Hamlet Act II

In act II of Hamlet a lot has developed in the play. Scene I opens up with Polonius giving his servant Reynaldo a lecture on how he should go about spying on his son Laertes. This is where we see the theme of deception and spying increase significantly. We see here that Polonius doesn’t care to protect the name of his son as long as his good name is maintained. He tells Reynaldo that to find out the bad things that Laertes might have been doing, he should fish for information. He tells Reynaldo that he should say he saw Laertes doing something that is considered bad and see if the people he tells support or refute this claim. As Polonius says let “your bait of falsehood take this carp of truth”, which means he is willing to slander his sons name to find out the truth. This parallels to the spying that Claudius will do on Hamlet in the next seen. It is easy to see that they wish only to spy on him to discover is plot as opposed to helping Hamlet by finding out what is wrong with him. Ophelia also tells Polonius that Hamlet has approached her seeming crazy, and Polonius wishes to tell the king that this is the root of Hamlets problems and is willing to “loose” his daughter to him to discover the truth. Although Polonius believes he is very wise and discrete it does not take long for Hamlet to discover his plot and play it to his advantage. When Polonius is telling the King his plan it appears that Hamlet over hears and when Polonius goes to talk to Hamlet, Hamlet acts as crazy as they believe while making fun of Polonius. He calls Polonius a “fish monger” which is similar to a pimp because he is using his daughter as a whore. He also calls him old and says he has a “plentiful lack of wit”. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are friends of Hamlet who were sent for by the King to spy on Hamlet but Hamlet quickly finds out. Hamlet reveals his depression to his friends but is cheered up quickly when they tell him the players are coming. Through interaction with the players Hamlet becomes deeply saddened that they can so easily be emotional about a fake story when he cannot speak a word about it. This is when he devises a plan to reveal the truth about Claudius. Hamlet is going to give the players a play write that is similar to the murder of his father so that he can read the reaction on Claudius’s face. In his silhouette at the end of act II Hamlet reveals a lot about how he feels. He feels weak and pathetic because he has waited around and is unable to take vengeance against his father. He seems to be a pacifist and is using the play as a test to make sure Claudius is guilty so that he can build the courage to kill him. He does not want the spirit to have been the devil trying to damn him to hell.