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Damascus University,Daraa Campus,

English Department

Second Year,Second Semester,

2013

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Treatment of Act 2, Scenes 1+2

[In this act, you are not required to read the part where Hamlet & the Player talk].

Scene 1A room in Polonius' house.

In Act I, Polonius gave his son Laertes advice about how to behave in France, & now he is

sending Reynaldo to spy on him! This tells us that the trust between them is lost.

*The play has the theme of watching: there is always somebody watching somebody else.

Polonius sees his son in different eyes: two different points of view. 1- He sees him from

the eyes of a father; 2- the eyes of a politician, the King’s Chamberlain.

Polonius is worried about Laertes’ behaviour as he is worried about his own name as the

top politician in the Kingdom under the King.

*Now Ophelia is here.

She presents an exposition, where we get information about some characters from other

characters. There is an exposition of what happened between Hamlet & Ophelia. We only

hear from Ophelia how Hamlet was acting in a mad way.

Hamlet was not wearing his hat: which is a sign of disrespect.

Hamlet was in Ophelia’s room, without a hat, his shirt unbuttoned, and his socks dirty and

torn.

He grabbed Ophelia, looked deep in her eyes, & then he let her go.

When Hamlet lets Ophelia go, we can say that “he let her go for good = forever.”

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Ophelia says he looked, As if he had been loosed out of hell

To speak of horrors,--he comes before me.

“As if he was released from hell!” This is an echo of what happened with the Ghost.

In drama, this is called dramatic irony: when the audience of a play knows something that

the characters in the play do not know about.

LORD POLONIUSMad for thy love?

“Because you did not return his love?” This is what Polonius thinks of as the reason for

Hamlet’s madness. Polonius sees himself as the axis .around which everything goes ِمحور

Polonius sees Hamlet’s love for Ophelia in the eyes of a politician, before a father.

OPHELIAMy lord, I do not know;But truly, I do fear it.

At first, Ophelia answers, “I don’t know.” But then says, “honestly, I am afraid so.” In a

sense, Polonius is feeding Ophelia his idea about the reason of Hamlet’s madness.

LORD POLONIUSThis is the very ecstasy of love,Whose violent property fordoes itself

Ecstasy= love madness. “Whatever happened to Hamlet is love madness and is because of

his unrequited love for you.”

For Polonius this is a love madness that fordoes itself = destroys itself. In Arabic, we say,

“if the fire doesn’t find something to feed on, it feeds on itself.” It destroys itself.

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This very image exists in Polonius’ head. For him, love is an element of destruction, and

this idea is dangerous;

but what is more dangerous is that he sees love as self-destructive! It destroys itself!

This is very dangerous because we will see how this idea, in one way or another, gets into

Ophelia’s head. Remember the triangle:

Polonius cancelled the love Ophelia had for Hamlet; so, now her love is going in one

direction only: towards her father. However, when her father dies, the love she has will

destroy itself → Ophelia will kill herself. Bravo Polonius!PoloniusCome, go we to the king:This must be known;

For Polonius, this personal matter between Ophelia & Hamlet has to become public.

Polonius deals with everything around him in a mixed way: he mixes the personal and

private matters with the public and political.

Scene 2A room in the castle.

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King Claudius and Queen Gertrude invite Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: two of Hamlet’s

old colleagues from Wittenberg University. They want them to check on Hamlet & why he

has been acting in a strange manner recently.

Gertrude’s motives are emotional, personal; she is acting as a mother.

Claudius’ motives are political; he is acting as a politician, as the king.

The King uses the word “transformation” to describe the change in Hamlet. He sees the

Hamlet that was VS. the Hamlet that is. Guilt is bothering Claudius.

In English, we have a proverb: a guilty conscience needs no accuser.

The bad things that a guilty person has done show themselves on the way that person

behaves. In Arabic, we say: !كاَد الُمریُب أْن َیقوَل ُخذوني

*Lama asks: “why did they bring two friends of Hamlet who are not in Elsinore? Why did

not they talk to Horatio?”

Ayham answers “Claudius wants somebody he can use to spy on Hamlet.”

-Very true. Therefore, we can think of two answers:

1- Claudius wants somebody he can pay off to use against Hamlet, & Horatio is a real

friend of Hamlet who may care too much about Hamlet; that is why Claudius chooses

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern. For me, these two represent the younger version of Polonius;

the King uses them as tools for his own political purposes. And notice, they are always

mentioned together. They do not have individual identities: they are one pair of shoes in

the King’s feet!

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2- On the part of Queen Gertrude, she tells Rosencrantz & Guildenstern:

Good gentlemen, he hath much talk'd of you;And sure I am two men there are not livingTo whom he more adheres.

“He has talked a lot about you. Also, I am sure there are no other men in the world to

whom he is more attached.” We know this is not true because Hamlet trusts Horatio more

than anybody else in the world. So, from what Gertrude says, we see that she doesn’t really

know her son, or who his real friends are. She brings two friends from Germany thinking

they are Hamlet’s best friends, but we, the audience, know this is not true.

QUEEN GERTRUDEThanks, Guildenstern and gentle Rosencrantz:And I beseech you instantly to visitMy too much changed son.

Beseech = beg. The Queen is saying, “I beg of you to go check on my changed son.”

Gertrude uses “son” because she is really worried about Hamlet, as a mother.

*Polonius comes with the news of the messengers coming back from Norway. The King of

Norway tells Fortinbras not to attack Denmark, but asks for Claudius’ permission to let

Fortinbras pass through Denmark on his way to Poland. Claudius agrees.

-Claudius tells Polonius

Thou still hast been the father of good news.

“You have always brought good news.”

*Polonius has two pieces of news: 1- about the Norwegian politics. 2- the origin of

Hamlet’s madness. He says:

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I have foundThe very cause of Hamlet's lunacy.

“I have found the reason of Hamlet’s madness.” For him, there is no other possibility!

Polonius tells Claudius & Gertrude that it is because Ophelia rejected Hamlet.

But Claudius is suspicious, and Queen Gertrude says:

I doubt it is no other but the main;His father's death, and our o'erhasty marriage.

Hasty = fast, quick. “I think the main reasons is …”

She realizes that she got married too soon after her husband died. She is starting to realize

the reality of things. She is developing as a character.

In literature, we talk about: round characters & flat characters.

A round character: is a character that develops as the story progresses.

A flat character: stays the same throughout the whole story.

Gertrude was somebody in Act I, but now she is gaining more realization about the reality

of things, and is starting to see things in a better way.

Claudius acts in a certain way in Act I, but he stays the same from the beginning till the

end of the play: evil.

*Polonius shows the Queen & the King some love letters that Hamlet wrote to Ophelia.

In a sense, Polonius is dabbling with fire… …by bringing the private to the

public, and mixing the personal with the political.

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Keep in mind that these letters are old; so, Polonius is using old evidence to support his

theory that Hamlet’s gone mad because of his love for Ophelia.

On the part of Polonius, Razan suggests the theme of pride, as one of the Seven Deadly

Sins, which is deadly because it will lead to the death of Polonius himself.

-Now, the King asks Polonius:

But how hath sheReceived his love?

“How did Ophelia react to the love letters that Hamlet sent?”

Polonius answers with a question,

What do you think of me?

Polonius always switches it back to himself!

KING CLAUDIUSAs of a man faithful and honourable.

Claudius thinks of Polonius on two levels: 1- faithful = loyal to the King. [Political].

2- Honourable = respectable. [Personal].

*They want to verify Polonius’ story. So, Polonius and Claudius arrange for Hamlet to

meet Ophelia “by accident,” while they will be watching and eavesdropping.

LORD POLONIUSAt such a time I'll loose my daughter to him:

Loose = release. “I will release Ophelia to Hamlet for us to verify my story.”

I am sorry to say that Ophelia is being used as an animal to trap Hamlet.

This is how Polonius is treating his daughter, as tool in a political game.

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QUEEN GERTRUDEBut, look, where sadly the poor wretch comes reading.

Poor wretch= poor creature, used to express sympathy with someone dear.

This is nice coming from a mother who’s really sad and concerned about her own son.

LORD POLONIUSAway, I do beseech you, both away:I'll board him presently.

“Go away, both of you, please. I’ll talk to him face to face.”

O, give me leave.

“Please go, please.” When Polonius uses “O,” that means either the King or the Queen

does not want to leave; and of course that is the Queen who is hesitant / reluctant /

unwilling to leave her son, Hamlet, with a politician, Polonius, who wants to involve him

in a political power game. But Polonius urges her to leave.

*Hamlet enters, & when Polonius talks to him, he acts mad. Polonius asks him, “what are

you reading, my lord?” Hamlet answers, “words, words, words.”

Some critics see Hamlet’s answer in here as an attack against himself. In a sense, he is

saying, “All I am is a man of words!”

The delay or procrastination in carrying out the revenge is affecting him from within.

A note about the antic disposition: Hamlet puts on the antic disposition [acts mad] in

front of anybody who is related to Claudius, or may report to Claudius about

Hamlet’s behaviour: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Polonius, Ophelia, & Gertrude.

However, when he is alone with Horatio, he is normal.

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*There is a company of actors now. Hamlet meets them and asks one of them to recite one

passage. At this point, Hamlet decides to use drama to catch the King’s conscience by

putting on a play [which has a similar plot to the murder of his father] for the court; and he

will observe the King’s reaction.

This refers to the theme of espionage . Everybody’s watching everybody, spying

on other people, and eavesdropping on other people.

They want to see beyond the masks that some characters put on.

*Hamlet’s alone on the stage now with a soliloquy.

We get a sense of shame: he is ashamed of himself & his inaction.

He hasn’t lived up to his promise of taking revenge soon; it’s been two months & he hasn’t

done anything yet.

Am I a coward?

He doubts his ability to take action. In the first soliloquy in Act I, he was wishing he could

end his own life. Now, we see a development in Hamlet’s character. He moved away from

the idea of suicide into the idea of feeling ashamed for NOT taking action against his

father’s murderer.

…bloody, bawdy villain!Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, kindless villain!O, vengeance!

He uses a lot of negative adjective to describe his uncle.

The spirit that I have seenMay be the devil: and the devil hath power

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To assume a pleasing shape; yea, and perhapsOut of my weakness and my melancholy,As he is very potent with such spirits,Abuses me to damn me: I'll have groundsMore relative than this:the play 's the thingWherein I'll catch the conscience of the king.

“The reason I am doing the play is to verify the Ghost’s story. If the King reacts in a

negative way to the play, that means he is guilty.

That Ghost could be the devil trying to abuse me, so he assumed the shape of my father to

trick me into killing my uncle, and damn me to hell.”

He is justifying his procrastination to ُیبّرر himself.