Act 2 Questions

1. At the beginning of Act 2, Polonius tells Reynaldo to go spy on Laertes for him. He plans to trap his son by getting Reynaldo to go around telling lies to Laertes' friends to see their reaction. This is supposed to give him a more honest truth than if he just out and asked Laertes' acquaintances about him and what he does.

2. This is the first insight we have into Polonius as the fool of this story. We see how he cares about what Laertes is doing because of how it would reflect on his reputation. It also helps the reader to see the round about way that he thinks as well as the way he skirts the issue, rather than getting straight to the point.

3. Ophelia was scared because Hamlet was acting mad. He was half-naked and came and grabbed her arm and held her. He let her go eventually, but it still frightened her.

4. Rosencrantz and Gildenstern have been summoned to Denmark by the king to see what is the matter with Hamlet. Claudius thinks that Hamlet's childhood friends will be the best ones to get the truth out of Hamlet about whether he knows anything.

5. Hamlet asks the players to recite Aeneas' tale to Dido. This speech is supposed to parallel Hamlet's situation with Claudius. Hamlet has the same duty as Pyrrus of revenge for his father's death. The mention of Hecuba watching Priam's death is meant to remind Hamlet to think of the feelings of his mother and try to shield her from the revenge that he must take.

6. This line is spoken by Ophelia and is meant to emphasize her role in this text as a tool to her father. At this point, she is denying Hamlet's access to her in order to save Polonius' reputation.

7. Gertrude is telling Polonius to stop wasting time and get to the point about Hamlet's madness. I think this is meant to show her impatience and how she feels about Polonius.

8. Hamlet says it his duty by the power from both heaven and hell to avenge the death of his father. He speaks of how he has to use the speech from the play to say what he really thinks. He feels bound by his duty to keep others from knowing that he knows Claudius killed his father.

9. In this section, Polonius reveals to Reynaldo his plan for getting answers about Laertes. His plan shows us his foolish ways in how Reynaldo will have to make up a whole bunch of lies just to get a couple of answers about what Laertes is doing in France.

10. This line is both to emphasize the extent of Hamlet's acting mad as well as making fun of Polonius. Hamlet is making a pun on himself as the sun (son) and saying that he will shine women and make them "breed maggots" (aka he will get them pregnant). This is made even funnier by the fact that Polonius can't do anything to call Hamlet out because he is supposedly crazy.

11. Extended: Fortune-a prostitute that isn't constant.
Implied: poison-lies ("takes prisoner Pyrrhus' ear" ln. 465)
Direct: Denmark-a prison.

12. Polonius thinks that Hamlet coming to Ophelia, ranting and raving and half naked, is proof of his love for her.

13. "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Hamlet is saying that Elsinore is a prison for him because of what he thinks (and what he knows). The reason it isn't a jail for Rosencrantz and Gildenstern is because they have no bad memories to make them think of it that way. This quote relates to Hamlet because he is the one who has been given the burden of knowing that his uncle killed his father. The fact that Claudius married Gertrude only adds to the prison-like atmosphere for Hamlet. He feels like he is being trapped into a corrupt world that he can do nothing to change except to lie himself.

14. A fishmonger is a pimp.

15. Jephthah prayed to God and said he would sacrifice the next person who walked in the door if only he could be advanced politically. His daughter walked in and he offers her up and is advanced politically as he had originally planned. This reinforces the idea of Polonius as a pimp using his daughter for his own gain.