(Hamlet) Polonius
- Created by: NHow02
- Created on: 26-05-19 20:01
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- Polonius
- As a fool
- 'what was I about to say?'/'Where did I leave?'
- Lost in his own monologue
- Elizabethan atmosphere of uncertainty (as the queen had not named a successor)
- 'I feared' (climate of fear)
- Elizabethan atmosphere of uncertainty (as the queen had not named a successor)
- Coleridge: 'skeleton of his former skill and statecraft'
- Contrasts to 'draw', 'gather' & 'glean'
- Lost in his own monologue
- 'Hamlet's lunacy'/ 'Hamlet's transformation'
- Polonius immediately accepts Hamlet's madness as fact
- 'what was I about to say?'/'Where did I leave?'
- As evil
- 'Denmark's a prison'
- Elizabethan 'surveillance state' (used to route out recusants)
- Extended metaphor for England
- Claudius represents the rift that could possibly open up in the future
- Polonius is helping him, 'go we to the king' (ignorant or a schemer?)
- Elizabethan 'surveillance state' (used to route out recusants)
- 'Denmark's a prison'
- As good
- 'the soul lends the tongue vows'
- Fears for Ophelia's reputation (Hamlet driven solely by passion)
- 'lends' creates a temporary effect
- Idea of the devil 'speaking in tongues'
- 'where the truth is hid, though it were hid indeed within the centre'
- 'sick at heart'
- As an ageing monarch, Elizabethan audience would have feared for the future
- Polonius had been advisor to Old Hamlet (represents the old state of Denmark)
- Audience would have identified him with the rule of young & powerful Elizabeth
- Hudson: 'wishes to do his entire duty'
- 'sick at heart'
- 'the soul lends the tongue vows'
- As a fool
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