How To Kill Polonius

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By the time Hamlet kills Polonius, he is nearly unrecognizable from his former self. This frenzied, indifferent deed both demonstrates the aftermath of a reaction and elicits one. Angered and frustrated that his mother has entered into a relationship with the killer of her beloved husband, convinced of the weakness of woman (regarding not just Gertrude, but Ophelia), he confronts Gertrude in her quarters with will his now-verified knowledge, determined to “let not the royal bed of Denmark be a couch for luxury and damned incest” (1.5.807-808) and follow his father’s instructions. Barely a few minutes after entering; however, he has just begun to reprimand her when she mistakes his intentions as murderous and cries out for help. Polonius, eavesdropping …show more content…

Before, he procrastinated, even realizing and berating himself for his inaction (perhaps to make up for this former delay); he lashes out on a slight chance, so willing is he to murder his uncle. In fact, when the horrified Gertrude asks what he has done, he replies offhandedly, “Nay, I know not. Is it the King?” (3.4.2468). Having done this, he proceeds to pull Polonius’s body from behind the arras, untroubled, instead chastising a corpse and saying his death was his own fault. As explained by Philip Edwards, a Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute in Shakespeare Survey 36 of Tragic Balance in Hamlet, “by killing Polonius Hamlet unwittingly takes his own life.” Polonius is his first true kill, an act which brings rise to a new level of violence and vengeance and culminates in the bloody end. This is a turning point in character development, his first step on the path of becoming a cold-blooded killer. He later shows some regret: “I do repent: but heaven hath pleased it so to punish me with this and this with me” (3.4.2630-2631) but having introduced himself to murder, it is a necessary step in ensuring his uncle meets the same

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