Act 2 - Scene Summaries

Act 2 - Scene Summaries

1. Act 2 Sc 1

   • Polonious pays Reynaldo to spy on Laertes
     • Tells him to bring bad reports on purpose to teach L importance of reputation
     • behaviour characterises Polonious for rest of play
   • Ophelia comes in, distressed, telling P about run in with Hamlet
     • describes lyrically Hamlet's clothing/appearance
       • Hamlet deliberately dressed as contemporary spurned lover to warn off suspicion?
       • '...And with a look so piteous in purport/as if he had been loosèd out of hell to speak horrors'

2. Act 2 Sc 2

   • King has summoned Rosencratz and Guidenstern to spy on Hamlet and report bhaviour
   • ambassadors from Norway tell King that old Fortinbras has stopped young one but he wants safe passgae through Denmark for soldiers
     • risky
   • Polonious enters and declars Hamlet mad with love to Gertrude and King
     • Gertrude doesn't believe him
     • Polonious reads them love letter to ophelia from Hamlet to prove his feelings
     • suggest idea of hiding and earsdropping on Hamlet
   • Polonious' and Hamlet's conversation
     • Hamlet makes fun of him
     • Polonious takes convo as conformation of his suspicions
   • Rosencratz and Guildenstern enter
     • Hamlet asks why they've come to his 'prison'
       • eventually finds out King has sent then
         • goes into melancholic blank verse
           • lost all my mirth
           • what is this quintenssance of dust? (referring to world)
             • condenming nature of mankind
   • R & G announce arrival of players
     • Hamlet tells them to add lines to play they're going to do that mirror what Ghost said about how he died
       • getting reaction from King will prove to Hamlet Ghost isn't in imagination and is telling the truth (not a Devil)