Hamlet Act 2

Polonius sends a servant to visit his son in Paris with some money and letters but asks the servant to first enquire about Laertes from the others in the city. He recommends that the servant seek the Danish people in the city, and gently turn to the discussion of Laertes, and then speak untruths about his character to provoke either assent or refusal, and in that way learn of his son’s behavior in the city. As soon as the servant leaves a visibly upset Ophelia enters the room. She tells her father that she has just been visited by a severely disheveled Hamlet, who came into her room, stared at her in silence for a long time, and left abruptly. She tells her father that she has rebuffed all of hamlet’s prior attempts of courtship since Polonius had instructed her to do so. Polonius believes that Hamlet’s recent change in behavior has been caused by Ophelia’s rejection, and decides to take the news to the King.

Claudius and Gertrude welcome two of Hamlet’s oldest friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and explain that Hamlet has recently begun to behave very oddly. They have been unable to help him, and so have requested the presence of his friends, so that they can learn what ails him and produce a solution. Hamlet’s friends willingly accept the charge and set out to find him. Polonius enters the chamber and claims to bear great news about the cause of Hamlet’s lunacy. However, he first calls the recently returned ambassadors from Norway, for they too bear great news. The ambassadors tell the King that the Norwegian King had been surprised to learn of the rebellious plans of his nephew, Fortinbras, and had summoned him to court. The King had then dissuaded his nephew from any action against Denmark, and upon his ready assent, rewarded him with a hefty annual sum. He had then charged Fortinbras to arm his levies against the Polish, and thus, he now requested King Claudius to open his borders so that his nephew may march through the danish borders to face the Polish. Claudius is happy to hear the news and sends the ambassadors away.

Polonius then comes to the King and reads to him a letter that Hamlet had written to Ophelia. He explains that Hamlet is in love with his daughter and that he had charged Ophelia to reject his advances for Hamlet was the prince and above her station. Polonius believes that Hamlet has been led to lunacy due to Ophelia's rejection, while he is convinced of this, Gertrude expresses some doubt. He devises a plan to prove his hypothesis. Polonius and the King plot to observe Hamlet interacting with Ophelia when he happens upon her during one of his regular strolls. Just as they finalize the details, Hamlet enters the scene, and Polonius requests to meet him alone. Hamlet’s interaction with Polonius involves his seemingly random responses to Polonius’ mundane questions. Polonius departs, and Hamlet then meets Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

Hamlet greets his friends warmly, and they have a verbal joust during which Hamlet rightly makes his friends confess that they have been summoned by his uncle and mother who wish to discover the cause for the change in his behavior. He tells them that the King and his wife are right in that he is sometimes mad but has control of his faculties at other times. He also confesses to them that he has little desire for the company of people, which makes them smile, as they inform him of the recently arrived group of actors who have been summoned for his pleasure. They are the same crew that had been his favorite in the old city, but they had been caused to take their company to the road as playwrights were using companies of children actors and the audiences seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this new format. Polonius enters followed by the actors, and Hamlet meets them all with fondness.

He requests the actors to start him off with a speech, one that they had performed for him in the past. The speech involves Aneas detailing the death of Priam to Dido. Hamlet masterfully performs the beginning of the speech, while the actor takes it forward from the prompt. The story describes the black-clad Pyrrhus bathed in the blood of the citizens of Ilium, who sought to kill the old and weakened King Priam. It details how the city seemed to collapse in on itself just before Pyrrhus cleaved the King to bits right in front of the Queen. The actor’s voice begins to break and his eyes fill up with tears just as he is stopped. Hamlet commands Polonius to treat the actors well and to lead them away. He requests that they prepare the play, the Murder of Gargoza, for him, and that he intends to write something for the play that they should include. Once everyone has left him alone, Hamlet wonders at the passion that drove the actor to tears over the account of Priam. He wonders how the actor would have reacted had the actor been in his position, and had learned of his father’s murder. Hamlet curses himself for not having taken action against his uncle but determines to use the play as a means to confirm what the Ghost had told him. Hamlet worries that the Ghost may have been the devil in disguise, and so he intends to observe his uncle’s reaction to the change he plans to make in the play. His uncle’s reaction would serve as the evidence Hamlet needs to proceed with his revenge against the King without hesitation.

Analysis

The first scene of the second act develops the intriguing character of Polonius, who is sometimes depicted as a master manipulator and at other times presented as a doddering fool. At the beginning of the act, Polonius is seen to be teaching one of his servants the subtle art of snooping which also serves to develop the motif of hearing. Hamlet demonstrates the power of words as a tool for manipulation and influence through characters like Claudius and Polonius. The second part of the scene shows us a conversation between Ophelia and her father. This conversation is primarily important because the audience learns of Hamet's insane behavior since his meeting with the Ghost. It is unclear whether Hamlet's outburst with Ophelia is a part of his pretended madness or a reaction to being jilted by Ophelia, after the death of his father, and the remarriage of his mother. The conversation also demonstrates Ophelia's dependence on her father to make decisions for her, as she easily complies with his command to reject Hamlet's courtship.

The second scene of the second act is by far the longest of the whole play and leads to several important thematic developments in the play. Shakespeare presents Laertes, and later Fortinbras, as contrasts to the character of Hamlet. In this act, the audience learns that Fortinbras, who has lost a father much like Hamlet, has also been superseded by his uncle in the royal succession. However, Fortinbras has pursued acts of revenge with conviction unlike Hamlet, who fails to act after learning of Claudius's treachery. Claudius is presented as a poor King since he fails to treat the request for a Norwegian army to march through Danish borders with any significant concern. In fact, Claudius is obsessed with the madness of Hamlet, and this focus on internal threats rather than external ones presents him as a politician instead of a King.