The Character of Polonius in Hamlet

Polonius: A Literature Review
As chief counselor to the king of Denmark, Polonius plays an important and nefarious role in Shakespeare’s Hamlet—yet his words are often quoted out of context and it is Polonius, the spying, lying, manipulating old fool of a father and counselor who gives one of Shakespeare’s most memorable lines: “To thine own self be true!” (Shakespeare 1.3.564). Polonius shows of course that it matters not if one is being true to one’s self because the self is a chameleon that shifts and changes depending on the environment: Polonius adapts his character to the situation, as does Hamlet, Ophelia, Claudius, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern and so on (Wilson; Landy). Horatio is one of the few characters who consistently expresses himself from scene to scene; the others attempt to deceive regularly, and deceive themselves throughout. Instead of being true to God or to others, Polonius’s counsel is essentially a bit of advice on how to deceive, even though he masks it in words regarding how one should best go about being honest (Landy). This literature review provides an assessment of the relevant literature pertaining to Polonius’s character and “wisdom.”
As Wilson notes, the line given by Polonius on how to be “true” is Shakespeare’s attempt to eviscerate the maxim and proverb spouting, Puritanical virtue signalers of his day:  “It is his satire of moral entrepreneurs” (Wilson par. 15). The entire speech of Polonius in Act I, scene 3 is “a bed of contradiction and a satirical portrait of hypocrisy” (Wilson par. 14). The “wise” counselor is supposed to be advising his son, and yet he is rationalizing duplicity all the while as well as the duplicitous nature of the self. In fact, the play itself is a condemnation of the idea of a “pure” self—for every character is riddled through and through with conflict—a good self at war with a bad self, to put it mildly. Rather traditionally the concept has always been depicted as a good angel vs. a bad angel, one on either shoulder of every individual. Polonius’s good angel is rarely seen in the play: he is constantly serving as the king’s bad angel, though he has so deceived himself that he thinks his counsel is good. His reward is death and Shakespeare does not dole out punishment lightly—everything has a meaning (Cox).
The point that Wilson makes is that Polonius is not to be taken as a font of wisdom or good counsel. His focus on the self as a kind of moral compass is an indication of that—for the self can become lost, confused, and false—and Polonius himself points that out when he admonishes Ophelia: “You do not understand yourself. . . . Think yourself a baby” (1.3.95, 104)—which prompts Wilson to ask, “If Laertes should be true to himself, why does Polonius not extend this same courtesy to Ophelia?” (par. 16). The answer lies in the conception of “the self” that Polonius has. He is not referring to an objective essence that exists as a standard by which one should judge—i.e., an Ideal Form or Transcendental Virtue. To be true to one of those would make sense as they are absolute, unchanging, fixed like the North Star. Polonius instead recommends one be true to something that is not fixed, that is constantly undergoing subjective revisioning. Moreover, to some degree, Polonius wants to be the one to determine what his children’s “self” should be: “There is no meaningful sense in which Laertes and Ophelia have internal essences to which their external actions make reference. Instead, ‘the self’ is Polonius’s image for the version of his children that he wants to see. Polonius is his children’s self,” Wilson states (par. 16).
Of course, not everyone reads the character of Polonius the same way. Some, like Farahmandfar and Samigorganroodi, take his advice to heart and believe that it conveys the height of wisdom: “Authenticity (eigentlich) is reflected in the integrity of character,” Farahmandfar and Samigorganroodi maintain (26). They believe that by being true to oneself one is demonstrating integrity. The argument that Wilson makes is that Iago was perfectly villainous and was true to his villainous self throughout the Tragedy of Othello—should he, therefore, be considered as a man of integrity? Rather, when critics like Farahmandfar and Samigorganroodi highlight this line of Polonius as being of sound advice they tend to be misreading the play in its entirety and not minding the character of Polonius at all.
Hadfield supports the reading of Wilson against the superficial interpretation of the text by Farahmandfar and Samigorganroodi. Hadfield views anyone who falls for Polonius’s counsel as like a fish caught by a hook, lured by the promise of sweet morsels but in the end baited and taken to one’s own doom. Indeed, Polonius himself falls for the sweetness of his own words and, like the spy that he is, plants himself behind an arras and is killed like a rat. Hadfield states that “Polonius’s bricolage of clichés passed off as wisdom and good advice in Hamlet” is to be taken by the reader as a sign of Shakespeare’s utter dislike for liars, counting Polonius as a master liar—the very height of duplicity and hypocrisy since he is the king’s own counselor (56). Polonius does not represent honesty or truth but rather hypocrisy and villainy in a castle filled with both. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are shaped in the same mold as Polonius, and Claudius attempts to use them all to marginalize and then exterminate Hamlet, who alone is the sole truth-seeker in the castle (Di).
Felce also states that Hamlet is a truth-seeker in his evaluation of Hamlet’s motives in the play, and Landy contrasts the need of Hamlet to arrive at some sense of truth before he commits to action with Polonius’s intent to act before he has any firm sense of truth; in fact, objective truth is not an issue for Polonius, as Wilson points out, for Polonius already has pre-conceived ideas about what is what, and he seeks only to confirm his initial bias, latching upon any event or word that serves his purpose and using it to justify his own perspective without respect to what is really going on in reality.
Cox argues that Polonius is the “ghost” to his son Laertes just as Hamelt’s father is the ghost for the Prince. Polonius and the ghost of King Hamlet both give their children commands that they cannot ultimately obey: the ghost of the King orders Hamlet to vengeance; Polonius orders his son to commit a list of precepts to memory, which are hardly principles one could keep, as Wilson observes. Polonius is thus no more the wise counselor than the ghost of King Hamlet is a happy sprite. Both haunt the castle—the ghost because of some unfinished business and Polonius because he is a spy whose aim is to know everyone else’s business—particularly Hamlet’s since the Prince is of an unhappy disposition and a threat to Claudius’s peace of mind and therefore to Polonius’s position.
Landy does not even give Polonius the distinction of “counselor” but rather refers to him as “a grade-A nincompoop” and describes him as “so pompous and long-winded that he gets lost in the middle of his own speech” (154). These are not words of adulation but rather words of condemnation. They support Wilson’s argument that Claudius is far from being someone whose words should be praised let alone followed. Wilson’s argument is that if Claudius’s words were to be followed they would lead ultimately to deceit: be true to yourself and to no one else. Keep your own truth; be honest only to yourself—do not feel duty-bound to be honest towards others. These are the various senses in which Polonius’s dictum can be taken, Wilson suggests. Landy says as much, too: “If Hamlet overheard Polonius’s injunction ‘to thine own self be true,’ his only rational answer would be: ‘which one?’” (155).
Wilson argues that Polonius is attempting to control his son through this memorization of precepts and that the old counselor really has no genuine love for son nor for daughter. It should be noted that he nearly steps over her in her moment of grief after Hamlet verbally berates her for being false to him. Polonius is not concerned at all. He is simply back to plotting with the King about what to do about the Prince. He is true only to his own self-interests, which essentially is also what “to thine own self be true” could be taken to mean. As Wilson observes, the idea of being true to a self that will go through numerous changes over one’s life or time at school (which is where Laertes is heading) is ridiculous. Students enter school of one mind and often leave of another. People grow and change over time. What is there to be true to?—a former self? A future self? A present self? An imaginary self? It could said that part of the problem of gender dysphoria is that confused individuals are attempting to be true to a certain self within themselves. They are taking Polonius’s advice—but Wilson indicates that such advice is reckless: “Humans are inconstant creatures whose actions do not cohere, are not accountable to an identity. You will be a different person at the end of college from the person you are at the start. That’s not advice. It’s neither good nor bad, neither something to pursue nor something to resist. It just is the case” (par. 20). In other words, one should be true to something that is unchanging—not something inconstant.
Hadfield’s contention is that Polonius represents the institutionalization of lying in Shakespeare’s day, which was itself undergoing a massive, sweeping change. It had been a Catholic country for a thousand years—and virtually overnight with King Henry’s rebellion against the Roman Catholic Church it became a Protestant country and Catholics suddenly found themselves a persecuted bunch. To facilitate the change in England, all manner of nefarious, self-interested individuals clamored for position in the King’s and later the Queen’s court, willing to do or say anything to get there. Shakespeare’s disgust for the lying politicians of his time is seen in his treatment of Polonius (Hadfield). Polonius represents the scheming counselors of the English courts in Shakespeare’s day, according to Hadfield’s thesis.
In summation, the literature on the character and “wisdom” of Polonius is mixed. Farahmandfar and Samigorganroodi fall for the maxim “to thine own self be true” and find it to be a good moral for leading one through life. Others, from Cox to Landy to Hadfield and Wilson, find the character of Polonius to be idiotic, despicable, false, and morally reprehensible. Felce and Di provide some contrast between the characters of Hamlet and Polonius by noting that Hamlet is a truth seeker in the castle of Denmark, while Cox, Hadfield, Landy and Wilson argue that Polonius is a liar, a knave, and an unwise counselor—a busybody who would have done better to mind his own affairs rather than involve himself in the business of the royal family. He is altogether so manipulative and controlling that he orders Ophelia to break off her engagement with Hamlet and it is only with Polonius’s death that Ophelia loses her mind, arguably because she has been relying upon Polonius up to that point for direction and now has no “head” to tell her what to do. Instead of empowering his own daughter to be her own person, he orders her about as though she were a pawn in his political game; he spies on his own son and on Hamlet in the same way.
Works Cited
Cox, Roger L. Between earth and heaven: Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, and the meaning of Christian tragedy. Holt McDougal, 1969.
Di, Poona Mtrive. "Unraveling Hamlet’s Spiritual and Sexual Journeys: An Inter- critical Detour via the Gita and Gandhi." Shakespeare’s Asian Journeys. Routledge, 2016. 75-86.
Farahmandfar, Masoud, and Gholamreza Samigorganroodi. "" To Thine Own Self Be True": Existentialism in Hamlet and The Blind Owl." International Journal of Comparative Literature and Translation Studies 3.2 (2015): 25-31.
Felce, Ian. "In Search of Amlóða saga: The Saga of Hamlet the Icelander." Studies in the Transmission and Reception of Old Norse Literature: The Hyperborean Muse in European Culture. Edited by Judy Quinn and Adele Cipolla (2016): 101-22.
Hadfield, Andrew. "Jonson and Shakespeare in an Age of Lying." Ben Jonson Journal 23.1 (2016): 52-74.
Landy, Joshua. "To Thine Own Selves Be True-ish." Shakespeare's Hamlet: Philosophical Perspectives (2017): 154.
Wilson, Jeffrey R. What Shakespeare Says About Sending Our Children Off to College. No. 402071. 2016. https://www.aaup.org/article/what-shakespeare-says-about-sending-our-children-college