice when Laertes going to aboard to Paris. During the lesson, Polonius tells Laertes to “ Give thy thoughts no tongue,/Nor any unproportioned thought his act.” (Shakespeare I.iii.60-61). From these line, audience can understand that Polonius is a careful thought person. He did not allow his son to express his opinion and even you consider something in you brain, just don’t act it out. He’s advice seems restricting the action of his son. I believe the reason he really care about how he’s son act outside of his control is important because he afraid the inappropriate action and saying might affect the family’s honor. This information gives
The way that Polonius acts as a good father towards Ophelia is mostly how he doesn’t want her to get hurt by Hamlet. Ophelia tells Polonius all about what Hamlet has said and given her. She tells her father that Hamlet gives her presents and tells her nice things out of affection.
Initially, there is an instance in the play where Polonius gives advice to his son Laertes. As Laertes boards the ship to go to France for school, Polonius to says to him, “Give every man thy ear but few thy voice”. (I.iii.68). He then further expands his advice with the following quote:
Following the performance of “The Mousetrap”, Hamlet is summoned to his mother's chamber. Upon arguing with Gertrude over the intentions of his play, and his reasons for wanting to distress the king so openly, Hamlet kills Polonius. “How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead (III.iv.27-28)! Perhaps Hamlet did not know whom he was killing. “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, farewell! / I took thee for thy better”(III.iv.38-39)! Perhaps Hamlet thought he was killing the king.
He could be classified as a bumbling fool because the long-winded speeches he gives shows that the love of his own voices leads to his constant chattering. He is described by Hamlet as acting like a “foolish prating knave” (III, iv, 221) but I believe he is this way to help secure his social position and keep his popularity safe. It is his way of covering up his ploy to gain social advancement. After Polonius hears of Hamlet’s mental state from Ophelia, he automatically concludes that his cause of madness must be his love for Ophelia. This is indeed foolish because he should have reasoned more thoroughly and been able to come up with different options as to the reasons for Hamlet’. Clearly, Hamlet had far better reasons to be in this mental state like his father’s premature murder and his mother’s disloyal incestuous marriage to his uncle. Polonius also demonstrates dedication and loyalty to the king by coming to him with the predicament of Hamlet’s insanity. He tells Queen Gertrude and King Claudius, “I will be brief: your noble son is mad. Mad call I it, for, to define true madness, what is ’t but to be nothing else but mad” (II, ii, 94-96)? Polonius also asks Claudius what his opinion of him is and the king answers, “As of a man faithful and honorable” (II, ii,
The word manipulation is most commonly defined as exerting shrewd or devious influence especially for one’s own advantage. The most common manipulation used to influence human behaviour is known as psychological manipulation. Psychological manipulation is a type of social influence that aims to change the perception or behaviour of others through underhanded deception. In the tragic play, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, the author demonstrates the use of manipulation through the two main characters Prince Hamlet and King Claudius. The character fulfill their needs through dishonesty and learn that the effects of manipulating other has serious consequences that is able to manifest into a powerful force that consumes all aspects of one’s self. Just like how Hamlet uses his actions to manipulate the people around him to avenge his father’s death and how Claudius uses his words, actions, as well as his power as king of Denmark to manipulate people into fulfilling his needs. Through these characters the readers learn that by putting up a false mask of deception one loses their self as the lies take over.
Polonius is over-eager and tries to give unwanted advice, during the play he is tactless and often rude. For instance, Polonius is a comic relief during his conversation with Gertrude and Claudius regarding Hamlet’s madness. Polonius rambling through his conversation contrasts with Gertrude’s seriousness of wanting to find out the reason to Hamlet’s madness. As Polonius begins to deliver to the king and queen the results of his investigation, he makes this statement, “My liege, and madam, to expostulate/ What majesty should be, what duty is,/ What day is day, night is night, and time is time,/ Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time;/ Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,/ And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,/ I will be brief. Your noble son is mad. . . .”(IIii,86-92) . Polonius’ speech is windy and nonsensical he wastes ti...
Claudius, the shrewd politician is the most obvious example of a man who manipulates words to enhance his own power, possessing a professional grasp of the language. Using this he can oppress people and assert his authority, as we see him doing when delivering a polished speech to the council. He cleverly justifies the ill-viewed situation of his marriage to Gertrude, reminding them that their `better wisdoms' have `freely gone with this affair all along'. In this way he can brush past this sensitive matter, expect no interludes and proceed to other issues. It is interesting to note the changes and flexibility of his language. Addressing the crowd he initially adopts a personal tone on the matter of the past kings death, with creative oxymoron's like `wisest sorrow' and `defeated joy', knowing he speaks of a matter dear to all of them. He pays his own respect, in public, to the sensitive subject that should force the whole kingdom to `be contracted in one brow of woe'. Yet, once he has drawn the crowd to him, sympathised with them and become `one' of them in mourning, he then quickly proceeds to other matters in a far more formal tone. His clever use of language is once again shown, in his interrogation of Polonius's son. Laertes reveals that his `thoughts and wishes bend again toward France' and asks the Kings leave. Claudius does grant him the leave, but ...
4 In most aspects the king and Polonius are very much alike. Both did sneaky things, [examples?] which was dishonorable. Polonius died hastily for his dishonorableness unlike the king though. Polonius was eves dropping on Hamlet and his mother one day when they were having a conversation. Well, ["Well" is not appropriate in a formal paper.] Polonius made a noise or something and Hamlet put his sword through this bush ["bush"?] that was in between them and slew Polonius when actually Hamlet thought that he was killing the king.