Post by ashharmon on Oct 18, 2011 19:04:59 GMT -5
In this act the lack of direct communication that the characters have really starts to play into the plot. Instead of Gertrude and Claudius directly asking Hamlet what is the matter with him, they resort to having spies. Since they never ask what is truly wrong, they are simply lead to believe that he is only mad over his father's death, as most children would be. However, I don’t really think that he would have told them what was really behind his behavior even if they had asked him directly. Another person in this act who avoids direct communication is Polonius. He has also noticed the strange behaviors of Hamlet. His excuse for Hamlet’s actions is that his love for Ophelia is driving him mad. He also resorts to a way of spying on Hamlet to see if his reasoning is right or not by using his daughter as bait and watching behind a bush to see how he reacts to her being there. The lack of communication in this act shows how disconnected all the characters are. No one seems to be close enough with anyone else to tell them the truth about what is going on, or to be able to ask someone else what is bothering them. The lack of communication also adds into the central plot of the play. Had Hamlet had better communication with his mother and Claudius, he would have been able to just ask them what truly happened, or even accuse them of the murder, instead of having to put on a play to see if there is any guilt showing through the king’s conscious.