Hamlet Act II

I think a major part of Act II is the way that the characters begin to change and act towards one another. One character that a change has obviously taken place in is Hamlet. After being approached by the ghost of his father it seems he has lost his marbles. I think that Hamlet’s awkward behavior is somewhat intentional. It almost seems as though he wants to drive the people around him crazy, but Claudius in particular begin though he is the one accused of Hamlet’s father’s murder. But then again its very hard to tell the mindset that Hamlet has, especially with his conversation with Polonius.
At this point of the play even though Hamlet is still developing into a “madman” we can kind of see resemblance of the situation of Hamlet and that of Fortinbras. Fortinbras is almost in the same predicament as Hamlet. His father has passed and his uncle is now the head of the throne, but Fortinbras is determined to seek revenge and take back the land that was conquered by Hamlet’s father. As stated in previous scenes he sent an angry message demanding that the land be forfeited immediately which is why some were led to believe that a war would soon be at hand. But we see that Fortinbras uncle forbad him to attack Denmark but allowed him to ride through on the way to attacking another land. I think this is another piece of information that strays away from the idea that the ghost of Hamlet came to warn about war (which we found out after his dialogue with young Hamlet). So it seems as though I was right J.
I think it’s strange that Claudius isn’t really concerned with the thought of a powerful army who isn’t really on good terms with Denmark is riding through Denmark. In my opinion this suggests that he is not really concerned with what goes on in Denmark, but more so what goes on in his house because he is more worried about Hamlet’s behavior.
I also think its crazy how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are tricked and manipulated by Hamlet’s family and how men of their stature have to be careful about what gets said to home in fear of offending someone or saying something that they aren’t at the time supposed to know.