Polonius Play In Hamlet Essay

Many of the characters in Hamlet held a hand in some sort of deceitful business tied into the royal line. Whether it be Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with their lies to Hamlet, Claudius with the cold-blooded murder of his brother, Hamlet with attempting to kill Claudius as a way to avenge his father or Laertes trying to kill Hamlet with poison as a way to avenge the death of sister and father. However, Polonius’ deceit had one of the biggest roles in the play due to how the nature of his deceit not only progressed the plot of the play but he also sped along the development of some of the characters.
Polonius had very little time to actually be in the spotlight since Hamlet’s madness was the only thing that made him relevant towards the plot; however, despite his little significance — at least if you were counting play time — he played a major role in Hamlet. Polonius not only had a hand in causing the …show more content…
Whether it be calling him a “great baby” that is not yet out of his swaddling-clouts or a camel, a weasel, etcetera, it was all for the effect of causing Polonius to be belittled and to show how little Hamlet thought of him. Although Polonius was mostly used as a comedic effect, he was very useful in pushing along the plot by miles with just his death in the Queen’s chambers. Polonius’ death had caused Hamlet’s plan to be rushed more than it previously was intended to; Polonius’ death had caused Laertes to rush back from France to attempt to rebel against the King until he realized that a duel between him and Hamlet would be a better way to go about things; Polonius’ death had caused Ophelia’s madness which, in turn, led to the successful suicide attempt by Ophelia by drowning, angering Laertes and causing him to duel Hamlet. Polonius had unintentionally progressed the storyline and forcefully drew the curtains on the fight between Claudius and