Polonius Quotations Flashcards
Criticises Ophelia naivety
‘You speak like a green girl’
Polonius recognises Hamlet’s madness could be an act as his words are clever with thought behind them, he is unsure of the acts cause
‘Though this be madness, yet there is method int it’
Tells Reynaldo to spy on Laertes
‘By indirections find directions out’, he can use a ‘bait of falsehood’ to catch a ‘carp of truth’
Uses Ophelia as bait
‘I’ll loose my daughter to him [so that] you and I behind an arras […] mark the encounter’
Ophelia is the only character Polonius seeks to gain info without trickery
‘What is’t, Ophelia, he hath said to you’
Polonius takes Ophelia to see the king after she was affrighted
‘I will go seek the king. This is the very ecstasy of love’
Polonius is presented as foolish and pompous when talking to Claudius
‘that we find out the cause of this effect, or rather say the cause of this defect’
Polonius sexualises his daughter, sees her as a commodity
‘in her excellent white bosom’
Tells Gertrude how to act, manipulating women
‘look you lay home to him’
Tell Laertes to be friendly not rude
‘Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar’
Tell Laertes to not judge others
‘But reserve thy judgment’
Tell Laertes to be Tue to himself
‘This above all to thine own self be true’
