Important Quotes

• ‘We much did long to see you’

  Use of collective personal pronoun - this could refer to Claudius and Gertrude, or it could be referring to Claudius and God, as at the time there was a belief of the divine rights of kings.

• ‘Our hasty sending’

  Use of collective personal pronoun

  Sense of urgency

  Use of flattery - Claudius wanted to gain Rosencrantz and Guildenstern trust in order to make them betray Hamlet.

• ‘Of Hamlet’s transformation’

  Referencing Hamlet’s change in behaviour and descent to madness

• ‘What it should be / More than his father’s death, that thus hath put him / So much from th’understanding of himself / I cannot dream of’

  Claudius displays sympathy in order to manipulate Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.

• ‘Lies within our remedy’

  Use of flattery - masks his true, selfish intentions.

  Collective personal pronoun - referring to Claudius and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, or it could be referring to Claudius and God.

• ‘You are a fishmonger’

  Insulting vocabulary

  Metaphor - Polonius uses his children (Laertes and Ophelia) as bait

• ‘Into my grave.’

  Short sentence - displays his depression and madness. Reference to the melancholic

• ‘These tedious old fools!’

  Exclamative - reveals that Hamlet is completely aware of his behaviour, and why he is behaving the way he is.

  Insulting vocabulary - suggests that he believes hes better than them because he knows their plan. This links to the ‘In Our Time’ BBC panel calling polonius a ‘bumbling old fool’.

• ‘Denmarks a prison’

  Negative connotations. Reference to the melancholic.

• ‘the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory’

  Negative connotations. Reference to the melancholic.

• ‘O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I’

  Exclamative

  Metaphor - Believes that he does not deserve being a prince as he doesn’t have the characteristics of a prince - he is too cowardly and hesitant. His inability to act makes him insecure and feeling guilty for not getting revenge.

• ‘But I am pigeon-livered, and lack gall’

  Metaphor - references his inaction, he lacks courage and is cowardly. His behaviour contrasts his fathers, Old Hamlet, who was reportedly ‘like Hercules’ and had aggression and strength to act. At the time they believed that the liver produced yellow bile, and an excess of yellow bile caused you to have ‘The Choleric’ temperament, which meant that you had an aggressive personality type. Hamlet believed that he did not have this personality type as he didn’t have an excess of bile in his body.

• ‘Must like a whore unpack my heart with words’

  Simile - Hamlet is suggesting that he is too emotional and that he ‘Must like a whore’ get rid of his emotions and do something.

  Emasculating language - whores is an insult usually given to females, showing that he no longer feels like a man due to his inaction.

• ‘The spirit that I have seen / May be the devil’

  Religious/biblical imagery - Hamlet is excusing his inaction. He wants to believe the ghosty, but believes he must be wary.

• ‘The play’s the thing / Wherein I’ll catch the conscience of the King’

  Use of rhyme - It shows that Hamlet is not truly mad, due to the fact that he is planning. Something a crazy person wouldn’t do. Another interpretation is that he is acting slightly ridiculously and childishly as he isn't confronting Claudius.

Context

Contemporary Politics

• The idea of surveillance could have been influenced by contemporary political events at the time. England was a Protestnat country. This was relevant because at the time the majority of European countries were Catholic. This resulted in Queen Elizabeth I becoming a hated figure, especially after she was excommunicated by Pope Pius V. A complex spy network was soon formed by Francis Walsingham, which revealed many plots wanting to replace Queen Elizabeth I with Mary Queen of Scots, who was Catholic.

Elizabethan Medicine

• Elizabethan doctors believed that certain behavioural and personality traits were caused by the excess of specific bodily fluids within the body. They believed that yellow bile, blkack bile, blood and phlegm were the bodily fluids that could affect a person's ‘temperament’. These four temperaments were connected to a specific natural element.

• The Sanguine - air - the excess of blood - the most desired temperament as it caused the person to be enthusiastic, active and sociable.

• The Choleric - fire - the excess of yellow bile - resulted in the person to gain aggressive behaviour.

• The Phlegmatic - water - excess of phlegm - causes the person to become listless and unenergetic.

• The Melancholic - earth - excess of black bile - it is the modern day equivalent of depression.

Divine Right of Kings

The idea that God chose the King. The king was viewed almost as a messenger of God

Great Chain of being

1 is the most important and 15 is the least

1. God

2. Cherubs

3. Archangels/angels

4. Star controllers of Destiny

5. Moon

6. King

7. Church

8. Princes

9. Man

10. Lion

11. Other animals

12. Oak and Rose

13. Other plants

14. Gold

15. Other minerals

Claudius went against the divine rights of kings as he murdered the previous king to receive his position, meaning that he wasn’t chosen by God as he didn’t gain the position naturally - he was a false king. Due to him usurping the natural order, he will subsequently suffer an unnatural death.

Critics

‘Hamlet seems incapable of deliberate action’ (Hazlitt).

‘Hamlet’s delay is due to a state of mind quite abnormal and induced by special circumstances - a form of melancholy’ (Bradley).

The ‘In Our Time’ BBC panel agreed that Polonius was a ‘bumbling old fool’.