Esboços para um complexo de Polônio

Thiago Martins Prado

doi:10.1590/2176-457321853

Abstract

RESUMO O artigo centra-se na análise do discurso e da ação da personagem Polônio, em Hamlet, de William Shakespeare, a fim de articular a updikiana visão da personalidade do conselheiro no romance Gertrudes e Cláudio e, a partir daí, descrever as características da personagem que podem servir para uma discussão sobre o comportamento contemporâneo.

Highlights

By adopting the ancient Aristotelian orientation about the study of the nature of dramatic characters in the Poetics1, it becomes immediately possible to describe Polonius in The tragedy of Hamlet: he is an individual whose obsession with speech is a way to compensate his extremely reduced power of action in the dramatic text
This article focuses on analyzing the discourse and the actions of the character Polonius in The tragedy of Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, in order to articulate Updike’s vision of the counselor’s personality in the novel Gertrude and Claudius
It is interesting to note Polonius’s possible approximations and distances to the very well known problem of the lack of action noticed in the Prince of Denmark, or, according to Frye (1986),2 stated in the constitution of the characters of the play as a whole

Summary

Introduction

By adopting the ancient Aristotelian orientation about the study of the nature of dramatic characters in the Poetics (the analysis of speeches and actions), it becomes immediately possible to describe Polonius in The tragedy of Hamlet: he is an individual whose obsession with speech is a way to compensate his extremely reduced power of action in the dramatic text. Throughout the entire play by Shakespeare, he has 86 speeches that anticipate 89 actions that can be classified in 17 different types: asking for something, advising, having somebody do something, probing, warning, instructing, greeting, explaining something to himself/herself, informing, adorning the speech, recommending, confirming, introducing, praising somebody for something, criticizing, inquiring with no intention to probe, and persuading (please see Appendix) Through these effects of speech, it is possible to check both the strategies used to dissimulate Polonius’s real intentions and his acknowledgement that, if conveniently operated, he can benefit from the theatrical manipulation of the world. A necessity to reinforce Saxo Grammaticus’s, Belleforest’s, and Shakespeare’s creative memories – already impregnated with anonymous oral tradition

The Mapping of the Polonius Complex

Studies about Polonius’s Discourse