Polonius, the Father

In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the character of this legendary play provide many influential insights into the motivations and character traits that shape who we are and how they affect us. Representing different real-life roles, each character takes on a personality that we can all relate to and then teaches us the importance, struggles, and disposition of that personality through the plot of the story. Thus, the character of Polonius in this story is no different and serves to represent to us the ideal, caring father who looks out for and takes care of his daughter. To illustrate this role, Polonius makes numerous actions throughout the play that serve to illustrate the two key roles that all fathers must play in their families in order to be considered ideal: protector and facilitator of success.

For starters, Polonius first illustrates the role of protector in the very first scene he appears, Act I, Scene III. Here, Polonius confronts Ophelia about what her brother Laertes and she had discussed regarding Prince Hamlet a moment before he entered and, after a few careful prompts, Ophelia finally admits that she is in love with the prince and vise versa. Yet, instead of congratulating his daughter on finding someone she loves or expressing an overarching tone of indifference, Polonius advises Ophelia of the dangers of such actions and tells her to remove herself from the boy to avoid getting her heart broken or herself taken advantage of. Even though Hamlet could bring the man lots of money and certainly raise his social stature, Polonius still pressures his daughter to go against her heart’s urges and to take everything Hamlet says with a grain of salt, reminding her to “believe so much in him that he is young,/And with a larger tether my he walk/Than may be given you.” As a result, he is protecting his daughter at all costs regardless of the benefits her actions could possibly bring him and this selflessness to protect his family is what helps him fulfill his role as a good-to-do, ideal father.

Furthermore, as the plot continues, he also merges into the other role of the facilitator of success in a very similar fashion. Once it becomes apparent to him upon Ophelia’s telling of her encounter with Hamlet in her private chamber in Act II, Scene I, Polonius becomes fully convinced that Hamlet is actually in love with is daughter and finally accepts their feelings for one another. Upon realizing what has been taking place between the two, he quickly decides it best to inform King Claudius immediately, thereby establishing the children’s relationship to the King. Among other motivations, it seems fitting considering Polonius’s character that this notification to the King is solely for the intention to arrange some sort of marriage between the two, one that would certainly bring great glory to his daughter (as well to him) and would promote her in the greatest of ways. In this way, he is ultimately working for her, trying to make her life as much of a success as possible and abandoning his other premonitions about Hamlet that he had prematurely judged beforehand.

In these ways, Polonius begins to develop himself as a role model for the ideal father he will play throughout the rest of the novel, adding more and more pieces on until he forms the ultimate character Shakespeare wants him to perform. (564)