1. What is Polonius telling Reynaldo to do in II.i? What does this tell us about Polonius and his way of thinking and acting?
2. Why is Ophelia so upset when she enters at II.i?
What has happened to her? Does Hamlet’s appearance (in her telling) as a madman (a distracted lover) come as a surprise after what we last heard him say? Why would he appear in this sort of madness to her? Is there any possibility he really is a distracted lover responding to Ophelia’s apparent rejection of him? How well has she obeyed her father’s orders in I.iii?
2. Read Hamlet’s third soliloquy carefully (II.ii). How does he use the player’s response to show how different his own position is? Is the comparison justified by what we have seen happen in the play? He complains that he hasn’t acted on his vengeance. Why hasn’t he? Why does he need the play? What will he learn from it?
