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Which character in Hamlet does Osric remind you of?

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Osric in Hamlet is reminiscent of Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Polonius. Like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Osric is a sycophantic courtier serving Claudius, echoing their role as lackeys in the Danish court. His affected speech and mannerisms also parallel Polonius, another busybody whom Hamlet mocks. Both Osric and Polonius use pretentious language and are unaware of Hamlet's mockery, serving as Shakespeare's satire on courtly flattery and officiousness.

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Osric is a courtier, a flatterer, and a go-between who is reminiscent of other courtiers in the Danish court, such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Like them, he functions as a lackey for Claudius. In Osric's case, he summons and ushers Hamlet to the sword fight with Laertes.

Hamlet earlier "played" the fawning Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (as well as Polonius, though he is never as rude to Polonius as he is to the other courtiers). Now, Hamlet also "plays" Osric. The following speech typifies the way Hamlet toys with and makes fun of Osric's sycophancy, just as he did with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern's. Osric will agree with whatever opinion Hamlet holds and will change his ideas willy-nilly to accord with Hamlet's, a trait Hamlet reacts to by leading him to contradict himself. This is a way of mocking him:

OSRIC
I thank your lordship, it is very...

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hot.
HAMLET
No, believe me, ’tis very cold; the wind is
northerly.
OSRIC
It is indifferent cold, my lord, indeed.
HAMLET
But yet methinks it is very sultry and hot for my
complexion.
OSRIC
Exceedingly, my lord; it is very sultry,—as
’twere,—I cannot tell how.

Hamlet, a prince, shows his superior status to Osric in the way he interrupts him. He also feels free to insult him by asking Horatio if he knows this "waterfly." He tells Horatio he is lucky he doesn't know Osric, because it would not make him happy to be acquainted with such a person.

Claudius sends Osric to bring Hamlet to the fight because he has poisoned the tip of Laertes' rapier and is anxious for the fight to begin so that Hamlet will die, ridding him of a vexing problem. As always, Hamlet intuits that the courtiers are Claudius's creatures. We can sympathize with Hamlet's irritation when he has to deal with the courtiers; on the other hand, he shows some of the darker side of being a privileged prince in the rude—and sometimes deadly—way he treats them.

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Now that you mention it, Osric reminds me of Polonius, even though there is a great age difference between them. They both like to talk in an affected manner, using pretentious words and circumlocutions. Here is a sample of Polonius's dialogue from Act 2, Scene 2:

My liege, and madam, to expostulate
What majesty should be, what duty is,
Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief. Your noble son is mad.
Mad call I it; for to define true madness
What is't but to be nothing else but mad?

Both of these characters act as go-betweens, busybodies, flunkies. They usually seem to be in a haste and out of breath. They both annoy Hamlet with their affected speech and mannerisms. Hamlet mocks them both to their faces in similar ways, and both seem unaware that they are being made fun of, although the audience gets great amusement out of these encounters. Shakespeare seems to be satirizing courtiers in his depiction of both these officious, intrusive characters. No doubt Polonius was much like Osric when he was a young man, and no doubt Osric will be like Polonius when he grows old.

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