Polonius Quote One of the More Famous

Polonius Quote

One of the more famous quotes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet not spoken by the titular character is given early on in the play by Polonius, adviser to the king and father of Ophelia and Laertes, when he instructs his son on how to behave during his travels abroad. Polonius' instruction is so oft quoted because it plays into a certain belief regarding honesty and self-expression that is wholly unobserved in reality, offering an eloquent justification for maintaining one's sense of self by falsely insinuating that being honest with oneself automatically precludes one from being dishonest with others. This idea is ridiculous, and looking at other instances from the play itself will help to demonstrate that being true to oneself often means being dishonest with others, because one may quite easily be honest with oneself about one's dishonesty to others.

Polonius' instruction to Laertes comes after a long list of dos and don'ts regarding proper behavior, including everything from how flashy clothes can be to the dangers of lending or borrowing money. Concluding his advice, Polonius states "This above all: to thine ownself be true, / And it must follow, as the night the day, / Thou canst not then be false to any man" (1.3.78-80). The simple foolishness of Polonius' thought should be obvious to just about anyone who has ever effectively misled another, because the only way one may succeed in a lie is by being aware of one's own natural habits of speech and body language in order to recreate them accurately so that one does not give away the lie by acting "out of character." Even Polonius himself demonstrates the fallacy of his quote later on, when he assents to using his own daughter as bait in order to trick and ensnare Hamlet. Polonius actually stages the scene, instructing Ophelia to "Read on this book; / That show of such an exercise may color / Your loneliness" in order to better attract and manipulate Hamlet (3.1.44-46). In this case, Polonius is being true to himself by being a dishonest, sycophantic villain, demonstrating that for certain people to be true to themselves by definition means being dishonest to others. One might argue that Polonius is not really being honest with himself (it seems unlikely he would ever call himself a sycophant) and as such this does not disprove his initial quote, but looking at additional instances of self-honesty resulting in dishonesty with others will disprove Polonius' statement beyond any doubt.

Perhaps the most obvious disproval of Polonius' quote comes in the form of Hamlet himself, who is the most privately honest and publicly dishonest character in the entire play, perhaps except for the king (who will be addressed shortly). At the end of his first soliloquy in the play, Hamlet concludes his disgusted summary of his father's murder and his mother's marriage to the murderer by saying "but break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue" (1.2.159). This begins the long process of Hamlet's revenge against the king while simultaneously revealing how Hamlet, if he desires to be true to himself and act out the necessary implications of his morality, must be dishonest with others, because to reveal himself would be to scuttle the whole plan. Furthermore, because part of Hamlet's character rests on his ability to plan and manipulate, revealing himself to others would go against his character, such that being honest with others would actually require him to be untrue to himself. Hamlet's disdain for honesty can be seen later in his conversation with Ophelia, when he states that "the power of beauty will sooner / transform honesty from what it is to a bawd than the / force of honesty can translate beauty into his / likeness" (3.1.111-114). Hamlet is essentially saying that because beauty, or shallow, surface presentations will always subvert honesty, there is little value in honesty as such. Instead, one may experience the world more fully, and consider one's place in it more honestly, if one accepts that society is almost wholly constructed out of fabrication and presentation. Thus, being true to oneself means accepting being dishonest with everyone else.