Scene 2.1
Scene 2.1 – Within the Castle
There is an unspecified lapse of time between Act I and Act II, but
several indications point to a significant interval, perhaps days or even weeks.
We soon learn, for instance, that Laertes is acclimatized again to life
in Paris, Ophelia has been dutifully avoiding Hamlet, and the King and Queen
have taken notice of Hamlet’s strange behavior.
Act II opens with Polonius instructing his servant, Reynaldo, to deliver
money and notes to his son at school in Paris.
But before Reynaldo pays a visit to Laertes, Polonius directs him to
snoop around in Paris and see if he can’t discover what “wanton, wild, and
usual slips” are to be found in the young Laertes’ behavior.
Ever obsessed with honor and reputation, Polonius is sure to be explicit
in his instructions: Reynaldo is
first to locate the other Danes in Paris and, assuming they will know Laertes,
he is then to claim a distant knowledge of Laertes.
The hope is that if Reynaldo invents and subsequently talks up some of
Laertes’ faults – suggesting perhaps that Laertes gambles or drinks or even
visits the occasional brothel – then Laertes’ friends might be more
forthcoming with details about his unbecoming behavior.
Polonius warns Reynaldo, however, that he must not suggest something too
dishonorable – say, that Laertes is given to sexual excess and a regular at
the brothel – lest he ruin Laertes’ reputation.
It is thus that the scheming Polonius will “by indirections find
directions out.”
As Reynaldo takes his leave, a distressed Ophelia enters.
Ophelia, while sewing in her room, has just been frightened by an
extremely disheveled Hamlet. She
reports that, pale-faced and knees knocking, Hamlet was hatless and his jacket
unbuttoned, not to mention that his stockings were dirtied and bunched around
his ankles like fetters. Polonius,
already formulating a theory in his head, wants to know exactly what Hamlet
said. Ophelia continues –
unaware, it seems, that she isn’t reporting what Hamlet said (for he didn’t
speak at all) but rather what he did – recalling how he gripped her hard by
the wrist and perused her face at length before departing.
This can have only one meaning, Polonius declares:
Hamlet is mad, madly in love with Ophelia.
And he has become so, Polonius would have us believe, precisely because
Ophelia has staunchly refused his advances per her father’s orders.
Polonius openly regrets his misreading of Hamlet, having told Ophelia
that Hamlet couldn’t be serious in his love for her. Just as there is only one interpretation of Hamlet’s
behavior, there is only one course of action to be taken: the King himself must be alerted to Hamlet’s dire
condition.
