Polonius AO5 Flashcards
(16 cards)
1700’s trend
Polonius’ function is as a fool, and a comic figure in most productions
William Popple (1735)
praises truth in Polonius’ character, when actors traditionally play him as a fool
Aaron Hill (1700’s first essay on Hamlet)
a ‘Bufoonish statesman’
Hazlitt (Romantic)
‘talks very sensibly’ but ‘acts very foolishly’
Dreher (20th C modern feminist)
‘by far the most reprehensible father’ in Shakespeare’s plays
Smith (20th C modern feminist)
‘he trained his daughter to be obedient and chaste and’ uses ‘her as a piece of bait for spying’
early 20th C trend
no longer seen as a fool, but a domineering father
Ophelia’s sexually explosive mad scenes were the result of the repression of men around her (including Polonius)
H.K Ayliff’s production (early 20th C)
Polonius was played as a domineering father and a witty councillor
Olivier’s film (mid 20th C)
cuts scene where Polonius is more sinister (when he instructs Reynaldo to spy on Laertes A2S1)
Peter Hall’s production (late 20th C)
Glenda Jackson’s Ophelia plays madness scene in her dead father’s robe
Polonius presented as a manipulative political player
Richard Vardy (modern 20th-21st C)
‘symbol of the rottenness and corruption at the heart of the state’
‘It is certainly fitting for a spymaster to be killed in the act of spying’ - political reading of murder
Joan Hartwig (modern 20th-21st C)
‘a father guided by precept rather than emotion; and ultimately he is guided by self-regard’
‘whether or not Polonius speaks foolish words, he speaks them into the ear of a king’
J.H. Walter (late 20th C)
‘cold-hearted devil’ willing to ‘gamble with his daughter’s distress to improve his own standing’
Elaine Robinson (modern feminist)
‘the death of Polonius, is a symbol of Shakespeare’s attack on the patriarchy’
Jardine (21st C)
‘fatally confuses privacy with affairs of state’ - closet scene
Taylor (mid 20th C)
‘typical Elizabethan Machiavellian’
‘His ineffectuality does not excuse his duplicity’
