Shakespeares Hamlet - Polonius :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

crossroadss Polonius Gunnar Boklund in Judgment in hamlet gives an overall evaluation of the personality of Polonius in Shakespeares tragic drama, critical point Of the minor weeds which disturb Hamlet, Polonius is the most troublesome. We know that his advice to Ophelia and Laertes closely parallels the intelligence that eminently respectable Elizabethan fathers bestowed on their children prudence was a more(prenominal) commendable virtue in the Renaissance than now, and the sentiment of This above all, to thine proclaim self be true remains, I should hope, unexceptionable today. But Polonius prudence, consignment to the King, and pitiful death in his service do not require him the good old man that the Queen sees in him. He is a gentleman of the situation who, for his stimulate and his masters purposes, manipulates human beings, including his own children, and who does not even do it very well. (122) This essay will pass judgment and interpret the character of this wis e, old father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius entry into the play occurs at the social get-together of the royal court. Claudius has already been crowned Queen Gertrude is there Hamlet is present in the black clothes of mourning. When Laertes approaches Claudius to give his farewell forward returning to school, the king asks Polonius Have you your fathers advance? What says Polonius? And the father dutifully answers He hath, my lord, wrung from me my slow leave By laboursome petition, and at last Upon his will I seald my hard consent I do beseech you, give him leave to go. (1.2) So right at the outset the reader/viewer esteem the lord chamberlain as a very fluent spokesman of the language, and respectful of his superior, the king. Later, in Polonius house, Laertes is taking leave of his sister, Ophelia, and, in the process, giving her conservative advice regarding her boyfriend, Hamlet. Quietly Polonius enters and begins to hash out Laertes regarding life away from home Give thy ideals no tongue, Nor any unproportioned gravitational constantght his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatchd, unfledged comrade. beware Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in,