Polonius' Mistakes

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Polonius' Mistakes

Polonius' Mistakes

There are many parents who are too strict and do not let their children do things that might embarrass them. Other times a parent may use their child to do certain things in order to gain social prestige. Polonius demonstrates a similar type of behavior in Shakespeare's Hamlet. Polonius is "a domestic tyrant wreaking on his son and his daughter revenge for his own spoiled life" (Bloom 111) and "is an elderly and longwinded courtier and chief counselor" (Dominic 96) to the king. Polonius is in a high position in the Danish court, and he has a problem with talking too much. He is only concerned about his reputation, not Ophelia, "the young and innocent daughter of Polonius . . . ("Polonius" Benet). The main character, Hamlet, is the son of Queen Gertrude and King Hamlet of Denmark. King Hamlet has recently died, supposedly from natural causes. Hamlet despises the fact that his mother has remarried his uncle, now King Claudius, so soon after the death of King Hamlet. Later Hamlet sees the ghost of his father and King Hamlet tells him Claudius murdered him by putting poison in his ear. The ghost wants Hamlet to kill the new king, but to not harm his mother. Meanwhile, Hamlet is in love with Ophelia, but Polonius refuses to let her see him. Ophelia believes this obedience to her father has caused Hamlet's madness. However, in order for Polonius to please Claudius, he uses her to figure out the cause of Hamlet's abnormal behavior. After Polonius' death, Ophelia dies, and her death was because of her father's selfishness and poor decisions in doing all he could to satisfy Claudius.

One of the reasons Ophelia dies is because of her father's controlling ways. Ophelia explains t...

... middle of paper ...

...n Language Quarterly Dec. 1993. Infotrac: Exapanded Academic ASAP.

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Kastan, David Scott. Critical Essays on Shakespeare's Hamlet. New York: G.K. Hall &

Co., 1995.

Persoon, James. "Shakespeare's Hamlet." The Explicator Winter 1997. Infotrac:

Expanded Academic ASAP. SearchBank. Information Access. 20 April 2000

"Polonius." Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia Edition. 3rd ed. Harper Collins, 1987.

776a. Infotrac: Expanded Academic ASAP. Searchbank. Information Access.

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"Polonius." Clicknotes. http://www.clicknotes.com/Hamnavl/Polonius.html (15 April 2000).

Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Literature: An

Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 7th ed. Ed. X. J Kennedy and Dana

Gioia. New York: Longman, 1999. 1523-1634.

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