Hamlet AO5 Critics: Polonius

Pennington: "a bad parent [...] made palatable by...

...the fact that he is funny"

Hartwig: "A Machiavellian schemer who takes...

...his plotting to absurd proportions"

Bate (21st cen): "scurvy politician who does not practice...

...he integrity he preaches"

Hazlitt (19th cen): "Polonius is not a fool...

...but he makes himself so"

Marshall: "in his eyes the king...

...could do no wrong"

Smith: "Polonius seems to love his children;...

...he seems to have the welfare of the kingdom in mind."

'my news shall be...

...the fruit to that great feast'

'at our more...

...considered time we'll read'

'yonder cloud that's almost...

...in shape of a camel?' --> 'like a camel indeed'

'or like a whale'...

...'very like a whale'

'young Fortinbras, of...

...unimproved mettle, hot and full'

'I do prophesy...

...th'election lights on Fortinbras'

"the present...

...death of Hamlet'-- Claudius reveals he wants him executed in aside at the end of 4.3

Southwark 2023 Playhouse Ophelia death--

She commits suicide, walking into bathroom stall with gun and we see blood ooze out from underneath the door

How does 1948 Olivier show Laertes's grief for Ophelia as genuine?

After Hamlet has made a scene and left, Laertes remains at the graveside crying into his hands

2009 Tennant 'even for an egg-shell'

Hamlet puts himself in the centre of Fortinbras's action: we hear and see helicopters overhead, soldiers moving in in the background etc