Polonius' Reference to Caesar -- Great Books II

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Date Posted: 20:49:06 02/17/08 Sun
Author: Joel Gehrke
Subject: Polonius' Reference to Caesar

Polonius tells Hamlet that he "did enact Julius Caesar. I was killed i' th' Capitol; Brutus killed me" (3.2.92)

Tradition holds that Brutus was Julius Caesar's bastard son, like the illegitimate father-son relationship between Claudius and Hamlet.

Here's my idea: Hamlet is to Claudius as Brutus is to Caesar. Brutus kills Caesar. When Hamlet kills Polonius, who played the part of Caesar, he thinks he is killing Claudius. One might even argue that Polonius was sort of pretending to be Claudius, given that he was in the queen's bedchambers late at night. The two aren't perfectly analogous, but nearly.

The kicker: Hamlet responds to Polonius (quoted above) by saying that "it was a brute part of him [Brutus] to kill so capital a calf there [in the capitol]."

Which is where they were when Hamlet killed Polonius. If Hamlet were completely honest, he would have to confess that his murder of Polonius was wrong, as Brutus was wrong to kill Caesar. By extension, Hamlet's intended revenge would be wrong as well.

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