Does Polonius understand Ophelia and Hamlet well enough to forbid their interaction with each other? What factors play into his distrust of Hamlet?
The responses to this question reveal many themes that appear in Shakespeare's other plays, connect his many works with common threads. Firstly, the reader does not know enough about Hamlet to understand why Polonius distrusts him because Shakespeare starts this play in a way similar to his other plays, in medias res or "in the middle of things." To understand Polonius' judgment, we must first find out what happened before the beginning of the play. A student also mentions that "when a parent strongly advises a couple to not see each other anymore, it just draws them closer." What we know of the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia parallels that of Romeo and Juliet because both are forbidden. Similar to the warring families in Romeo and Juliet, Polonius and Hamlet seem to be enemies because Polonius is councillor to King Claudius, who recieves hostility from Hamlet. The future of this relationship has yet to be discovered, but the connection to another Shakespeare play is difficult to ignore.
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