Polonius, Courtier to King Claudius
Medical Cause of Death:
Stabbed, bled to death.
- While Polonius is hiding in Gertrude’s bedchamber, spying on Gertrude and Hamlet’s conversation, he hears Gertrude claim that Hamlet might kill her (“Thou wilt not murder me?”), and calls out, “What ho! Help!” (III.iv.22-24). Hamlet, thinking it is the King (“Is it the King?”), thrusts his sword into the curtains, calling “How now? A rat? Dead for a ducat, dead!” (III.iv.25, 28). Polonius’s death is confirmed when he cries out, “O, I am slain!” (III.iv.26). We know that Polonius is stabbed, because he had his sword out earlier, when he was about to kill Claudius (III.iii.88).
Person or Persons Physically Responsible for Death: Hamlet,
stabber. Polonius, spy.
- Hamlet physically stabs Polonius while he is behind the curtain in Gertrude’s room. Granted, he seems to believe that Polonius is the King, and it would probably make a little more sense for Claudius, Gertrude’s husband, to be in her room than Polonius. Gertrude, shocked, asks, “O me, what hast thou done?” and Hamlet, confused, “Nay, I know not. Is it the King?” (III.iv.27-28). Hamlet is the physical stabber of Polonius.
- However, Polonius had a part in his own death, as well. He physically placed himself in harm’s way, by deciding to spy behind the curtain in Gertrude’s room; he tells Claudius about his plan before putting it into action: “My lord, [Hamlet’s] going to his mother’s closet. / Behind the arras I’ll convey myself / To hear the process” (III.iii.27-29). If Polonius had not physically put himself in a questionable position at the wrong time, he wouldn’t have been stabbed, at least not in this scene.
Person or Persons Morally Responsible for Death: King Claudius,
Polonius, Prince Hamlet.
- King Claudius is morally responsible for Polonius’s death, if for no other reason than that Hamlet stabbed Polonius, thinking it was the King: “Is it the King?” (III.iv.28). Claudius never stops Polonius from his spying, and it seems morally gray to me that he would even allow Polonius into his wife’s bedchamber. He allows his own selfish desire to know what Hamlet is planning to supersede caring for his wife’s privacy.
- Polonius himself is morally responsible for his own death, because he also sees no problem with being in Gertrude’s bedchamber. He is willing to go to ridiculous and inappropriate lengths to get the information he needs. He shows no respect for women’s space in two instances—when Hamlet enters Ophelia’s bedchamber, and when he enters Gertrude’s bedchamber. His response to Ophelia’s story of Hamlet’s disheveled entrance to her closet reveals that he sees no issue with Hamlet being there—he is more concerned with Hamlet’s motive: “Mad for thy love?” (II.i.87). Even after Ophelia tells him that she is “affrighted,” Polonius instantly thinks of how it will benefit him, not that it is inappropriate for Hamlet to be in his daughter’s room; he says, “this is the very ecstasy of love” (II.i.104). Then, he comes up with the idea himself to be in Gertrude’s bedchamber, and has enough audacity to present it to the King: “Let his queen-mother all alone entreat him / To show his grief. Let her be round with him; / And I’ll be placed, so please you, in the ear / Of all their conference” (III.i.185-188). He does include the caveat of “so please you,” but even so, Polonius clearly has no respect or regard for the moral values of a woman’s private rooms.
- Hamlet is morally responsible for Polonius’s death, because of the implications it has on Ophelia and Laertes. Sure, taking a life affects Hamlet, but it more clearly affects Ophelia, as she goes mad, and a Gentleman explains the reason why to Gertrude: “[Ophelia] speaks much of her father, says she hears / There’s tricks i’ the world, and hems, and beats her heart, / Spurns enviously at straws, speaks things in doubt / That carry but half sense” (IV.v.4-7). Laertes’s response to Polonius’s death, which Hamlet caused, is to actually retaliate and kill Hamlet. He tells Claudius, “have I a noble father lost, / A sister driven into desperate terms, / Whose worth, if praises may go back again, / Stood challenger on mount of all the age / For her perfections. But my revenge will come” (IV.vii.26-30). He is relaying all the things that Hamlet is morally responsible, which spiral out of his moral responsibility for Polonius’s death. Hamlet himself also indicates the moral responsibility he has for Polonius’s soul, and his ultimate resting place. When Claudius asks him, “Where is Polonius?” he responds, “In heaven. Send thither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i’ th’ other place yourself” (IV.iii.33-36). This comment doubles as an insult to Claudius, telling him to go to hell, but the basic concept of the line is that Hamlet is ultimately responsible for sending Polonius to heaven or hell without giving Polonius a chance to save his soul—it is very likely he is in hell, because of what he was doing when he was killed.