DRJ # 2 Hamlet, Act 2
Reading Act 2 wasn’t as interesting as the first Act. The beginning of Act 2 caught my attention until the actors came. I thought there would be more action with Polonius and Hamlet. I thought for sure Polonius was going to mention his daughter’s name while he was having a conversation with Hamlet. I feel Polonius not wanting to have any confrontation with Hamlet quite yet. This is familiar to my character. When something is bothering me to the point I’m really irritated, I see that it’s hard for me to come out and say what I really want to say. I beat around the bush. It annoys me so Polonius character annoys me as well.
Polonius demeanor is like a child who wants to tell on other students or even worse, a parent who is overbearing and thinks their child deserves better than the other kids in the class. He believes he knows the reason why Hamlet has been acting “crazy.” All because Ophelia followed her father’s ordered and ignored Hamlet. I believe Polonius is causing conflict to make his family look impressive to the King and Queen. He even put his life on the line if he were wrong about the assumption of Hamlet’s negative behavior.
Not only did Polonius mention his daughter was the cause of the conflict but Hamlet, Rosencrantz , Guildenstern and the first player all mentioned a whore in Act 2. Even the actors that came, I felt their play was derogatory towards women. Then in the end when Hamlet was speaking to himself he says “Must, like a whore, unpack my heart with words, and fall a-cursing, like a drab, a stallion” (1629) Drab and stallion mean whore. So “women” was used as a figure of speech multiple of times throughout the act.
I also had a hard time getting into Act II! I definitely agree that Polonius is an irritating character. He is too involved in other people's business and I consider him one of the main antagonists.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you when you say Polonius is trying to create attention towards his own family. I also love how you compare Polonius to an overbearing parent. The attitudes towards women back then seem to come out a lot in the play and I also see how it is mostly negative speech, but I think that's just the way things were.
ReplyDeleteI like the observation that you made regarding the references to women which were used throughout this act, I didn’t realize how many times whore is used. I also like you description of Polonius, he does put off that vibe that he and his family is better than everyone else.
ReplyDeleteI thought that he was trying to impress the king and queen too. Polonius seems like the kind of person who would go pretty far for power. On the attitude towards women, I'll admit I didn't notice it too much, there were some cases where I saw it but I have to say it passed me by. I have to agree with the comments before that it was just part of the times. Unfortunately it was a male oriented world then, especially in an upper class or royal family like we have here.
ReplyDeleteIt feels like Shakespeare only put Polonius in the story to shakes thing up and create drama. I didn't realize either that the women were used in this act as derogatory until you brought up the instances.
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