Hamlet begins to castigate himself for not being a man of action: “Am I a coward?” (II.ii.582). He realizes Claudius should be long dead because “[Hamlet] should ha’ fatted all the region kites With this slave’s offal” but instead Hamlet feels “must, like a whore, unpack [his] heart with words And fall a-cursing like a very drab” seeking revenge put cannot go on with it (II.ii.597-598).
3. Explain how Hamlet plans to “catch the conscience of the King.” Quote the reason Hamlet gives for being so cautious in taking revenge and so thorough in his search for evidence. Do you find his reason convincing?
In Hamlet’s soliloquy at the end of Act II, Hamlet plans to “catch the conscience of the King” by directing the play The Murder of Gonzago (II.ii.617). Hamlet will “observe his looks, [He’ll] tent him to the quick. If ‘a do blench, I know my course” (II.ii.608-609). However, Hamlet feels cautious in taking revenge for three reasons: delaying, being doubtful, and cowardly. Hamlet is not a man of action, and he even says so himself, which is his problem of delay: “Yet I, A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause, And can say nothing” (II.ii.577-580). With this problem of delay, Hamlet even admits he is a coward and castigates himself for not taking action: “Breaks my pate across? Plucks off my beard and blows it in my face? Tweaks me by the nose? Gives me the lie I’ th’ throat As deep as to the lungs?” (II.ii.583-586). Hamlet then goes to say he is “pigeon-livered” for not already killing Claudius (II.ii.588).
But Hamlet gives another reason for being conscience by doubting the ghost: “The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power T’ assume a pleasing shape” (II.ii.610-612) Hamlet believes the ghost might just be the devil in the shape of his father that wants to bring Hamlet to hell. However, doubting the ghost could just be a way for Hamlet to stall not killing Claudius because of his cowardliness: “I’ll have founds More relative than this” (II.ii.615-616). Even if Hamlet does not believe the ghost, he probably wants to put off killing Claudius, which furthers the idea that Hamlet’s cowardliness gets in the way of his actions.
4. Among the many lines often quoted from Hamlet are several epigrams, one of which is “Brevity is the soul of wit (Act II, scene 2, line 90).” Explain the meaning of this epigram and why it is IRONIC coming from Polonius. Back up your stance with specific evidence.
An epigram is a short statement that contains a profound meaning or observation about life or the world. Towards the beginning of Act II, scene 2, the King already employed Polonius as a spy to watch Hamlet and Polonius comes back with his findings but starts rambling in a wordy, nonsensical preface: “Why day is day, night, night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time” (II.ii.88-89). These two lines basically say that time is wasted, but then Polonius says his famous epigram: “Brevity is the soul of wit” (II.ii.90). This epigram means that a limited or short amount of words is intelligent language, or wit itself. The fact that Polonius says this epigram is ironic because Polonius just wasted his time denouncing the waste of time and that his wordy nonsense counteracts the epigram he said after. Polonius contradicts himself further by finally saying what he’s found but also by being brief: “And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief” (II.ii.91-92). After the empty talk Polonius gives, being brief is the last thing he would be. Also, Polonius self-criticizes and supports the irony set in this situation because he gave a wordy preface that later contrasted with the epigram.
5. Find a pun in Act II, and explain its double meanings and the relation to the speaker’s intent and/or the theme of the play.
When Hamlet enters in scene 2, he and Polonius exchange a few words and Hamlet elicits a pun, and an insult: “You are a fishmonger” (II.ii.174). Literally a fishmonger is a person that deals fish but sneaks his way to get more money by weighing the fish and putting a little extra weight on the fish so the customer can pay more for less. However, in this setting, Hamlet refers to Polonius as the fishmonger in the context of lying and deceit, especially since the word fishmonger also means pimp. Polonius ordered his daughter Ophelia to sever her relationship with Hamlet but then tells the king and queen Hamlet truly loves Ophelia, and Polonius uses Ophelia as “bait” to get Hamlet to confess what he knows and spy on him to further his political influence with the king and queen. Nevertheless, Polonius still does not suspect Hamlet meant Polonius as a pimp or a deceitful man and Polonius just thinks Hamlet is a maniac because his relationship with Ophelia disintegrated on his behalf. Hamlet purposely calls Polonius a fishmonger, with the intended double meanings, since Hamlet knows Polonius would not understand, and since Hamlet is a scholarly man other than Polonius.
6. How are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern foils to Hamlet? Be thorough in your explanation.
Already in Act II, scene 2, Hamlet can be seen as the scholarly man and a man of reason as opposed to action, but Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, the foils, act completely opposite of how Hamlet acts. As opposed to Hamlet, the pair act immature when they talk to Hamlet: “Faith, her privates we” (II.ii.237). The three talk about Lady Luck; at the top is where good luck lies, bad luck at her shoes, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern act immature because they say they feel only lucky in the Fortune’s genitals, but the pair joke about that.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern show themselves to be inadequate and not very well educated when they speak to Hamlet. The King employed the two to spy on Hamlet and see why he acts so crazy but they do not do a very good job doing so because Hamlet already suspected the king sent them to spy and get information out of him: “Were you not sent for?” (II.ii.280). Hamlet only suspected the two being spies but then tries to get them to give in: “I know the good King and Queen have sent for you” (II.ii.288-289). Then, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reluctantly confess that the king sent them to spy on Hamlet: “My lord, we were sent for” (II.ii.300). When Guildenstern says this line, the two can be seen as foils to Hamlet because their incompetence caused them to unsuccessfully reveal themselves as spies within the first thirty lines of talking to Hamlet, whereas Hamlet, still knowing that Claudius killed King Hamlet, did not tell anybody about the murder and kept up his insanity, and no one questioned Hamlet about his insanity.
7. In a succinct and well-organized essay, explain Shakespeare’s use of sickness, disease, rot, the physical body, and reference to body parts. What does the presence of the ghost contribute (symbolically and emotionally) to the setting and atmosphere? To the image of sickness in Denmark? Hamlet’s motivations for revenge? Hamlet’s need for caution? Use quotes and concrete details for evidence.
Shakespeare’s Hamlet contains several motifs of disease, rot, and reference to ears to create an unstable atmosphere. Shakespeare employs the ghost, the image of sickness in Denmark, and Hamlet’s inability to take action to support these motifs and Hamlet utilizes these images to cautiously get his vengeance on Claudius without being apprehended.
Throughout the play, the ear represents lying and deceit, but the ear can be seen frequently because Claudius murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison through his ear. The first instance where ear imagery can be found is in Act II, scene 2 when Hamlet just found out Claudius employed Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as spies to watch Hamlet and when people speak to Hamlet with lies, he gives them lies back to them: “Hark you, Guildenstern, and you too at each ear a hearer” (II.ii.390-391). The ear image can be used in another context during Hamlet’s soliloquy as he compares himself to the First Player that recited the speech on Priam’s murder: “He would drown the stage with tears And cleave the general ear with horrid speech” (II.ii.573). The ear in this context means the audience, and the ear also represents lying because the audience listens to the actors artificial speech and cry over something entirely made up.
The disease motif associates itself with the image of the sickness of Denmark. Hamlet speaks of Denmark as a prison because he feels trapped in a place he disdains because of Claudius: “A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons, Denmark being one o’ th’ worst” (II.ii.249-251). Along with feeling like he’s in a prison, in Act I, Hamlet says: “Something rotten is in the state of Denmark,” because the rightful king died and replaced by a man that married his sister-in-law (I.iv.90).
Disease and rotting can be further supported when Hamlet insults Polonius for using Ophelia as bait to spy on Hamlet: “For if the sun breed maggots in a dead dog, being a god kissing carrion—Have you a daughter?” (II.ii.181-183) The words “maggots” and “dead dog” both have a negative connotation that typically associates itself with disease and rotting, and Hamlet uses these words to try to make Polonius feel guilty about breaking up Hamlet and Ophelia, and that the maggots refer to Polonius because the sun can breed disgusting animals like Polonius. Hamlet also uses another inference to King Hamlet’s death and death itself when talking to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern: “why, it appeareth nothing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors,” with “pestilent congregation of vapors” as poison gas (II.ii.310-311).
Associated with death and disease is the ghost that appears in Act I, scene 5, where Hamlet finally talks to the ghost and the ghost reveals that Claudius murdered King Hamlet: “But know, thou noble youth, The serpent that did sting they father’s life Now wears his crown” (I.v.37-39). The appearance of the ghost already sets a somber and opaque atmosphere, and Hamlet’s revelation of his father’s murder adds to it. After this encounter, Hamlet vows to get vengeance on Claudius. However Hamlet becomes cautious in his revenge in Act II, scene 2 when during his soliloquy for two reasons: Hamlet’s problem of delay and his doubt of the ghost. In Hamlet’s soliloquy, he castigates himself for not being a man of action and not taking vengeance on Claudius yet: “Yet I A dull and muddy-mettled rascal…Am I a coward?” (II.ii.577-582). By questioning himself, Hamlet actually becomes a man of thinking rather than action. Hamlet then hinders killing Claudius by doubting the ghost: “The spirit that I have seen May be a devil, and the devil hath power T’ assume a pleasing shape” (II.ii.610-612). By doubting the ghost, Hamlet basically stalls at this point and his caution becomes more of a drag, especially when he announces that he will only find proof when he watches Claudius during the play the next day: “I have heard that guilty creatures sitting at a play Have by the very cunning of the seen Been struck so to the soul that presently They have proclaimed their malefactions” (II.ii.601-604).
By using disease and rotting imagery to create the somber and drab atmosphere, Shakespeare portrays Hamlet as a man incapable of taking action and taking his vengeance on Claudius with images of sickness of Denmark and the appearance of the ghost.
