Questions.

[onelastliex18]

I'm new here and joined hoping I can get some answers.

-How come Hamlet didn't become king after his father passed?

-What causes Hamlet's "madness" beyond the death of his father and his mother remarrying?

-Also, I was wondering if anyone wanted to share opinions on T.S. Eliot's poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". This section specifically.

No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;
Am an attendant lord, one that will do
To swell a progress, start a scene or two,
Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,
Deferential, glad to be of use,
Politic, cautious, and meticulous;
Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;
At times, indeed, almost ridiculous--
Almost, at times, the Fool.

Prufrock describes himself as being comparable to Polonius. Is his description accurate? Any specific lines in Hamlet that you've found that support?

[Charles Darnay]

Hamlet did not become king because women were allowed to hold power so the throne passed to Gertrude....but of course by marrying Claudius she gave the throne to him. If Claudius and Gertrude were to die and Hamlet lived, he would have been king.

The reasons you listed are the main reasons for Hamlet's madness...that coupled with his inability to act.

Prufrock is an absolutely fantastic poem!!! If you're looking to compare Prufrock to Polonius, use the line from the poem "I should have been a pair of ragged claws
Scuttling across the floors of silent seas" and compare that to Hamlet's speech with Polonius in II.ii (I think) when Hamlet talks about being old and walking backward like a crab (I'm too lazy to look up the exact line )

Although, I must say that overall Prufrock is very different from Poloinus - the former is very contemplative and the latter is not. "I'm not Prince Hamlet" is Prufrock contemplating his own contemplation and saying how he is not contemplative....irony. He sees himself as more of Polonius when really is he is much more similar to Hamlet.

Hope that helps