AO2: Act 2 Flashcards
‘Though this be madness, yet…
there is/ method in’t’
Polonius to Hamlet in an aside 2:2
Polonius rightly guesses that Hamlet’s seeming madness is carefully crafted for purpose. There is a suspicion that Hamlet is not truly mad. The alliterative phrase makes this memorable because we are seeking logic in the illogical.
‘…with his doublet all _____’
‘As if he had been…’
‘…with his doublet all unbraced.’
‘As if he had been loosed out of hell to speak of horrors’
Ophelia to Polonius.
2:1
This is evidence from Hamlet’s ‘antic disposition’ as Hamlet has pretended to be mad like a distracted lover. Playwrights commonly use disheveled clothes as a visual sign that a character has gone mad.
Ophelia is fearful of Hamlet’s strange behavior. This is the first sign that Hamlet has started to feign an ‘antic disposition’. This quote suggests that Hamlet goes to Ophelia straight after his encounter with the ghost. Ophelia’s apparent rejection of Hamlet could confirm her obedience, but the closet scene is offstage so not sure if her chastity is still intact. Also because it is off stage we don’t know if Hamlet really is real or faking it.
AO2: Dramatic Irony as the audience knows the potential reason for Hamlet’s madness. P+O don’t know about the Ghost. Shakespeare creates ambiguity about Hamlet’s behaviour in this scene.
AO3: In Elizabethan times, those suffering from melancholy or madness were said to suffer from visions of supernatural “horrors” such as devils and goblins.
‘Your bait of falsehood…
takes this carp of truth’
Polonius 2:1 while lecturing Reynaldo on how to spy on Laertes
Metaphorically like baiting fish
AO3: corruption in court - Elizabethan’s court chief spy master Sir Francis Walsingham. Spying & corruption is replicated in Elsinore.
AO4: Spying + dishonesty is a crime itself
‘By indirections…
find directions out’
Polonius 2:1 while lecturing Reynaldo on how to spy on Laertes
Sums up the entire act: Polonius’ use of Reynaldo, Hamlets use of the players, Claudius’ and Gertrude’s use of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Corruption
‘Whether aught to us unknown…
afflicts him’
Claudius to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern 2:1 - mirrors what Polonius is doing.
AO4: Implies suspicion
‘I am but mad north-north-west. When the wind…
is southerly, I know a hawk from a handsaw.’ Hamlet to Guildernstern and Rosencrantz 2:2
Hamlet, like Claudius, is using Guildenstern and Rosencrantz in a game of bluff. This quote suggests that Hamlet is not mad at all times, although the alliterative phrasing makes it seem as if he is mad. Hamlet speaks about the supposed impact of the weather on madness. He knows that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be reporting back so anything confusing for them is good for him. Hamlet does not show his friends his direct confidence.
‘I know a hawk from a handsaw’ - metaphorically can percieve obvious differnces/make subtle discriminations
AO4: Hamlet is suspicious.
‘brevity is the…
soul of wit’ Polonius 2:2
Ironic as Polonius takes ages to say what he needs to say. The queen responds to him mockingly with ‘More matter, less art’.
Shakespeare developing Polonius into a character with comic potential.
‘To be honest, as this world goes, is to be…
one man picked out of ten thousand’ Hamlet 2:2
Hyperbole - Hamlet challenges Polonius’ honesty and comments of rarity of honesty, but also represents the integrity and value that is held in honesty
AO3: Wider comment by Shakespeare - The Elizabethan Era was filled with crime and corruption throughout the entire Era. Political corruption was a large issue during this time due to the way that the government and court system was run. These systems were largely favored towards rich people. Anybody with enough money could bribe a judge to do anything they wanted. Still relevent now.
‘Denmark’s a _____’
‘Denmark’s a prison’ Hamlet to Guildenstern and Rosencrantz 2:2
AO2: usesa metaphorto illustrate feelings of confinement and despair. This figurative language highlights themes of isolation and oppression in his environment. Through this metaphor, Hamlet expresses his struggle within a corrupt and controlling society, serving as a metaphorical expression of his current mental state and the oppressive environment surrounding him.
AO3: Elizabethan belief - in the microcosm of the body, was figured the macrocosm of the kingdom and the universe itslef. Hamlet’s mental state is a reflection of the corruption in the kingdom/great order
‘There is nothing either good or bad, but…’
thinking makes it so.’ Hamlet to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern about Denmark being a prison 2:2
Conveys the idea that people have different values and opinions, and that what one person considers good, another might consider bad.It also suggests that the interpretation of an event determines whether it was positive or negative.
Reflective and comments on psychological states .
AO5: comment on psychological states, which is relevent today. Much research that shows that most people (at least in Western countries) become depressed because of negative judgments and responses to daily life events. Resonates with an ancient concepts from the vedas.
‘What a piece of work is a man…
the beauty of the world; the paragon of animals; and yet, to me, What is this quintessence of dust?’ Hamlet 2:2
Hamlet lists the glories of humanity (‘reason’, ‘faculties’, ‘form’ and ‘action’) as being above all other life-forms in the natural world (‘the paragon of animals’), before reducing all of these attributes to mere ‘dust’. The imagery shows the unhealthy preoccupation with corruption, decay and death, revealing Hamlet’s feelings of gloom and despair.
In this monologue, Hamlet switches to prose reflecting his heightened emotional state/mental instability and Shakespeare uses the phrase as part of a rhetorical exercise to build up an idealized picture of humanity and the earth, before ultimately rejecting it as “quintessence of dust”.Hamlet describes humans in many positive ways, including having noble reason, infinite faculties, and godlike understanding.However, he ultimately concludes that humankind is merely dust, which is a reflection of his obsession with death. This motif of death and physicality is a recurring theme in the play, and reaches its peak in Hamlet’s speech over Yorick’s skull.Hamlet makes humankind more impressive in apprehension (understanding) than in action.
‘as a , _______ _____Pyrrhus stood, And like a neutral to his will and matter, did _______.’ (pause)
‘as a painted tyrant, Pyrrhus stood, And like a neutral to his will and matter, did nothing.’ (pause) Player I (2:2)
Hamlet recalls the story of Priam and Pyrrhus(Greek mythology) and asks the player to present a speech about it because Hamlet believes that it closely resembles his visualization of future events in his own situation, that of Pyrrhus (representing Hamlet himself) killing King Priam (representing his uncle, Claudius) in revenge for the murder of his father.
Player 1 compares Pyrrhus to ‘a painted tyrant’ metaphorically frozen and unmoved which reflects Hamlet’s current state - he is caught between act and intention. The story foreshadows Hamlet’s eventual murder of Claudius.
‘The instant burst of clamour that she made…
would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven, and passion in the gods’ Player I 2:2
Shakespeare alludes to hecuba (wife of priam) who acts as a dramatic foil to Gertrude in response to her husbands death. ‘Run barefoot up and down’ - she no longer looks like a noble queen juxtaposes Gertrude.
‘What would he do, had he the…
motive and the cue for passion that I have?’
Hamlet 2:2 is impressed by the actor’s ability to cry for a fictional character and asks himself ‘Am I a coward?’ due to his lack of action.
Hamlet here contrasts the feigned suffering of an actor playing a part with his own real “passion” or suffering.
theatrical representation here, Hamlet is at the same time the character and the player representing the character, and so there is self-referentiality in
‘the play’s the thing/ Wherein…
I’ll catch the conscience of the King.’
Hamlet Soliloquy (end of 2:2)
This rhyming couplet sends the audience to the next act with a forward motion because Hamlet appears to have regained his momentum. He has made a decision in the summation couplet.
Metatheatrical
AO2: ‘Catch’ hunting imagery. Claudius = prey
AO4: Hamlet needs more evidence. The ghost is an unreliable witness as it could be a devil. Hamlet = detective figure.
‘Remorseless, treacherous, …
lecherous, kindless villain!’ Hamlet’s soliloquy 2:2
Half-rhyme and repetition used to describe Claudius, echoing on Hamlet’s previous descriptions of him in earlier soliloquies.
Hamlet’s words juxtapose his lack of action.
‘This is the very ______ of love’
‘This is the very ecstasy of love’
Polonius 2:1 (believes love is the cause of Hamlet’s madness).
Shakespeare presents Polonius as a pompous, self-important character, convinced that he is right in his judgement of others
AO2: Connotation of ‘ecstasy’ implies that Hamlet cannot control his behaviour. This creates dramatic irony as the audience suspects that Hamlet is cleverly manipulating the other characters as part of his ‘anti disposition’
Hamlet’s exchange with Polonius in 2:2
Hamlet talks in riddles and his tone is rude and dismissive.
Hamlet addresses Polonius as a Fishmonger, which Elizabethan audiences may have recognised as a mocking reference to his daughter (Ophelia) being a prostitute. It could be genuine madness/nonsense or Hamlet may be aware that Polonius is trying to get information. Polonius takes Hamlet’s other comments on his daughter, including a warning that she “may conceive” (become pregnant) as confirmation that Ophelia’s rejection has caused Hamlet’s “Lunacy”.
As Polonius leaves Hamlet, Hamlet exclaims: “These tedious old fools!” strongly suggested Hamlet’s exchange with the king’s councilor was a performance to conceal his true intentions. Plural ‘fools’ may imply that Hamlet overheard Polonius and Claudius plotting to use Ophelia to determine the cause of his ‘transformation’, and thus he considers them both ‘fools’.
Act 2 Summary
- Polonius sends a spy, Reynaldo, to France to keep an eye on Laertes.
- Ophelia enters and tells Polonius that Hamlet entered her room in a mad state, grabbing her wrists and staring wildly into her eyes. She also adds that she has cut off all contact with Hamlet.
- Polonius, certain that Hamlet is madly in love with Ophelia and that it was Ophelia’s rejection that put him in this state, decides to meet the king to concoct a plan to spy on Hamlet in conversation with Ophelia. Meanwhile, Gertrude has asked Hamlet’s school friends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to try to figure out the cause of his madness. Hamlet is suspicious of them, and he evades their questions.
- Soon, a theatre troupe arrives, and Hamlet requests that the following night they perform a certain play,The Murder of Gonzago,with a few passages inserted written by Hamlet.
- Alone on stage, Hamlet voices his frustration about his indecisiveness. He decides he must figure out if the ghost is truly his father or if it is a specter leading him to sin without reason. Because the play depicts a king who kills his brother and marries his sister-in-law, Hamlet believes that the performance scheduled for the next night will make Claudius show his guilt.
