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Kelsey22
03-22-2007, 10:23 AM
How does Shakespeare get a double meaning out of the advice lines that he gives to polonious. Polonious is speaking to Laertes before he departs from denmark. any ideas?
Redzeppelin
03-22-2007, 09:50 PM
How does Shakespeare get a double meaning out of the advice lines that he gives to polonious. Polonious is speaking to Laertes before he departs from denmark. any ideas?

This question needs to be rephrased so we can understand it. I don't get "How does SS get a double meaning" - SS doesn't "get" anything - he creates things, yes.
Kelsey22
03-23-2007, 10:42 AM
What "double mileage" or "double meaning" does Shakespeare achive in giving the great advice lines to Polonius? Is that phrased better?
Amleth
04-14-2007, 12:36 PM
How does Shakespeare get a double meaning out of the advice lines that he gives to polonious. Polonious is speaking to Laertes before he departs from denmark. any ideas?

I understood your question perfectly well. There was no real problem in how you phrased it.

"Look thou character" -- means both "be sure to remember (the following)," and also "look like what you are." Polonius's first comment, that Laertes should note what follows, can also be read as Polonius's first advice. Shakespeare obviously wrote it intentionally to have a double meaning.

The rest of the speech is not so much double meanings, tho, it's mostly hypocrisy by Polonius.
Ashley Hallford
04-18-2007, 01:25 PM
And to add to the allegations of hypocrisy, Polonius does this by telling Laertes "To thine own self be true...", meaning that he should do what he knows is right. To most people, this would seem like adequate advice for a parent to give to his/her young adult. The reality, though, is that, by saying this to his son, Polonius is just being a hypocrite because he, as the King's assistant after all, is willing to do whatever it takes to earn the highest respect and esteem that he can.
PolarTucan
04-20-2007, 10:21 AM
A few examples of his hypocrisy: He lies to the king and queen, when he claimed he knew nothing of Hamlet's romantic interest before he saw the love letters from hamlet to Othelia. Polonius tells Reynaldo to lie. And I think spying on Hamlet and the Queen behind the curtain counts as being "true to thyself".