Hamlet Ch. 7: Spying on Your Own Family

William Shakespeare

Spying on Your Own Family

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Summary

Polonius sends Reynaldo to Paris with money and a spy mission dressed as fatherly care. He instructs the servant to ask about Danish students, then spread small lies about Laertes drinking or gambling so others will confirm or correct the gossip. Polonius calls this bait of falsehood that catches carp of truth, finding directions out by indirection rather than asking his son directly.

Reynaldo accepts with little pushback. Ophelia then enters terrified, describing Hamlet in disarray: doublet unbraced, stockings fouled, pale face, knees knocking, gripping her wrist, staring, sighing, and leaving without a word. Polonius reads the scene as love madness caused by his own order to reject Hamlet's letters and visits.

He rushes with her to the king, convinced the secret must be told because hiding it would cause more grief than speaking. Parental surveillance abroad pairs with romantic control at home, and Polonius's fear-driven meddling will soon feed Claudius's theory that Hamlet has lost his reason over Ophelia.

Polonius treats Ophelia's terror as proof that he was right to treat her love as a court problem rather than a private choice. He will feed Claudius the same story, turning a young woman's heartbreak into evidence for state surveillance.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Detecting Control Disguised as Care

Fear makes parents and managers reach for spies instead of conversations. Polonius tells Reynaldo to spread small lies about Laertes so Paris gossip will reveal the truth, then blames his own command when a disheveled Hamlet frightens Ophelia.

Before you authorize indirect surveillance, ask what honest question you are afraid to ask directly.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Ophelia

She comes in affrighted and describes him unbraced, pale as his shirt, sighing over her face, before anyone has agreed a diagnosis. Polonius will make it a love plot. What she saw was a man already shaking, so the performance and the grief share a face, and her report has no room for that.

Continue this thoughtMadness as a Room He Can Leave

Coming Up in Chapter 8

Polonius rushes to tell the King about Hamlet's apparent madness, but the royal court has bigger problems brewing. New arrivals bring unexpected complications to an already tense situation Claudius and Gertrude recruit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to cheer Hamlet and report what ails him. Polonius reads Hamlet's love letter to Ophelia as proof of madness from rejected affection and proposes hiding with the king to.

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Original text

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Chapter 07

Spying on Your Own Family

SCENE I. A room in Polonius’s house. Enter Polonius and Reynaldo. POLONIUS. Give him this money and these notes, Reynaldo. REYNALDO. I will, my lord. POLONIUS. You shall do marvellous wisely, good Reynaldo, Before you visit him, to make inquiry Of his behaviour. REYNALDO. My lord, I did intend it. POLONIUS. Marry, well said; very well said. Look you, sir, Enquire me first what Danskers are in Paris; And how, and who, what means, and where they keep, What company, at what expense; and finding By this encompassment and drift of question, That they do know my son, come you…

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Spying on Your Own Family

Summary

Why This Matters