Hamlet Act 2.ii Notes

This scene is the start of the rising action (complication)
It starts with
+King/Queen/Rosencrantz & Guildstern
-Rosencrantz & Guildstern
+Polonious
-Polonious
+Polonious/Volitmand and Cornelius
-Volitmand and Cornelius
+Hamlet
-Claudius & Gertrude
+R&G
-Polonius
+Polonious
+Players
-Polonious & Players
- R & G
= ends with Hamlet alone by himself to give a soliloquy

-Old king has Fortinbras arrested and put on house arrest, but because he almost pulled off his plan they tell him he can go to Poland, but then asks Claudius a safe passage through Denmark to Poland

-Polonius is anything, but brief when he says Hamlet is crazy which is added as a comic relief

-Both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are philosophers likes Hamlet, but not as smart as him, they have a normal conversations and speak of dirty jokes (other comic relief)

-Hamlet gives Polonius and R&G two different reasons why he is crazy, even though he is not crazy at all

- Hamlet's flaw is that he thinks he's undefeatable (the tragic flaw of all mythic heroic archetypes)

-Shakespeare plays off of spontaneous generation so Hamlet plays verbal games with Polonius saying Ophelia shouldn't walk in the sun because a.) she could get pregnant and b.) other guys will see her

These are the notes I took for Monday... feel free to add more.

-Molly