Act 2 Scene 1

Act 2 begins with Polonius sending his servant, Reynaldo, on a mission to France. He gives him some letters and some money to deliver to Laertes. However, he wants him to spy on Laertes for a while before he meets with him. He insists that Reynaldo should ask people around Paris to find out about Laertes’ behaviour indirectly so that he can build up a level of trust and get more truth out of people, rather than directly telling them his intentions. Polonius also encourages Reynaldo to spread some small white lies; not enough to tarnish Laertes’ reputation, but enough to highlight some small faults within Laertes’ character and encourage people to agree with him. This scene is very interesting in terms of Polonius’ character development. It is unclear at this stage whether he is an overprotective fool of a father, or actually a master manipulator who is deceitful enough to spy on his own son. As well as this, Polonius highlights how easy it is to slightly bend or manipulate the truth and sow seeds of doubt and confusion.