After reading Act II, my initial reaction was that Hamlet was going mad. He kept everything to himself, his thoughts, feelings, plan for revenge, and eventually it all became too overwhelming for him to handle. We see that his emotions are all over the place, which comes across as him being confused about how he should feel. He isn’t able to discern whether or not the ghost of his father is telling the truth, yet he doesn’t want to be disloyal to his father and disappoint him by not murdering his uncle. This issue continues and becomes a tormenting conflict for Hamlet. The hatred he has for his mother and Claudius’ marriage grows stronger, which persuades him to want to act on his revenge. He also seems confused regarding his feelings for Ophelia. Polonius believes that the reason for Hamlet’s sudden “lunacy” is because he is in love with his daughter. The way that he acts around her lead me to believe the same thing, but Hamlet himself doesn’t confirm it.
Throughout most of the play I felt that the Queen overlooked Hamlet and how her marriage was effecting him, but in this act she admitted that it was a hasty marriage and was worried about Hamlet’s sanity. To figure out the root cause of Hamlet’s change in personality she sent his friends to spy on him. While she could have handled the situation in a much better way, it still showed her concern. The King also expressed his fear for Hamlet. In the first act I thought that Claudius was telling Hamlet to move on from his father's death simply because he wanted to avoid possible insinuations that he was the murderer. In the second act however, while he was dealing with the issues that surfaced regarding Poland, he was much more worried about Hamlet and his well being.
One of the main themes in this act is dishonesty and deceitfulness. Guildenstern and Rosencrantz, Hamlet’s two childhood friends, were sent by the King and Queen to spy on him and figure out the true reason for his odd behavior. Meanwhile, since Polonius was convinced that Hamlet was in love with Ophelia, he devised a plan to send her to talk to him alone while he hid in the room to listen to their conversation. Ophelia, who is frightened of Hamlet and does not love him, agreed to do so. Each character completely went against Hamlet in some way, which made me feel sorry for him. Even though his two friends practically explained that they were sent by the King and Queen to spy on him, they still agreed to do it.
Yeah I think Hamlet is faking being crazy because he seems to be using it to his advantage. But then again seeing his fathers ghost would make it understandable if he was losing it a little. He upset, confused and suspicious of people, I think anyone in the position could easily seem crazy. I like what you said about Polonius though, he does kinda just mess with everyones business. I guess you can when your in his position though.
ReplyDeleteI do agree Hamlet is going a bit crazy. But wouldn't we all in that situation? I think Polonius is such brown noser. But, I do understand him needing to protect his daughter's interests. I agree that one of the big theme's is dishonesty and deceitfulness. Almost all of the players are going behind each other's backs. None of them can truly trust the other.
ReplyDelete-Taryne