What Contribution Do Polonius and His Family Make to Hamlet
| Polonius | |
|---|---|
| Hamlet character | |
 Polonius behind the curtain by Jehan Georges Vibert, 1868 | |
| Created by | William Shakespeare |
| In-universe information | |
| Affiliation | Male monarch Claudius |
| Family | Ophelia (daughter; deceased) Laertes (son; deceased) |
Polonius is a graphic symbol in William Shakespeare's Village. He is primary counsellor of the play'due south ultimate villain, Claudius, and the male parent of Laertes and Ophelia. Generally regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play,[1] Polonius is described by William Hazlitt every bit a "sincere" father, but also "a busy-body, [who] is accordingly officious, garrulous, and impertinent".[2] In Human activity II, Hamlet refers to Polonius as a "wearisome old fool"[3] and taunts him as a latter day "Jephtha".[four]
Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet. Hamlet unknowingly kills Polonius, provoking Ophelia'south descent into madness, ultimately resulting in her (probable) suicide and the climax of the play: a duel betwixt Laertes and Village.
Graphic symbol [edit]
Father of Ophelia and Laertes, and counselor to Rex Claudius, he is described as a windbag by some and a rambler of wisdom by others. It has also been suggested that he simply acts like a "foolish prating knave" to proceed his position and popularity safe and to keep anyone from discovering his plots for social advancement. Information technology is important to note that throughout the play, Polonius is characterised equally a typical Renaissance "new human", who pays much attending to appearances and ceremonious behaviour. Some adaptations testify him conspiring with Claudius in the murder of King Hamlet.
In Act 1, Scene 3, Polonius gives communication to his son Laertes, who is leaving for France, in the grade of a list of sententious maxims. He finishes by giving his son his approval, and is apparently at ease with his son's departure. Even so, in Act ii, Scene i, he orders his servant Reynaldo to travel to Paris and spy on Laertes and study if he is indulging in any local vice.
Laertes is not the simply character upon whom Polonius spies. He is fearful that Hamlet's relationship with his daughter will hurt his reputation with the king and instructs Ophelia to "lock herself from [Hamlet'south] resort". He later suspects that Ophelia'southward rejection of Village's attention has caused the prince to lose his wits, and informs Gertrude and Claudius of his suspicion, challenge that his reason for commanding Ophelia to reject Hamlet was that the prince was above her station. He and the king exam his hypothesis by spying on and interrogating Ophelia.
In his last attempt to spy on Hamlet, Polonius hides himself backside an arras in Gertrude's room. Village deals roughly with his mother, causing her to cry for aid. Polonius echoes the asking for assist and is heard past Hamlet, who and then mistakes the voice for Claudius' and stabs through the arras and kills him.
Polonius'due south death at the hands of Hamlet causes Claudius to fearfulness for his ain life, Ophelia to go mad, and Laertes to seek revenge, which leads to the duel in the last act.
Sources [edit]
The literary origins of the graphic symbol may be traced to the King'south advisor plant in the Belleforest and William Painter versions of the Hamlet fable. However, at to the lowest degree since the 19th century scholars have as well sought to sympathise the grapheme in terms of Elizabethan court politics.
Polonius was first proposed as a parody of Queen Elizabeth'due south leading counsellor, Lord Treasurer, and Principal Secretary William Cecil, Lord Burghley in 1869.[5] Israel Gollancz also suggested that Polonius might have been a satire on Burghley. The theory was frequently finessed with supplementary arguments,[half-dozen] but also disputed. Arden Village editor Harold Jenkins, for example, criticised the thought of whatsoever straight personal satire of Burghley as "unlikely" and "uncharacteristic of Shakespeare".[seven]
Name [edit]
Gollancz proposed that the source for the character's name and sententious platitudes was De optimo senatore, a book on statesmanship past the Polish courtier Wawrzyniec Grzymała Goślicki, which was widely read later it was translated into English and published in 1598 under the title The Counsellor.[viii] "Polonius" is Latin for "Polish" or "a/the Smoothen homo." The English translation of the volume refers to its author as a statesman of the "polonian empyre".
In the first quarto of Hamlet, Polonius is named "Corambis". It has been suggested that this derives from "crambe" or "crambo", derived from a Latin phrase meaning "reheated cabbage", implying "a boring old man" who spouts trite rehashed ideas.[ix] [10] Whether this was the original name of the graphic symbol or not is debated. Various suggestions take been made to explain this. G. R. Hibbard argues that the proper noun was originally Polonius, simply was changed because Q1 derives from a version of the play to exist performed in Oxford and Cambridge, and the original name was too close to that of Robert Polenius, founder of Oxford Academy. Since Polonius is a parody of a pompous pseudo-intellectual, the proper name might have been interpreted as a deliberate insult.[11] The title folio of Q1 specifically states that the play was recently performed in London, Oxford and Cambridge.
Stage and pic portrayals [edit]
In most productions of the 20th century, upward to near 1980, Polonius was played as a somewhat senile, garrulous man of about 75 or so, eliciting a few laughs from the audience by the delineation. More recent productions have tended to play him as a slightly younger man, and to emphasise his shiftiness rather than pompous senility, harking dorsum to the traditional way in which Polonius was played earlier the 20th century. Until the 1900s there was a tradition that the player who plays Polonius too plays the quick-witted gravedigger in Deed Five. This bit suggests that the thespian who played Polonius was an actor used to playing clowns much like the Fool in King Lear: not a doddering former fool, but an alive and intelligent master of illusion and misdirection. Polonius adds a new dimension to the play and is a controlling and menacing character.
One central to the portrayal is a producer'south decision to keep or remove the brief scene with his servant, Reynaldo, which comes subsequently his scene of genial, fatherly advice to Laertes. He instructs Reynaldo to spy on his son, and even propose that he has been gambling and consorting with prostitutes, to find out what he has really been upwardly to. The inclusion of this scene portrays him in a much more than sinister light; most productions, including Laurence Olivier'south 1948 film version, choose to remove it. The corresponding productions starring Richard Burton and Kenneth Branagh both include information technology. Although Hume Cronyn plays Polonius generally for laughs in the Burton production, Polonius is more sinister than comic in Branagh's version.
Famous lines [edit]
Polonius's most famous lines are plant in Act 1 Scene 3 ("Neither a borrower nor a lender be"; "To thine ain cocky be true") and Act 2 Scene two ("Brevity is the soul of wit"; and "Though this exist madness, nevertheless at that place is method in't") while others have go paraphrased aphorisms ("Clothes make the man"; "Old friends are the best friends"). Likewise, the line he speaks when he is killed by Village in Human action three scene iv ("Oh, I am slain!") has been discipline to parody and ridicule due to its obviousness.[12]
Notable portrayals [edit]
- Hume Cronyn won a Tony Award for playing Polonius contrary Richard Burton'due south Hamlet in John Gielgud's 1964 Broadway product. No other actor has ever won an award for playing Polonius in whatever professional American stage version of Village, nor for playing him in a film version of the play.
- In "The Producer", a 1966 episode of Gilligan'south Island, Polonius' "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" speech is performed satirically, offset by series regular Alan Hale Jr. as The Skipper playing the part of Polonius (with Dawn Wells equally Mary Ann playing Laertes) in a musical production of Hamlet by the castaways, then by Phil Silvers guest-starring equally a famous stage producer who finds himself on the island.[13]
- Actors who take played Polonius on picture and idiot box include Hans Junkermann, Ian Holm, Michael Redgrave, Ian Richardson, Oliver Ford Davies, Nib Murray, and Richard Briers.
References [edit]
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Polonius. |
- ^
'Hamlet' in William Hazlitt, Characters of Shakespeare'due south Plays. - ^ "Polonius at Encyclopædia Britannica". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved 10 July 2014.
- ^ Village Act II scene ii – William Shakespeare.
- ^ 2.two.346
- ^ French, George Russell (1869). "Notes on Hamlet". Shakspeareana Genealogica. London, England: Macmillan. pp. 299–310. Archived from the original on 10 October 2008.
- ^ See, for case, Lilian Winstanley, Hamlet and the Scottish Succession, 1921, 112; 114–118; John Dover Wilson, The Essential Shakespeare, 1937, 104; Joel Hurstfield, The Queen's Wards, 1958, 257; A.L. Rowse William Shakespeare: A Biography, 1963, 323; Shakespeare The Human being, 1973 185, 186.
- ^ Jenkins, Harold, ed. Hamlet (1982), 142.
- ^ Cole, Daniel H. (May 1999). "From Renaissance Poland to Poland's Renaissance: The Struggle for Constitutionalism in Poland past Mark Brzezinski". Michigan Constabulary Review. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan. 97 (6): 2062–2102. doi:10.2307/1290243. JSTOR 1290243.
- ^ William Shakespeare, Philip Edwards (ed) Hamlet, Prince of Kingdom of denmark, Cambridge University Printing, 2004, p.71.
- ^ Courtney, Krystyna Kujawinska. "Shakespeare in Poland: selected Issues" Archived 25 November 2006 at the Wayback Car Internet Shakespeare Editions, University of Victoria, 2003, p. 2.
- ^ Thou. R. Hibbard (ed), Hamlet, Oxford University Printing, 1998, p.69-75.
- ^ "See all of Polonius'south lines". Opensourceshakespeare.org . Retrieved ten July 2014.
- ^ Abele, Elizabeth (twenty November 2013). Home Front Heroes: The Ascent of a New Hollywood Archetype, 1988–1999. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 187. ISBN978-0-7864-7333-v.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonius
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