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Hamlet Act 2 Analysis

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Act 2 opens with Polonius giving instructions to Reynaldo before he leaves for France. The instructions are clear, Polonius wants him to no only deliver leters and money to Laertes his son but to also figure out exactly what Laertes it is doing. In an attempt to hide the fact from his son, Polonius instructs Reynaldo to go about it quietly, spying on his son and reporting back to him without alerting Laertes. This exchange sets the stage of an act filled with spying, deceit, and trickery. Most of act 2 follows the characters attepts to spy on one another. Starting with Polonius spying on his son soon we see that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Hamlets school mates, has been instructed by Claudius to spy on Hamlet and discover the origin of …show more content…

If we skip to the end of the play we see a stage covered in the dead bodies of just about every character in the play. From Claudius to Hamlet himself every person that based their actions on revenge ends up having revenge taken on them as well. Looking at this we can guess that Shakespeare was extremely critical to say the least of revenge. No matter who you extract your revenge on they will always have a vengeful relative ready to take up arms in their defense. The play makes clear that taking revenge upon ones self never brings peace, but only furthers the chain of …show more content…

Claudius makes a somewhat ironic statement, “by our late dear brother's death our state to be disjoint and out of frame” (1.2.19-20). His brother was no dearer to him then a rabbit is to a fox and the “disjoint” came from Claudius ignoring his kingly duties and uprooting the kingdom. Despite his drinking and partying Claudius does sense danger, but not from Denmark. Instead Claudius sees the danger in his nephew and is worried that Hamlet will learn the truth and raise a army to retake his rightful throne. Because of this Claudius seeks to keep Hamlet close to keep an eye on him. Despite keeping a close eye on all of Hamlets actions Claudius still perishes. We see Hamlets sanity decreasing throughout the play. What starts out as rightful mourning soon turns to deep dark depression causing him to see the world as “weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable” (1.2.133). One might guess that the death of his father is what's causing the grief in Hamlets life, but instead we learn that it is in fact the marriage of his mother. It had been barely two months before Gertrude was married to Claudius, a incestuous marriage to boot. Hamlet is struck with guilt, feeling as though he could have done something to prevent the marriage. As we see this is just one of the contributing factors to Hamlet's decent into

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1178 Words | 5 Pages

In 1.2 King Claudius gives speech addressing his brother’s death and the war potential in Denmark without sign of guilt and recognize what he have done to obtain this power. Similarly when Claudius witness the strange action of hamlet he send rosencrantz and guildenstern who are Hamlet best friends to spy on Hamlet even though they are doing what the king is asking they look suspicious to Hamlet which cause the break point in their relationship which cause their death. “To draw him on to pleasures and to gather, so much as from occasion you may glean, whether aught to us unknown afflicts him thus that , opened, lies within our

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483 Words | 2 Pages

He ordered Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on the Hamlet, which raised the sense of suspiciousness in the kingdom; also this action interpreted that loyalty could be bought and sold. “Then are our beggars’ bodies, and our monarchs and outstretched heroes the beggar’s shadows” (Shakespeare 2.2). 277-288. See the corresponding section. This quote explains that friends of the Hamlet are manipulated by Claudius and forget their relationship with Hamlet.

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638 Words | 3 Pages

Act two of Hamlet is known to be the rising action of the play. It's considered to lead up to the climax because it offers a shift in Polonius’ character from a sycophant to orchestrating a plan to show Hamlet’s madness. It showed Hamlet’s self-conflict, and it also demonstrates the relationship between Polonius and Hamlet. At the beginning of the play, Polonius is introduced as a sycophant that wanted to please King Claudius at any cost.

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519 Words | 3 Pages

Only a short month later, she was already remarried to the new king, Claudius. Claudius is Hamlets own brother. Because of this small act, she has done multiple things to betray her own son Hamlet. One thing that has happened is the new marriage itself. Its hard for teenagers to accept a new parent figure so close after they lost one they were so close to.

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668 Words | 3 Pages

In William Shakespeare’s famous play, Hamlet, the motif of spying is seen frequently throughout the play. It shows the distrusting nature of multiple characters, most prominently, King Claudius, Polonius, and Hamlet, ultimately leading to tragedy. Throughout the play, Claudius utilizes spying to divulge information about others. The first example of this we see in the play is in Act II. Scene II, lines 1-30, after Hamlet starts putting on an “antic disposition” Claudius, along with Gertrude, enlist Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on Hamlet to find the reason why he is acting “mad” all of a sudden.

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505 Words | 3 Pages

First of all, Claudius’ murder of king Hamlet affected Hamlet in many ways; He became very suspicious about everything that was going on. He suspects Claudius had something to do with the murder and most of Hamlet’s actions are set on proving that, for ex. In act 3, Hamlet sets up a play that is supposed to depict the murder of King Hamlet and if Claudius showed any signs of guilt, Hamlet will have proved that he did it. Earlier in the play, the ghost of King Hamlet tells Hamlet that Claudius murdered him and asks him to get his revenge for him. Hamlet’s actions are driven by his desire to avenge his Father by killing Claudius.

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2362 Words | 10 Pages

Regardless of how deep one reads into her line, one can tell that something is “off.” Something wrong in the way Claudius not only got the crown, by forcing Gertrude to marry him, but in the way he treats Gertrude. Now that she is married to Claudius she doesn’t have as much power as she used to have. It is generally not good to rule by force. Hamlet’s power struggle with Claudius is also present in his questioning of Gertrude.

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565 Words | 3 Pages

This helps Act 2 develop as the RIsing Action of the play since the behavior of Polonius being nosy helps the King. He's one of the reasons Claudius becomes suspicious of Hamlet and the cause of his madness. Eventually, Polonius's behavior of being sneaky gets him into some trouble. Throughout, Act 2 the reader sees the internal conflict that Hamlet has, continue from Act 1 when Old Hamlet's ghost appears to him telling him to kill Claudius, build in Act 2. Showing Hamlet's madness towards himself as, “ A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak-like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause.”

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995 Words | 4 Pages

Claudius seems to only care about himself and his place as a king, he is shown to be selfish when he tells Hamlet to get over his father's death. Claudius starts to have a stricter mood towards Hamlet and how he controls things around the castle. Both Claudius and Hamlet show that they hate each other, but that is not shown publicly until Claudius hired spies to watch Hamlet and report back on what he is doing. When the spies don't report back to Claudius on what Hamlet has been doing, Claudius takes it into his own

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503 Words | 3 Pages

Gertrude and Claudius assume that Hamlet is entering a state of depression due to his father’s recent passing, however they are only semi-correct. Hamlet talks about how angry he is over his mother’s drastic choice to marry his uncle. He talks more about his mother and her remarriage than his father’s death. The dramatic irony in this scene is that the

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1139 Words | 5 Pages

In the very beginning, Hamlet couldn’t make up his mind to do so, because it is against his character to commit murder. Yet he changes his mind when his uncle, King Claudius, sends Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to test whether he is really mad or not, because he immediately discovers that they are spies. Frustrated at the feeling of betrayed by his childhood friend, he decides to find evidence against Claudius before enacting his revenge. Therefore, he decides to ask some actors to perform a play that visualizes his father's murder, during which he can carefully observe Claudius's reaction. He believes that this play can gather him more evidence and get him closer to the

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600 Words | 3 Pages

He also thinks that Hamlet should be watched at all times and can’t be by himself. Gertrude and Claudius don’t want Hamlet to go back to Wittenberg because they think that it would not be good for Hamlet and he should stay in Denmark “I pray thee, stay with us. Go not to Wittenburg” (I.ii.123). This fires up Hamlet but he agrees to their wishes and Claudius is very pleased that he stays “Why, ‘tis a loving and a fair reply” (I.ii.125).

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628 Words | 3 Pages

This is shown in his first talk watched his court, It is exhibited further on in the same talk when he says, However, this is not how Claudius really feels about his family passing, for Claudius is the person who murders senior Hamlet. We see the confirmation of this in Claudius' monolog when he gives off an impression of being asking; Another affection which Claudius fakes is the love he has towards his nephew and stepson, Hamlet. In his first converse with his court Claudius urges Hamlet not to leave for school however to stay in Denmark; However, later in the play Claudius adds to an approach to send Hamlet far from Denmark with the aid of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Without a doubt the love Claudius demonstrated for Gertrude can be had a tendency to in its genuineness. Claudius, close to the start of the play, has all the stores of being brilliant about his marriage to Gertrude and in the later scene of Claudius' talk, he records Gertrude as one of the reasons he executed his own specific family.

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

The Hamlet as I see People always say that “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes”, someone thinks Hamlet is audacious but foolhardiness, someone says Hamlet is good at thinking but indecisiveness. Someone sees Hamlet as he was living in a successful life, Someone determine Hamlet as he was following the steps by his father. Everyone has different way to see Hamlet, to learn from Hamlet. As I taste it careful, blend it slowly, I also realized something obvious though Hamlet’s life, that is Depression. Depression always follows a loved one’s death, I believe Hamlet was immersed in the pain of losing his father, after his father’s death he becomes irritable and emotionally unstable.

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1939 Words | 8 Pages

He had a beautiful girlfriend in Ophelia. A wonderful woman who was in turn, deeply in love with him, yet, after one hearing one part of the truth that caused his father’s death, he drops everything just to blindly follow… a ghost. Hamlet could have accepted Claudius as the father who has now passed. Claudius originally, came to Hamlet in hopes of making him forget everything about his father so that he can continue to live a happy life. But Hamlet as stubborn as he is, pushes him away.

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