Polonius Flashcards
Father - Ophelia’s reaction to his death
“I would give you violets but they withered all when my father died”
Father - advice to O
“take each man’s censure but reserve thy judgement”
Father - P to L about voicing opinions
“Give thy thoughts no tongue”
Again, irony in that he tells L not to voice his opinions – what Polonius himself spends the entire play doing.
Father - loss of Ophelia to Hamlet
“I’ll loose my daughter to him”
Using Ophelia as bait – not paternal?
Father - Criticising O for her innocence
“green girl”
Criticising her for her innocence - tells her to deny Hamlet her interest (life Laertes) paternal/brotherly instinct
Father - Hamlet asks if he is a…
‘y’are a fishmonger.’
Fishmonger in the terms of a pimp selling his fish.
P is treating O like bate. He isn’t letting her freely go into the world, like a fish would take to water. But he is using her as a pawn in her political pursuit.
‘Ophelia walk you here.’
Fool - G ridicules him
Gertrude: ‘More matter with less art’: ridicules him
Fool - his arrogance
“That I have positively said ‘Tis so when it proved otherwise?’
Fool - Hamlet’s reference of him in Act 2 S 2
‘These tedious old fools!’
‘that old men have grey beards, that their faces are wrinkled’
Fool - about to discuss Hamlet’s madness
‘Therefore since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief’
Counters his entire personality – amusing for audience.
Advisor/Self Advancement - Obedience/admires Claudius
“my lord”
Advisor/Self Advancement - Sacrificing daughter for political progression
“I’ll loose my daughter to him”
Sacrificing daughter for political progression – Ophelia’s madness is his fault?
Advisor/Self Advancement - Conforming to whatever the higher powers see
“methinks it’s like a weasel/camel/whale”.. “It is backed like a weasel”, “Very like a whale”, “like a camel indeed”
Conforming to whatever the higher powers see – when Hamlet acts mad he still agrees with him
Advisor/Self Advancement - P has been fooled by H’s madness and tells this to G
“That we find out the cause of this effect, Or rather say, the cause of this defect, For this effect defective comes by cause.”
Hamlet’s feigned madness. Polonius tells Queen Gertrude that the cause of Hamlet’s madness is known to him–Hamlet’s love for Ophelia. The madness is referred to by him as the effect , the cause being his love. As his madness is a defect in Hamlet’s personality, he describes it as a defective effect.
The lines show that he is fooled by Hamlet; and his view is conveyed to the queen.
Advisor/Self Advancement
First person pronoun repetition “I”
