Hamlet Act II Notes

- Polonius wants to know which Danes are in Paris because he is trying to find information about his son
- Polonius wants to send Reynaldo to Paris to get people to talk about Laertes to see what he is up to
- Polonius: "By indirections find directions out."
- Ophelia is scared of Hamlet's frame of mind, which is that he is a mess/blind man who is lost
- Hamlet could be lovesick, it's a part of his plan, Ophelia could be lying, or Hamlet is just cracking under the pressure
- Claudius is using Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to get information out of Hamlet by paying them
- Polonius: "... brevity is the soul of wit."
- Polonius convinced Gertrude of the origins of Hamlet's insanity
- Hamlet calls Polonius a fishmonger
- Polonius: (Aside) "Though this be madness, yet there is method in't."
- Hamlet is on to things and is toying with Polonius
- Hamlet: "For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."
- Hamlet catches on as to why his "friends" are there
- Hamlet: "What a piece of work is a man."
- Hamlet is half admitting that he is sane but is also testing what the two report back to Polonius
- Hamlet says the play has good meaning but that it wasn't meant to please the masses
- First player is alluding to a queen watching her husband murdered
- Hamlet is offering to write a little bit for each player to recite in the play
- Hamlet's soliloquy: his discontent has taken shape and compares himself to others (actors) and is showing major emotion even though reciting lines from another play. Feels that he is not honoring his father's with real emotion. Kind of wishes someone showed him tough love because now no one will call him out on it. Says he's barely fit to be food for birds (judging himself very harshly) doesn't have enough integrity to voice his opinion and that talk is cheap (compares to prostitutes). Wonders if the play makes Claudius and Gertrude feel guilty about what they have done. Hamlet needs proof to show that Claudius is guilty especially if he tells others he is basing his suspicion off of what a ghost has confessed to him
- Hamlet: "The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of the king." He knows people won't believe him if he tells them that he got his information from a ghost.