Why Does Polonius's Use Of Honesty In Hamlet

Shakespeare’s Hamlet is a play about deceit and honesty, because throughout the play, many characters use deceitful methods to uncover or hide truths about themselves or others to the point where the truth disappears in the lies.

Polonius, a character in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, intentionally deceives others in his quest for power, and as the chief counselor to the new king, he already has some power, yet he must remain in good favor with the royal couple in order to cement his position in court. One way he does this is by investigating the source of Prince Hamlet’s madness through the act of “[loosing his] daughter to him. / Be [the king] and [Polonius] behind an arras then” (II,ii,175-76). Promising “If he love her not… Let me be no assistant for a state, / But keep a farm and carters,” Polonius effectively proves his everlasting loyalty to the king (II,ii,177-180). He exploits his daughter, Ophelia, as

bait for Hamlet, setting her out with a devotional book; it appears as if Ophelia is seeking religious comfort after Hamlet’s antic encounter. Polonius uses his own daughter as a puppet, with disregard to her wellbeing, all to secure his position as the king’s advisor. As the keeper of the information on Hamlet, Polonius is able to use that to his advantage- as leverage for power and as a show of loyalty to the king. Like several other characters in the play, Polonius hides behind a mask of dishonesty in order to gain his desire, which in this case, is power. He contributes to the lack of honesty and the profusion of deceit in the castle of Elsinore.
In another act of deceit, Polonius spies on Hamlet a second time, and this time, he pays for it dearly. Polonius respectfully suggests to the king that Hamlet might reveal his madness to his mother, and so “behind the arras [he’ll] convey [him]self / To hear the process” (III,iii,30-31). Polonius again sets a trap for the young prince, in an effort to prove his worth to the king a final time, as the king wants to simply ship his new son off to England. The chief advisor must find a way to prove Hamlet is mad, or else risk seeming disloyal and incompetent. However, Hamlet stabs and murders Polonius, believing he is the king, whom he is trying to kill, after Polonius cries out, thinking the Queen has been hurt. Again, Polonius is trapped in a constant cycle of deceitful actions meant to discover a truth, representing the themes of the play, as he desperately tries to prove Hamlet is mad with unrequited love.
Polonius suffers from a lack of trust in others, which also leads him to act dishonestly.

In one instance, he tells his son, Laertes, “to thine own self be true” as he sends him off to college in Paris, France (I,iii,82). Later on, however, he uses deceptive means to detect any foul actions his son may be committing while he is off on his own in Paris. He sends Reynaldo, a servant, to exert a “bait of falsehood [which] takes this carp of truth… By indirections find directions out” (II,i,70-73). Even though Polonius gave his son an abundance of fatherly advice, he later sends a servant to spread rumors about Laertes in an attempt to evaluate his son’s life and keep him from starting another scandal, which would sully Polonius’s good name. Polonius hides behind a figurative mask of trust and guidance, while at the same time, he keeps his son under surveillance to protect his own, selfish interests. Polonius’s mask of truth symbolizes the themes of honesty and deceit in the play, because he uses deceit concealed as honesty to uncover the truth concerning

Laertes.
Instead of being outright and honest, Polonius searches for the truth in secretive and underhanded ways, in an effort to keep his power and good reputation, and because of his distrust of others. As a result, he loses his life like so many of the other characters who do the same.