Jul 25, 2008

Hamlet | To Thine Own Self Be True: An Analysis

In this essay, the author discusses the meaning of Polonius's celebrated words, which he speaks to his son Laertes before Laertes's departure for travel abroad.

In Act I, scene iii of Hamlet, the character of Polonius prepares his son Laertes for travel abroad with a speech (ll.55-81) in which he directs the youth to commit a "few precepts to memory." Among these percepts is the now-familiar adage "neither a borrower nor a lender be" (l.75) and the dictum: "This above all: to thine own self be true,/And it must follow, as the night the day,/Thou cans't not be false to any man "(ll.78-80). The occasion of the speech has been established in advance, for in the previous scene, Polonius has told the King and Queen that he has granted his son...